Enhancing Help Desk Productivity with IBM Watson Discovery
A leading IT support services provider was struggling to handle rising ticket volumes, inconsistent issue resolution, and slow response times across its internal help desk. Agents were required to manually search through large repositories of documents, policies, and knowledge articles—resulting in operational inefficiencies and long wait times for users. By implementing IBM Watson Discovery, and partnering with Nexright, the organization deployed an intelligent AI-powered search and insights engine that could understand complex queries, surface relevant answers instantly, and reduce the need for manual document lookups. This transformation improved agent productivity, reduced ticket resolution time, and enabled more consistent responses for employees.
Business challenge
The help desk team relied on traditional keyword-based search and outdated document navigation to find the right information. With increasing scale and complexity, this process became a major bottleneck.
Key Challenges:
- Slow ticket resolution due to time-consuming manual searches across thousands of documents.
- Inconsistent responses from help desk agents, leading to lower employee satisfaction.
- High support costs because of repetitive queries and limited automation.
- Lack of insight into common issues, trends, and knowledge gaps.
- Limited integration between disparate information repositories and tools.
The organization required a scalable, intelligent, and context-aware AI search solution that could help agents respond faster, improve accuracy, and automate common queries.
Solution
Partnering with Nexright, the company deployed IBM Watson Discovery as the core AI search and knowledge intelligence engine across its help desk ecosystem. Watson Discovery analyzed structured and unstructured data—including manuals, policies, troubleshooting guides, chat transcripts, and knowledge base articles—and made them instantly searchable using natural language.
Solution Highlights:
- AI-Powered Search Understanding
Watson Discovery understood natural language queries and identified intent, context, and domain-specific terminology—surfacing the most relevant answers instantly. - Unified Knowledge Access
Consolidated thousands of internal documents into a single intelligent search platform, enabling agents to find accurate information without switching systems. - Contextual Recommendations
Provided personalized, context-relevant insights drawn from past tickets, historical documents, and support patterns. - Automated Answer Generation
Reduced repetitive queries by generating AI-powered responses for common issues, freeing agents to focus on higher-value work.
Integration with Help Desk Tools
Integrated seamlessly with ITSM platforms and internal support portals to streamline workflows and reduce friction for agents.
Solution components
- IBM Watson Discovery
- IBM Watsonx.ai (for LLM-powered enhancements)
- Nexright Implementation & Support Services
Advanced Natural Language Search
Understood complex queries and surfaced high-confidence answers from unstructured data—including PDFs, knowledge articles, contracts, and troubleshooting guides.
Automated Knowledge Extraction
Identified hidden insights, patterns, and trending issues across thousands of support tickets.
Scalable AI-Driven Knowledge Base
Continuously learned from new documents, support logs, and user queries to improve accuracy over time.
Result
- Improved agent productivity by 30%, reducing time spent searching for answers.
- Decreased first-time resolution (FTR) issues due to more accurate and consistent responses.
- Reduced overall ticket handling time by 25–40%, depending on issue complexity.
- Enhanced customer/employee satisfaction, with faster response times and fewer escalations.
- Lower operational costs by automating high-volume repetitive queries.
Watson Discovery has transformed the way our support team operates. By eliminating manual searches and enabling instant access to relevant knowledge, our agents resolve issues faster and more accurately. Nexright helped us deploy and optimize the solution flawlessly.
— Head of IT Support Operations, Global IT Services Provider