SolarWinds debuts AI framework in its service desk product

IT observability and management software maker SolarWinds today introduced a new AI platform that when embedded into the company’s other solutions will provide generative AI capabilities to speed problem resolution, minimize downtime, and empower IT staff to improve service delivery.

SolarWinds AI, developed using SolarWinds’ AI by Design framework, is embedded in SolarWinds AI in Service Desk, an IT service management (ITSM) solution. SolarWinds AI in Service Desk uses large language models and proprietary algorithms to help service agents by summarizing complex ticket histories, providing suggested agent responses to inquiries, and generating real-time recommended steps for resolving issues, according to the company.

“In creating SolarWinds AI, we leveraged our long history of engaging with the IT community to build an AI system that could act as a valued partner to IT pros in their everyday lives and reimagine the productivity, efficiency, and innovation they’re capable of,” said Krishna Sai, senior vice president of engineering at SolarWinds, in a company statement.

SolarWinds AI in Service Desk uses both traditional AI and generative AI to help agents more quickly resolve issues and close tickets. AI helps with the automatic routing and classification of incoming incidents, according to SolarWinds, which reduces the impact of ticket misclassification and human error in the process. For service portal users—for instance, end users—AI will suggest knowledge base articles and service catalog items during the creation of a new incident, steering end users in the right direction toward resolution. Virtual agents also use AI to mimic human interaction and understand the end user’s language, asking additional questions to gain context, responding to queries in real time, and handing off to a human agent when necessary.

SolarWinds’ Sai first discussed AI by Design in a blog post that detailed the four principles upon which it is based. “AI by Design is crafted to ensure that our customers can leverage the very best AI has to offer while minimizing potential downsides. Crucially, it isn’t a static framework but a dynamic and evolving set of guidelines that will adapt to emerging insights,” Sai wrote in the SolarWinds blog post.

According to the company, the principles applied in SolarWinds AI are:

• Privacy and security: SolarWinds AI is designed to secure personal data collection, storage, use, and protection using role-based access control (RBAC), multi-factor authentication (MFA), privileged access management (PAM), and anonymization techniques. Sensitive customer data does not pass through external large language models (LLMs), and SolarWinds AI improves based on usage patterns and organizational needs without compromising data privacy.

• Accountability and fairness: The framework is designed to include humans in training and testing to oversee AI-guided decision-making processes to avoid biases. It captures and addresses negative user experiences through feedback and validation mechanisms, ensuring that human judgment plays a role throughout the AI lifecycle.

• Transparency and trust: SolarWinds creates an “explainability pipeline” to demonstrate the rationale behind AI-generated actions. This enables continuous refinement based on the customers’ needs and demystifies the process for AI decisions and outputs.

• Simplicity and accessibility: Ease-of-use principles are built into the company’s product interfaces to help ensure the continuation of regular workflows and existing user procedures, behaviors, and practices.

SolarWinds plans in the future to incorporate SolarWinds AI throughout its suite of observability and IT management solutions.  SolarWinds offers both perpetual and subscription-based licenses for on-premises and SaaS-based solutions.