Gartner: Network automation will increase threefold by 2026

The application of automation across infrastructure and operations will deliver significant gains, according to Gartner. For instance, by 2027, heads of I&O who focus on enterprisewide automation delivery will double the value delivered by service quality and cost improvement efforts, and IT service desk analysts will spend as much time interacting with AI as with business consumers, according to Gartner.

“Automation profoundly affects the roles, skills, and expectations of I&O leaders and their staff. It remains an area of focus for our clients to adopt, sustain, and proliferate automation across their hybrid operational world,” the Gartner report reads.

Because automation is such a critical technology for infrastructure and operations, Gartner recommends IT leaders:

• Create a service-oriented automation strategy based on delivering a “platform as a product.”
• Increase agile skills in infrastructure and operations teams to drive continuous delivery improvement.
• Focus on infrastructure and operations skills acquisition.
• Explore generative AI for infrastructure and operations automation use cases.
• Scale automation inside and beyond infrastructure and operations.

According to Gartner, IA for infrastructure and operations is being used more to enable business agility and drive advanced service enablement. And now with genAI capabilities, there is an increased demand for intelligent automation platforms that use analysis and automation to deliver improved operations, efficiencies, and insights.

“Technology providers that offer best-of-breed tools for AI for IT operations (AIOps), application performance monitoring, and genAI will influence AI,” Gartner’s Saunderson said in a statement.

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