What’s next in ITSM? 6 trends shaping the future of Service Management
In the 1970s and early 1980s, terms such as "IT operations" and "computer support" were used to describe what is now known as IT Service Management (ITSM). It was not until the ITIL framework was developed in the late 1980s that IT Service Management (ITSM) gained widespread adoption as organizations began to recognize the need for more structured approaches to managing IT services.
The bad news: Over the past few decades, the space has become (over)crowded, filled with legacy vendors who have not done much to innovate and grow.
The good news: ITSM is, as Phil Christianson, Xurrent's Chief Product Officer, says, "ripe for disruption" and growing rapidly.
According to The Business Research Company's 2025 Global Market Report, the Compound Annual Growth Rate of the ITSM market is projected to be 15.7%, bringing the 2024 market size of $12.43B to an estimated $25.83B by 2029.
And this matters for nearly every vertical you can imagine. Why? Just about every major organization needs an ITSM platform to manage its IT teams and broader IT functions.
In our most recent edition of SMU (Service Management Unlocked), Jim Hirschauer, Xurrent's Head of Product Marketing, and Phil Christianson, Chief Product Officer, broke down "What's Next in ITSM?", unpacking the 6 trends shaping the future of service management.
Want to skip the recap and watch the full webinar? Sure. Here is the link.
The 6 major trends we are seeing in ITSM
In the webinar, Jim and Phil outlined the following 6 trends:
- Convergence of ITOM (IT Operations Management)+ ITSM
- The rise of AI
- Better value / lower TCO
- Automation (AI-driven)
- Modern, streamlined UX
- Security & Compliance
We'll briefly break each one down below. Again, for the full details, watch the webinar.
1. Convergence of ITOM (IT Operations Management) + ITSM
ITOM and ITSM have been siloed for a long time, with separate systems supporting each.
However, as IT evolves from a help desk to ITOps, we are seeing an increasing number of platforms that combine ITOM and ITSM, with a growing focus on Incident Management.
Why? Well, there is a natural "collision of worlds" when incidents happen.
Yet Incident Management suffers from what we call The Doom Loop, a cycle of reactive firefighting where IT becomes so efficient at incident response that they get stuck endlessly detecting, analyzing, containing, and recovering from issues without preventing future ones.
Teams get "stuck" in the middle two buckets. In fact, 81% of companies surveyed reported that the exact same failure has recurred since the initial incident.
We need to spend more time on the two outside buckets (preparation and post-incident activity) to prevent future incidents.
But right now, there are so many different tools to manage all of this.
Xurrent brings them all together: Zenduty + Statuscast + Xurrent = the complete set of tools that ITSM needs.
2. The rise of AI
Hard to host a webinar (or have a business conversation) in 2025 without talking about AI, right?
Jim cited a recent report by "AI @ Wharton," revealing that 90% of leaders believe AI enhances employee skills. That same study reported a 130% increase in AI spending since 2023.
However, the most significant limitations in AI projects cited two main factors:
- Lack of data governance and security
- Lack of practical application and ROI
These limitations must be overcome for organizations to move forward with AI initiatives.
Xurrent's answer: a really secure, really impactful platform.
How do we know this? 90% of Xurrent customers have "AI turned on."
Learn more about our current AI capabilities — with more AI features and functionality coming soon.
3. Better value / lower TCO
One of the main issues with legacy ITSM systems is their exorbitant costs and need for outside support (also a cost).
Xurrent, on the other hand, is very customer-driven, with value and total cost of ownership (TCO) top of mind.
Here is a chart showing how our platform compares to some of the legacy systems in the market:
How do we do this?
Our Xurrent blueprints rapidly elevate the configuration maturity to a high level.
The IT blueprint includes:
- 20+ services
- 80+ request templates
- 30+ UI Extensions
- 10+ workflow templates
- 50+ automation rules
+ a strong, local partner network.
Our Implementation Package includes access to an online training environment, "train-the-trainer" sessions to introduce Specialists to the newly configured Xurrent platform, dedicated training sessions for practice-specific and role-specific applications, and hands-on administrator training.
All of the above helps increase the speed to value for Xurrent customers.
4. AI-driven automation
According to a recent SDI report, "AI-driven automation dramatically speeds up service delivery. For example, companies without AI average a >30-hour MTTR (mean time to resolution) for issues, whereas those using AI resolve tickets in under 15 hours on average — roughly 2× faster."
And much of today's automation in the ITSM space is powered by AI.
In the webinar, Phil showcased how Xurrent is leveraging AI to power our automation.
5. Modern, streamlined UI
Phil highlighted Grudin's Law, which states, "When those that benefit from a technology are not those who do the work, then the technology is likely to fail or be subverted."
Too often, the tool is not built for the end user but instead for the executive teams.
Customers today demand an interface and user experience that works for them — the user — and not just for the C-suite.
As Xurrent continues to grow and expand, Zenduty and Statuscast will be built into the platform for one unified experience.
6. Security and compliance
The need for secure applications continues to grow.
Check Point Research (CPR) recently reported that in Q2 2024, there was a 30% year-over-year (YoY) increase in cyberattacks globally, with an average of 1,636 attacks per organization per week (source).
And earlier this month, United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI), North America's largest publicly traded wholesale grocery distributor, suffered a major cyberattack — one they still haven't fully recovered from as of the writing of this post.
Security and compliance are top of mind for all organizations, especially those in the ITSM space.
Xurrent is proud of our security and compliance record.
- ISO certified
- SOC2 certified
- C5 compliant with BYOK (Bring Your Own Key)
- Secure/private AI
For more information, go here.
The bottom line
Buyers are demanding more from their ITSMs.
ITSMs need to adapt to the growing demands on IT organizations, and those companies must take the time to re-evaluate their providers through a modern lens.
This graphic sums it up best:
Xurrent. Easy. Advanced. Complete.