In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, the role of Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) is transforming faster than ever, driven by the integration of advanced technologies like generative AI (GenAI). As organisations aim to boost agility, resilience, and efficiency, I&O leaders have a unique opportunity to leverage GenAI to achieve operational excellence. Unlike traditional automation and analytics, GenAI provides dynamic capabilities, facilitating predictive insights, enhanced automation, and faster resolution of complex issues.
With rising demands on infrastructure to maintain system reliability, speed, and cost efficiency, GenAI adoption in I&O has never been timelier. Current advances in GenAI make these tools more accessible than ever, enabling I&O leaders to scale their operations through seamless integration into their existing systems. This will position those organisations that adopt GenAI early as frontrunners in digital transformation and allow them to meet the demands of high-performance infrastructure, whilst gaining a competitive edge.
Key GenAI use cases in I&O
- Code generation for I&O
Enhancing human capabilities through GenAI-based code generation enables IT teams to achieve greater productivity, decrease manual tasks, and enhance the quality of their code. This directly affects the time required to write or modify an infrastructure as code (IaC) template, a policy, or a script, thereby increasing the ability to automate tasks related to infrastructure. - Document generation for I&O
Using GenAI to generate content can enhance the quality and speed of the task. Typical use cases include creating operational documentation from existing infrastructure and generating post-mortem analyses by summarizing logs and events. The degree of human involvement required in these tasks depends on the complexity of the document being generated and the amount of training data available for the specific topic. - Virtual support agents for I&O
The adoption of virtual support agents powered by GenAI allows I&O teams to enhance the quality of tickets submitted by end users, ensuring quick and efficient resolutions. These tools guide users in providing all relevant information, facilitating the proper assignment of tickets to the appropriate resolver group. - Ticket support for I&O
A ticket support tool, enhanced with GenAI capabilities, empowers organizations to decrease the mean time to resolution (MTTR) of incidents, thereby positively affecting customer satisfaction. Although these tools still necessitate human interaction, they augment human capabilities by correlating various alerts, organizing them chronologically, identifying root causes, and recommending solutions, including runbooks crafted by GenAI tailored to the specific incident. - Content analysis and Summarisation for I&O
GenAI can be leveraged to summarize large volumes of data, such as the results of a patch management cycle within a large environment or to monitor the ongoing resolution of widespread issues. Additionally, GenAI can provide contextualized knowledge to both I&O team members and business stakeholders. By being fed with an organization’s policies, best practices, and standards, GenAI can answer questions like “Which cloud regions do I support?” or “Which services are available in my AWS Landing Zone?”.
Implementing GenAI in I&O: A future-proofed approach
For I&O leaders looking to futureproof their infrastructure, implementing GenAI thoughtfully is key. Beginning with targeted areas where GenAI can make an immediate impact—such as automated ticketing, system monitoring, or resource optimisation—offers a manageable entry point. Starting with small-scale applications also creates a foundation that can be expanded into more sophisticated GenAI solutions as teams build expertise and infrastructure capabilities evolve.
By developing these early applications, organisations can accelerate their journey towards more advanced GenAI use cases and ensure their infrastructure remains resilient and agile in the future. As these technologies advance, I&O leaders will be better equipped to manage the demands of an increasingly complex digital environment, maintaining operational efficiency as well as competitive edge in a rapidly shifting market.
Embracing a futureproofed GenAI approach empowers I&O leaders to harness generative AI’s full potential, paving the way for a more responsive, resilient, and strategic infrastructure that meets tomorrow’s operational challenges.
Gartner analysts will be discussing this topic further at the Gartner IOCS Conference taking place in London from 19-20 November 2024.
Alessandro Galimberti
Alessandro Galimberti is a Senior Director Analyst at Gartner. As part of the Cloud Infrastructure and Operation team, Alessandro focuses on providing actionable and objective insight on Public, Hybrid and Private Cloud Infrastructures.
