‘Enough With Help Tickets!’—IT Prefers to Work on Game-Changing Tech

With IT Professionals Day falling on Sept. 18, tech department employees said they’re most likely to spend at least part of their day responding to user requests and help desk tickets, according to a recent survey from SolarWinds. But, if they had more time to improve their tech department, they’d prefer to work on artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and deep learning. They don’t simply feel these advancements could help their organizations—they believe they can enrich societies and the world. A total of 180 IT pros, managers and directors from the U.S. and Canada took part in the research, which was conducted by C White Consulting. The following slide show features highlights from the survey, with charts provided courtesy of SolarWinds.

When asked about their daily tasks, 68 percent of survey respondents said they respond to one-off user requests every day. More than one-half said they respond to help desk tickets.

SolarWinds reports that 56 percent of respondents work on systems optimization tasks every day. About one-third work on network optimization daily.

When they have the time to proactively optimize IT performance, seven of 10 respondents said they will work on automating repetitive manual tasks, as well as research new technologies. Nearly one-half opt to gather and analyze data.

If they had just one extra hour in the workday, 41 percent of respondents said they would develop their IT skillset. Nearly one of five would plan/strategize future tech innovation in their IT environment.

If they had more free time to work on tech advancements that could move their IT environment forward, 56 percent of respondents said they’d work on artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning/deep learning. One-half would work on cloud-related projects.

Other top tech advancements to work on to move IT environments forward include automation, which was cited by 58 percent of respondents, and big data analysis (cited by 38 percent). Nearly three of 10 cited the internet of things (IoT).

When asked which tech advancements they’d work on in their free time to solve broader community, societal or world issues, 69 percent of respondents selected AI/machine learning/deep learning. The cloud ranked high too, as cited by 44 percent of respondents.

So what kinds of home activities would IT pros most like to see tech enhancements for? Apparently, they’d like better tech tools for managing finance and completing home DIY projects, as cited by 48 percent of respondents. Solutions for vacation planning also ranked high, as cited by 37 percent of respondents.