How Elkjøp is working toward automating 15% of tickets and improved service with Atlassian-powered AI

Challenge: Nordic retail chain Elkjøp needed powerful service management solutions to enable lean teams in IT, HR, Store support, and across their business to support 14,000 employees in six countries. 

Solution: Elkjøp implemented Jira Service Management in most departments across the company. Using Virtual Service Agents, they’ve been able to deliver fast services while focusing on more complex and strategic requests.

Impact: Elkjøp is on track to reduce ticket volume by 10% with a long term goal of 15%, which will save IT and business teams  3,000 hours each year.

Delivering smart electronics and smart support with AI-powered service management

Since 1962, Nordic consumers have relied on Elkjøp for household goods and appliances. Five decades later, their business model has evolved into the 21st century. Atlassian has been integral to that journey. 

Elkjøp started using Atlassian solutions in 2008 and adopted Jira in 2011 to enable its digital transformation. “We’re a lean organization, and we need solutions to support our efficiency,” says IT Delivery Lead Jana Bohackova. “Even then Jira was well-suited for our needs, and it easily supported our development.” 

To help employees solve problems and get answers more easily, Elkjøp added Jira Service Management in 2017. Usage grew quickly and organically across the organization. Now, they’re elevating those results with Jira Service Management’s AI-powered virtual service agent, which enables personalized, automated support interactions at any time, on any channel. 

Today, employees raise about 8,000 tickets each month using Jira Service Management across their unified helpdesk, with an additional 2,500 raised automatically by Alerting through JSM. “Jira Service Management isn’t just an IT tool. It's our core business tool, where we handle issues and resolve problems every single day,” says Jana. “Whether it's an IT request, incident, or routine support request, every question gets raised as a ticket in Jira Service Management.” 

Through content standardization and the development of a structured knowledge framework through Confluence, Elkjøp has significantly improved their automations, enabling internal teams to receive support they need more quickly and efficiently. After implementing these AI capabilities, the company is on track to resolve 10% of their monthly ticket volume and save 3,000 hours a year across teams.

Jira Service Management: A core business tool supporting 14,000 employees

Before Jira Service Management, Elkjøp’s team was managing requests via email – or even with pen and paper. Teams including IT, HR, and Store operations now use Jira Service Management to resolve more issues and accelerate response time without hiring more people.

“Our IT department is about 100 people, and we’re supporting 14,000 employees across 400 stores,” says Jana. “Jira Service Management has opened up opportunities for us to be more structured and organized, empowering teams to deliver faster and more efficiently.”

Now, retail and back-office employees go to the relevant Jira Service Management project, such as IT or HR, with questions and requests. “People working in these departments aren’t as tied up with basic support,” says Jana. “Especially our store employees, they’re now spending more time with customers and less on internal issues.”

Jira Service Management has also allowed Elkjøp to make data-driven resourcing and hiring decisions. “What you can see, you can measure,” says Jana. “With all our tickets tracked, I have the visibility to know whether I need 10 or 20 more people to support our employees.” 

Elkjøp upgraded to Atlassian Cloud Premium to access Atlassian Automation features that help teams work even more efficiently. “With Automation, we spend less time on administration and more time on support and development,” says Jana. “Because we’re growing so fast, we need to continuously evolve both our tools and processes. That’s what Atlassian Cloud Premium offers us.”

Empowering employees with knowledge using virtual service agents

With Jira Service Management, Elkjøp can answer questions and solve problems more efficiently. In April 2024, they started using the solution’s AI-powered service agent to take their service to the next level. 

“Atlassian’s AI helps us spend less time taking care of internal issues, so our employees can spend more time with customers.” Jana says. The Jira Service Management, virtual agent provides 24/7 conversational support using articles from Elkjøp’s Confluence knowledge base. Within Confluence, built-in AI features translate articles into multiple languages. 

For example, when an employee asks a question using their natural language, such as “What is Elkjøp’s MFA policy?” the virtual service agent shares relevant Confluence articles – and if they answer the question, there’s no need to open a ticket. If they still need help, or have a complex request, a ticket is opened for support from a human agent.

“Virtual service agents guide our employees through our support lines, holding the user’s hand as they resolve issues and navigate Elkjøp’s digital environment,” Jana says. “That’s already saved us a lot of time.”

Faster data standardization and translation with AI

As the IT team explored ways AI could help employees save even more time and make more informed decisions, they uncovered another impactful opportunity: cleaning up and standardizing Confluence data. “To get the most out of the virtual service agents, we need to start with data – and our data is in Confluence,” Jana says. “We used AI to improve the content in our knowledge base, which the virtual service agents draw from.” 

Because Elkjøp works in multiple Nordic languages, standardizing all content into English improves the quality of virtual service agents’ automated responses. After starting with English, using Confluence’s muti-language indexing, Elkjøp has expanded their approach to include local routines in other languages alongside English. The agent can then translate the standardized content back into the appropriate language for the employee requesting it. 

“Because English is not our first language, using AI to standardize and improve Confluence data has saved us a lot of time,” continues Jana. Not only are translations near-instant, they’re a quality upgrade too. “The translation capabilities are really interesting, and they’ve greatly improved over time,” says Jana. “One of my colleagues said the Danish translation is as good as, or in some cases even better than what a native speaker would expect."

With AI-enabled answers, teams get time back to focus on customers

When Elkjøp started using AI and virtual service agents, they had a clear goal: “Our goal and our mission is to save 15% of the tickets. That brings us to the total number of saving 4,000 hours per year,” Jana says.

Within one year, based on current trends and usage patterns they’re on track to achieve that goal. “AI means we can better support employees working in multiple languages across multiple countries,” Jana continues. “They now get instant replies to simple questions, instead of opening a ticket. That means our IT team has more capacity to manually resolve complex issues.” 

Even though Elkjøp is still exploring the potential of AI, they’re already seeing impressive results. “AI and virtual service agents are helping us focus on the right things,” says Jana. “We’re empowering our employees with knowledge and giving them time back to focus on customers. That’s making our people happier and more satisfied.” 

In the future, Elkjøp plans to implement virtual service agent support through Microsoft Teams, expand language support offerings, and continue utilizing Atlassian’s AI capabilities to improve their knowledge base. “With AI, we’re adapting our practices to support our employees and automate administrative work,” says Jana. “Ready or not, the future is here, and Atlassian tools are helping us grow along with it.”