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For decades, IT teams have lived in a constant state of reaction.

Alerts, outages and slowdowns come thick and fast, forcing specialists into an endless cycle of diagnosing and fixing problems as digital ecosystems grow ever more complex.

Chief Technology Officer at Riverbed Technology.

Today, however, a profound shift is underway. The emergence of agentic AI tools is transforming how digital operations are managed.

Once considered futuristic, self-healing technology is now becoming an essential tool for strengthening resilience, improving employee experience and freeing IT teams from routine firefighting.

Far from AI hype, this is a practical evolution in how modern IT estates are governed.

From reactive support to proactive stability

Agentic AI refers to intelligent systems that can collect data, interpret context and execute decisions independently.

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Applied to IT operations, these systems continuously monitor networks, endpoints, applications and cloud environments, looking for signs of degradation or impending failure.

When an issue is predicted or detected, the agent can automatically initiate a workflow to diagnose the cause and apply the appropriate fix.

Instead of waiting for a system to fail or for a user to raise a support ticket, the technology intervenes early. It can reboot a stalled process, reconfigure a service, adjust network routing or resolve a device-level issue – often before the user is aware anything was wrong.

IT teams retain governance over the agent’s level of autonomy, defining which actions it may take independently, and which must be escalated for review.

This proactive, preventative capability marks a new chapter for digital operations. By addressing issues before they impact the business, organizations reduce downtime, protect productivity and create a smoother digital experience for employees and customers.

A new method for first response

In traditional IT environments, even relatively simple problems require human diagnosis: a sluggish laptop, a misconfigured application, a network drop or a background process consuming too many resources. Each incident interrupts productivity and adds to the workload of already-stretched support teams.

With agentic AI, the first response becomes fully automated. When an observability system detects a performance drop or when an employee initiates a self-service request, the agent triggers a workflow that triages and resolves the issue instantaneously.

For example, if a user’s device is running slowly, the agent can analyze system telemetry, identify a problematic process or configuration, apply a fix, and log the outcome without any manual involvement.

In many cases, this can prevent delays to meetings, customer transactions or time-critical work. More importantly, it removes the need for IT teams to spend hours handling routine requests that yield little long-term value.

By automating first-line support, organizations gain a more resilient digital environment while enabling their IT professionals to focus on meaningful, strategic projects.

Reducing burnout and strengthening efficiency

The operational benefits of self-healing systems extend beyond uptime. They also help reshape the working lives of IT staff. Constant context-switching, repetitive troubleshooting and escalating service demand contribute to high levels of burnout within IT roles. Agentic AI alleviates much of this pressure.

By automating diagnostics and resolutions, it significantly reduces ticket volumes and shortens the queue of manual tasks that absorb so much time.

This shift produces three immediate gains:

• Time savings: Routine issues are handled instantly, eliminating much of the daily maintenance workload that slows down progress.
• Budget optimization: Automating remediation reduces the labor required for low-complexity tasks, allowing teams to direct efforts toward higher-value initiatives.
• Employee wellbeing: When technology can take care of itself, specialists can focus on developing new skills, improving systems and contributing to innovation rather than firefighting.

Ultimately, self-healing systems contribute to leaner operations, higher satisfaction and better use of organizational resources.

True self-service, not another support bot

Many businesses are familiar with support chatbots and triage tools that merely pass issues along to human agents. Agentic AI takes this concept much further. A genuine agent-driven self-service application enables employees to request help and receive an autonomous resolution.

The system analyses the problem, determines the root cause and executes the fix directly. Only when automated remediation is not possible does the agent escalate the issue to IT support.

Behind the scenes, each incident enriches a learning loop. The agent refines its understanding of the digital ecosystem, improving future prediction and remediation. All actions are logged for compliance and auditing, ensuring transparency and trust.

This end-to-end capability paves the way for zero-touch operations: environments where alerts are translated into automated outcomes and where the digital estate largely manages its own health.

A turning point to a smarter, more resilient digital future

As self-healing systems mature, the role of IT professionals evolves. No longer acting as constant responders to routine issues, they can shift into more strategic, forward-looking work: designing smarter architectures, improving digital experiences and exploring new innovations.

Agentic AI does not replace human expertise; it amplifies it by removing the repetitive burdens that limit progress.

However, human governance remains essential: IT teams retain oversight and define the boundaries of agent autonomy, ensuring that critical decisions and escalations are managed appropriately. This balance between automation and human control safeguards operational integrity and builds trust in self-healing technology.

This transformation signals a decisive turning point for digital operations.

Organizations gain a more resilient and agile technology environment, where problems are resolved automatically, downtime is minimized and employees experience fewer disruptions. IT teams, in turn, have the freedom to focus on shaping the future rather than fixing the present.

The vision of ticketless IT driven by self-healing technology is no longer an aspirational concept. With agentic AI, it is becoming a practical reality – one that enables a smarter, more autonomous and more productive digital world.

Businesses that embrace this shift will be better equipped to deliver consistent performance, adapt quickly to change and unlock greater potential from their technology and their people.

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Chief Technology Officer at Riverbed Technology.