What This Year Taught Us About Service and Where Teams Go From Here

Service teams felt a real shift this year. Expectations moved faster and workloads grew. Customers wanted clearer answers delivered with more speed and consistency. At the same time, the systems and processes behind daily operations showed their limits, and many teams realized that the way they had always worked was no longer enough.

AI continued to bring new energy and possibilities, but it also highlighted the places where foundations needed to be stronger.

This was the year service took a clear look at itself.

Where Tension in Service Organizations Showed Up

The pressure was not loud, but it was constant and visible.

• Schedulers dealt with exception after exception, even when the plan seemed simple.
• Field, depot, and back office teams often worked in silos with different information, which made handoffs slower and added friction to tasks that should have been straightforward.
• Spreadsheets to track ad hoc tasks or processes became silent stand-ins for missing process clarity.
• Software and hardware upgrades may have been pushed back, leaving teams without capabilities they could’ve benefitted from.
• AI conversations continued, but most teams saw quickly that the real value had to solve tractable use cases and required cleaner data, simpler workflows, and more reliable cross team coordination. 

Where Real Progress Happened

Even with the tension, this year brought meaningful steps forward.

• More companies turned to real-time equipment data to guide decisions with more confidence, reducing the guesswork that used to shape service operations.
• AI pilots became practical efforts instead of big, abstract initiatives. Small, contained use cases delivered clear wins.
• For companies that focused on data cleanliness, they could begin leveraging their data to power and train AI models.
• Leaders put more focus on aftermarket growth. Warranty accuracy, repair performance, proactive maintenance, and contract outcomes became core priorities.

What This Means for 2026

Teams now have a clearer picture of the work that will matter most next year.

• Clean and stabilize the data that slows work down. This is the base layer for every improvement that follows.
• Strengthen the handoffs between service, depot, and customer support so teams operate from the same understanding.
• Move away from one off fixes and invest in platform improvements that create shared, consistent workflows.
• Start small with AI to prove value without creating disruption. In this article we share a crawl, walk, run approach 🔗
• Keep modernizing field operations so work becomes faster, cleaner, and easier to manage.

Closing

This year brought clarity. It surfaced the points of friction, showed where progress was possible, and helped leaders see which improvements would carry the most weight.

Next year is about acting on that insight. The teams that invest early in clarity, simplicity, and stronger foundations will feel the benefits all year long. They will move faster, support their customers with more confidence, and build service operations that can grow with demand.

If you want help turning these priorities into a clear plan for your team, you can book time with us.