Agentic AI and its impact

Agentic AI refers to intelligent systems that can act autonomously. These systems can manage tasks without human involvement. This capability challenges the traditional ITIL model which relies heavily on human intervention across its various stages within an organization.

• Problem Management. The main objective of problem management is to identify and eliminate the root causes of recurring incidents. This allows for organizations to implement solutions to prevent future occurrences. Agentic AI can be deployed in this area to analyse patterns in incident data. Agentic AI systems can collaborate to identify underlying problems, propose solutions and even implement preventive measures autonomously.
• Automated Incident Response. In incident response processes, Agentic AI can be used to categorize and resolve incidents in real time. All these processes are done without human intervention. This shift allows humans in the form of employees and management to focus on more complex issues requiring creative thinking. According to a 2025 Gartner study, organizations using AI-driven service desks reported a significant reduction in resolution time that is key in resolving incidents in a timely manner.
• Predictive Change Management. In predictive change management, Agentic AI can be used to forecast potential impact of changes. This enables proactive decision-making pertaining to change management ensuring that proposed changes to the IT environment are made systematically and with minimal risk. Agentic AI can also be deployed further to evaluate the impact of proposed changes, simulate outcomes, and automate the approval process.
• Self-Service Virtual Agents. AI-agent-driven assistants can be configured to provide instant support to users. This frees humans for higher-value tasks that are of a strategic nature. This has seen service desk roles evolving from reactive problem solvers to proactive service enhancers for the benefit of organization. AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can handle routine inquiries in a more efficient way and provide organizations with real-time insights and recommendations.

Please explore the new PeopleCert’s AI in ITSM Tools report to learn more about how AI capabilities are transforming ITSM practices today and what lies ahead for the industry.

Emerging ITIL Roles

While the above Agentic AI developments bring changes that help to improve efficiency, they also redefine responsibilities, creating demand for new roles in ITIL. The following are the key roles likely to emerge or evolve significantly.

• AI Service Integration Manager. This role will oversee the effective, secure and autonomous integration of AI agents into ITSM processes. The purpose is to ensure that the organization’s Agentic AI systems align with ITIL practices. It will also be tasked with coordination between professions involved in agentic operations including AI developers, service team and stakeholders.
• AI Ethics & Compliance Officer. We are already seeing these roles emerge in organizations that are early adopters of AI. These roles are likely to become more widespread as organizations seek to ensure that autonomous decisions remain compliant with ethical principles and regulatory requirements. It will encompass various aspects including monitoring agentic AI decision-making for bias, fairness, transparency and responsible agentic AI usage.
• AI-Enhanced Process Designer. This role will be responsible for designing ITSM processes leveraging agentic AI. The aim is to use agentic AI capabilities to continuously refine workflows for autonomous AI execution, efficiency and compliance. There is a need for this role to effectively collaborate with technical teams. This will ensure that that the implementation of automation is in alignment with ITIL principles.
• Human-AI Collaboration Facilitator. The role is designed to train and support service teams in working effectively with agentic AI systems. It will be involved in the definition of protocols for human oversight of agentic AI decisions. The role will assist in fostering a culture of trust and partnership between humans and agentic AI systems as they perform their respective roles and responsibilities.
• AI Service Performance Analyst. This role will be tasked with monitoring and measuring the outcomes of agentic AI-driven activities. It will leverage a host of capabilities including predictive analytics to improve service reliability and compliance. Reports provided by these professions will be key in providing insights to service management leadership for decision-making.
• Continuous Learning Coordinator. The importance of continuous learning in the world of Agentic AI cannot be overemphasised. Hence the creation of this role to maintain AI training datasets to ensure continuous improvement based on operational feedback. Continuous Learning Coordinators will help ensure that ITSM teams are kept informed about evolving agentic AI capabilities and upgrade their skills accordingly.

Why new roles matter

These newly formed occupations will be the glue between automation and human judgment, ensuring ITIL continues to serve well into the agentic AI era. And as ITIL Ambassadors, we are prepared to lead this change. ITSM professionals should seek to champion ethical agentic AI adoption within ITSM and support fellow professionals to embrace these new roles through training and thought leadership. There is also increasing need to partner with industry stakeholders to determine how ITIL will function in an AI-empowered world. All in all, by breathing life into this vision, professionals will seal ITIL’s place as an effective ITSM framework in an agentic AI world.

Conclusion

The interface of ITIL and Agentic AI will open up prospects for new job roles that require applied technical skills, a bit of ethics and the human touch. These roles will make sure that Agentic AI is not only a partner for efficiency but a partner for creating exceptional value for ITSM. Successful leaders in the Agentic AI revolution will be those who are prepared to learn and transform. The crucial takeaway is to embrace Agentic AI as an enabler, not a replacement tool.