u/Inevitable-Maize6944

We're a 700 person org running JSM. Last quarter we added an AI layer for tier 1 deflection in our slack #it-help channel. The rollout went fine for the standard stuff. Password reset, MFA reset, basic access requests, MDM enrollment, the usual. Easy enough.

Then we tried to extend it. Custom tools to handle our org-specific workflows. Provisioning into our internal apps, the contractor onboarding flow that touches Workday + AD + Okta + JSM all at once, internal app catalog gating that needs a manager approval ping back in Slack.

The vendor pitch was configure-over-code. Reality is it took roughly 3 weeks of engineering time per workflow because the actual integration paths were API-only, and the configuration UI only handled simple cases. We are now staffing a part-time engineer just to maintain the custom workflow surface.

So question. Is this just the price of admission for AI helpdesks right now, or is there a vendor whose config UI actually scales without needing engineering for every custom thing?

I have been spending some time shadowing at a private practice lately and it is wild how much time the lead dentist spends looking at spreadsheets instead of actually treating patients. I asked him how he keeps track of things like hygiene recall and production goals without losing his mind and he mentioned he started using rootdata to handle the analytics part automatically. It made me realize that I have almost zero training on the operational side of running a clinic. Does anyone here actually feel prepared to manage the numbers once they graduate? Or are most people planning to join a DSO where someone else handles the tracking for you?