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IT support interview prep in the age of AI

What 13 employers and public bodies, from Google to an NHS trust, publish about hiring IT support staff, with practice interviews on scope, testing, AI answers, access and handover.

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Bellmere · finance access · fictionalA new starter needs the invoice screen now. Their manager says: copy my permissions. Can you?
Identity
Line manager
Application owner
Grant
  • Create draft invoices
  • Approve invoices

Answer the request in a practice interview

What leaders say AI changes for the service desk

The service desk’s rules, as employers write them

Size the impact 4

Find the cause 6

1 more

Grant access 17

12 more

Keep answers current 7

2 more

Hand over 6

1 more

What companies say they’re looking for

01 Find the affected scope

GitLab’s support role spans triage, reproduction and handover. Separate a reported symptom from the scope you can demonstrate. Support Engineer

“live break-fix/bug-fix scenarios as well as customer scenarios.”

GitLab, Support Engineer hiring process · GitLab Handbook, Undated

Atlassian’s first step: “Start by assessing its impact on the business, the number of people who will be impacted, any applicable SLAs, as well as the potential financial, security, and compliance implications of the incident.” Google’s SRE book adds: “Stopping the bleeding should be your first priority; you aren’t helping your users if the system dies while you’re root-causing.”

  • Atlassian
  • Google
IT support interview · Service desk triageThree failed logins. Is the service down?Example

02 Test before changing

A useful check separates explanations. GitLab warns that advice can miss the customer’s actual version or installation. AI and Support Work

“Version mismatches can lead to incorrect troubleshooting paths”

GitLab, Support operating handbook · GitLab Handbook, Undated

Google’s SRE book: “Consider the obvious first: perform the tests in decreasing order of likelihood, considering possible risks to the system from the test.” The UK government asks its end user computing engineers to “provide first-time resolution by troubleshooting and diagnosing or escalating faults (or both) to service desk managers, incident managers and problem managers to investigate and resolve”.

  • Google
  • Government Digital and Data Profession UK Government
IT support interview · Test before changingThe AI fix names a setting that is not there.Example

03 Check the AI answer

Microsoft’s IT team describes stale knowledge producing wrong answers, then people validating AI-drafted updates. A fluent response still needs a source and a check. AI for Knowledge Management

“Bad content leads to bad answers.”

Kevin Verdeck, Senior IT service manager, Microsoft Digital · Microsoft Inside Track, Jul 16, 2026

Freshworks: “But the success of these AI agents relies on their ability to be grounded in your organizational knowledge.” Microsoft’s admin agent works the same way: “Any write or execute action proposed by the Microsoft 365 Admin agent requires explicit admin confirmation before it is performed.”

  • Freshworks
  • Microsoft
IT support interview · Check the AI answerThe workaround works. Should this article be published?Example

04 Respect the access boundary

Amazon’s Bengaluru service-desk role explicitly names procedure adherence. In an access request, urgency does not replace the approvals in the supplied procedure. IT Support Associate — Bengaluru, 10516562

“Adherence to standard operating procedures (SOPs)”

Amazon, Bengaluru IT Support Associate role description · Amazon Jobs, Undated

Okta, on attackers who phone the help desk posing as employees: “Document, evangelize and adhere to a standardized process for validating the identity of remote users that contact IT support personnel, and vice versa.” Microsoft: “Least privilege means you grant your administrators exactly the permission they need to do their job.”

  • Okta Threat Intelligence Okta
  • Microsoft
IT support interview · Access requestThe new starter needs access now. Can you grant it?Example

05 Own the next step

In Microsoft’s support account, David Finney gives an example of what an agent should tell a user: “if I can’t fix it, I’ll hand you over to a live agent.”

Preserve what the user already tried, name the next owner, and give the next update. Microsoft’s account identifies lost context and repeated steps as sources of friction. Building trust in AI-powered support at Microsoft

The UK government asks service desk analysts to “own an issue until a new owner has been found or the problem has been mitigated or resolved”. An NHS trust’s service desk advert: “Accurately and consistently log all user interactions to ensure that anyone who might need to help a customer with an issue has the relevant information to enable them to do so.”

  • David Finney Microsoft
  • Government Digital and Data Profession UK Government
  • Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust
IT support interview · Own the next stepYou cannot access the failing service. What goes in the handover?Example

Sources

  1. Doug Tedder, Writing in HDI SupportWorld, at the time. HDI SupportWorld, “If You Stay Reactive, AI Replaces You: How the Service Desk Must Evolve”, Jul 27, 2026. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  2. Adam Griffith and Roman Jouravlev, ITIL Architects, PeopleCert, at the time. ITIL, “The ongoing relevance of the service desk in an AI world”, Oct 23, 2025. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  3. Dennis Woodside, CEO, Freshworks, at the time. Freshworks, “Freshworks Advances its Agentic AI Platform To Uncomplicate Service Software For Businesses of All Sizes”, Jun 11, 2025. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  4. BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, Professional body, at the time. BCS, “Submission to the Business and Trade Committee Call for Evidence: Artificial Intelligence”, 2026. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  5. Amy Carrado, Senior director of workforce research, CompTIA, at the time. CompTIA, “CompTIA study: IT professionals seek more career development support as AI reshapes workforce skills”, 2026. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  6. Doug Tedder, Writing in HDI SupportWorld, at the time. HDI SupportWorld, “Why Entry Level Isn’t Entry Level Anymore”, Feb 23, 2026. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  7. GitLab, Support Engineer hiring process, at the time. GitLab Handbook, “Support Engineer”, Undated. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  8. Atlassian, IT service management guide, at the time. Atlassian, “Incident management”, Undated. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  9. Google, Site Reliability Engineering book, at the time. Google, “Site Reliability Engineering: Effective Troubleshooting”, 2016. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  10. GitLab, Support operating handbook, at the time. GitLab Handbook, “AI and Support Work”, Undated. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  11. Government Digital and Data Profession, End user computing engineer role, at the time. UK Government, “End user computing engineer”, Undated. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  12. Kevin Verdeck, Senior IT service manager, Microsoft Digital, at the time. Microsoft Inside Track, “AI for Knowledge Management”, Jul 16, 2026. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  13. Freshworks, The Works, Freshworks news, at the time. Freshworks, “AI-powered upgrades that uncomplicate employee experience”, Undated. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  14. Microsoft, Microsoft Learn documentation, at the time. Microsoft, “Use Microsoft 365 Admin agent”, Jul 9, 2026. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  15. Amazon, Bengaluru IT Support Associate role description, at the time. Amazon Jobs, “IT Support Associate — Bengaluru, 10516562”, Undated. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  16. Okta Threat Intelligence, Threat advisory, at the time. Okta, “Help desks targeted for payroll fraud”, Sep 29, 2025. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  17. Microsoft, Microsoft Learn documentation, at the time. Microsoft, “Best practices for Microsoft Entra roles”, Jun 1, 2026. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  18. David Finney, Director of IT Service Management, Microsoft Digital, at the time. Microsoft Inside Track, “Building trust in AI-powered support at Microsoft”, Oct 8, 2026. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  19. Government Digital and Data Profession, Service desk role family, at the time. UK Government, “Service desk manager”, Nov 30, 2024. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  20. Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust, Service Desk Analyst job advert, NHS Jobs, at the time. Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust, “Service Desk Analyst”, Aug 26, 2025. Open the source. Checked against the published text.

Last reviewed Nov 11, 2026

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