How AI is moving service delivery beyond IT

It’s not shocking news that software has been reshaping how work gets done across organizations. As a result, enterprise service management (ESM) is rapidly transforming the employee experience. By applying the principles of IT service management beyond the IT department, ESM is giving every team—from HR and finance to legal and facilities—a consistent way to track work, measure progress, and deliver a better experience for employees. Instead of each function operating in its own silo, ESM creates a unified service delivery model that improves visibility, efficiency, and collaboration across the business.

This year, the Freshservice Benchmark Report recognized just how far that shift has come. For the first time in its five-year history, the report breaks out ESM performance as a category of its own, reflecting its rapid growth and measurable impact. The data shows that non-IT teams adopting ESM principles are matching—and in some cases exceeding—the performance of IT teams on key service delivery metrics.

AI is accelerating this momentum. Across more than 187 million tickets from 10,551 organizations in 118 countries, the report finds record-setting results where AI is applied, from deflecting routine requests to surfacing insights that help teams address complex issues faster. 

Together, ESM and AI are redefining what service delivery looks like in modern enterprises, with outcomes that show impact for teams across the organization. (Read also “The CIO’s handbook for maximizing ROI and the business impact of AI.”)

In a recent conversation, Ravi Tharisayi, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Freshworks, talked about the evolving role of IT and how AI and ESM are changing the game for employee experience.

This year’s report shows record-breaking metrics across the board. What, to you, was the biggest surprise in the data?

Two things really stood out: The strong correlation between AI adoption and performance gains, and the rise of ESM as its own measurable category. AI’s impact was expected, but the degree to which it showed up in every metric was striking. ESM, on the other hand, has been growing steadily in the background. It doesn’t have the same buzz as AI, but we’ve seen increasing customer traction over the years. The data confirmed that it’s now a significant driver of success in service delivery.

We can see that in the report, which breaks out ESM results for the first time. Why is this such a pivotal moment?

We’ve reached a stage where enough organizations are adopting ESM and seeing results that it warrants its own tracking. ESM takes the service management principles honed in IT and applies them across the enterprise, creating a consistent way to track work, measure progress, and give employees a single place to find services—whether that’s HR, facilities, finance, or IT. Without it, each department tends to have its own tracking methods, making reporting inconsistent and siloed. A unified approach is flexible enough to meet different teams’ needs while still delivering enterprise-wide efficiency and visibility.

What opportunities does this open up for IT leaders?

It creates a path for IT to move from a cost center to a growth driver. By enabling business-oriented services—like helping legal speed up contract reviews or making HR onboarding more efficient—IT leaders can directly influence revenue and innovation. That makes for a much stronger business case when advocating for resources or investment.

The report calls AI both a baseline and a differentiator. What does that mean in practice?

Many organizations are starting with baseline AI use cases—core ITSM workflows like receiving, managing, and resolving tickets. The next step is expanding into more complex, high-value applications. For example, Freddy AI Insights for Freshservice can surface hidden trends in service desk data, and EnrichAI from Device42 uses generative AI to standardize asset data. These capabilities feel plug-and-play to customers, but they aren’t generic AI dropped into a workflow. They’re purpose-built with deep ITSM expertise behind them, so the outcomes are reliable, contextual, and directly relevant to the challenges service teams face.

Freddy AI features prominently in the report’s results. How is it moving the needle for customers?

Freddy AI Copilot and Freddy AI Agent have delivered transformational outcomes. Copilot helps agents resolve tickets 76.6% faster and improves first response time by 41.1 percent. The Agent deflects 65.7% of tickets entirely, saving more than 431,000 hours of work annually. 

The key is applying AI in the right places. We’re getting better at collaborating with customers to do exactly that, starting with core use cases and building maturity before expanding into more advanced ones.