“No future of IT operations without AI”: Gartner

Gartner research director for IT systems, security and risk research, Padraig Byrne has told Digital Nation there’s “no future of IT operations without AI” given the rapid rise of data resulting in a lack of human-based scalable solutions. 

Byrne said that from his perspective, “there is no future of IT operations without AI” as "we have the explosion in complexity, the exponential increase in telemetry data that we have to deal with” plus “there are no human scalable solutions to these problems”.

“Therefore, we must be more engaging with what we can do around artificial and machine intelligence.”

The comments follow as Gartner released its Emerging Tech: Market Risk Projection of Generative AI on Infrastructure Software report. 

He said it was important industries don’t fall behind as “it's going to cost you money and it's going to cost you the ability to move in a very fast-paced market.”

Byrne said sectors that aren’t usually as advanced on the generative AI front with IT operations are “manufacturing and engineering”. 

“There are specific use cases where they are using AI, but it's on their actual product set where they're using, for example, microphones to pick up potential flaws in their production line.

“But that's not part of their IT system. Their IT system is segmented away from the core business and it does not necessarily deliver value. 

“There are pockets of AI in that,” Byrne said. 

He added healthcare is “starting to turn its attention more and more to the uses of AI in its IT system.”

“Within the healthcare industry, though specifically there are incredible uses of AI at the research level, for example, the use of AI in medical imaging, to pick up abnormalities

“There's massive use of AI but in the use of your fundamental IT infrastructure it tends to be again, quite conservative.”

Meanwhile, Byrne said primarily banking is “likely to be some of the earliest adoptions because they are some of the first who will likely see benefits in terms of improved application network and infrastructure resiliency, improved client experience, as well as improved internal operator experience”. 

One area that piqued Byrne’s interest is the “impact of the hyper scalers”, which “is going to a beg one”. 

He said one example is the October 2023 announcement from prime minister Anthony Albanese that Microsoft will add an extra $5 billion investment in Australia to build upon the country’s tech skill set.  

“We're going to see more of these large players come to have a significant portion of the market and that's because they have the skill to take advantage of the data, the technology, the skills, and the global reach in this area. 

“The continued impact of the hyper scalers on the local market will be something that is going to be felt in the future.

“[It will] give the local clients, the end users in the industry an advantage of that as well as challenges to our local vendors in the market.”