Robert Young

Robert Young is the Senior Director of Product Marketing at Astound, a company focused on automating IT service and support using AI and NLP. Robert has two decades of experience in ITSM, including 5 years at IDC as Research Director for ITSM and Client Virtualization Software. He also previously held IT operations and knowledge management positions at several large enterprises and while on active duty with the U.S. Air Force. Robert continually looks at how cloud, mobile, and AI technologies are changing not only how users interact with devices, but also how IT organizations interact with their customers.
Latest from Robert Young
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Transforming the Employee Experience with AI-Driven Automation for Human Resources
There’s no doubt that we’re living in the era of the employee. Few industries know this better than Human Resources (HR). Salary used to be the primary driver of employee satisfaction. That’s no longer the case. According to a recent survey by Fidelity Investments, millennial workers are willing to take an average pay cut of
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Virtual Agents – Is the IT Service Desk Ready for the Future of Work?
What is commonly being referred to as “the future work” is today’s reality in many organizations. In fact, back in 2016 the Global Mobile Workforce Forecast Update 2016-2022 from Strategy Analytics pegged the global mobile workforce at 1.45 billion. What’s more, this trend shows no signs of slowing. IDC expects mobile workers will account for
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Applying AI Technology to ITSM: The Difference Between NLP & NLU (Part Three)
In my previous post, I shared examples of how AI and machine learning (ML) technologies are being applied and delivering value in IT today. We also reviewed how historical and observed data is used to train machine learning models to address the entire IT service delivery lifecycle. In this post, I’ll discuss how virtual agents
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Applying AI Technology to ITSM: A Holistic Approach – Part Two
In my last post, I discussed how AI and machine learning are applied in IT. In this post, I’ll share examples that are working today. We already reviewed how historical data is used to train machine learning models to provide better self-service. These models are used in a variety of domains to proactively schedule
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Applying AI Technology to ITSM: What You Need to Know – Part One
There is a great deal of interest in gaining the benefits of AI Technology in IT service management. But what does AI for ITSM look like? Is it simply chatbots? Auto-routing tickets? Automated knowledge sharing? Predictive insights? Spoiler alert: to address the entire IT service delivery lifecycle not one, but all of these capabilities are
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Time to Polish off the Crystal Ball – ITSM Predictions for 2018 and Beyond
Four ITSM predictions for 2018 In ITSM change is inevitable and constant. Falling behind has undesirable consequences. The pace of change in IT will increase and its impact will be more profound than ever in the years ahead. Savvy IT leaders recognize they must strategically plan for a new workforce demographic, lead enterprise service management
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AI-Driven Automation: IT and Business User Advantages Fuel Early Adoption
As with earlier types of emerging technologies (most recently cloud, mobile and social), there is a level of uncertainty and new considerations that IT must address when assessing AI for ITSM. See tips on how to overcome IT’s resistance to AI-driven automation here. However, with incidents now stemming from a much wider range of sources
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AI-Driven Automation – The Future of ITSM
In my career as an industry analyst, I would frequently field inquiries from large software vendors, service providers and enterprises asking questions such as, “are enterprises going to adopt the cloud?” and “should we support mobility?”. Unfortunately, these questions were often being asked too late, as many of these organizations were already being profoundly disrupted
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