SolarWinds also collected data on the top 10 AI adopters. The results showed that the top 10 AI adopters experienced a 54.3% improvement in resolution time—dropping from nearly 51 hours per incident to a little more than 23 hours. These top 10 organizations differentiated from other organizations in the study by treating AI as a core component of their ITSM strategy rather than a test pilot, embedding it directly into ticketing, triage, and knowledge workflows, according to SolarWinds.
Across all AI-enabled organizations, SolarWinds estimated that more than 323,000 cumulative hours were saved during the study. For a typical mid-sized IT team handling 5,000 incidents annually, SolarWinds calculated that the efficiency translates into an estimated $680,000 in reclaimed productivity, based on an average help desk wage of $28 per hour. The report also highlighted a growing efficiency gap between AI users and those yet to adopt genAI. Teams using genAI averaged 22.5 hours per incident, while non-AI users averaged 32.5 hours.
The report emphasizes that success depends on more than technology alone. The biggest efficiency improvements came from teams coupling AI adoption with process refinement and change management, SolarWinds says.
