Using Service Collection in 2026? Here’s What Should Be on Your Roadmap

If Atlassian’s Service Collection (formerly Jira Service Management) is part of your stack in 2026, this is not the year to stand still.

Over the past 12 months, JSM has quietly crossed a threshold. Automation is deeper, AI is more capable, and the platform is no longer just about handling tickets. Teams that treat 2026 as “business as usual” risk falling behind those who rethink how work flows through JSM.

Based on a recent live session with our consultants Rick Earl and Brandon Davies, here are the areas we believe should be on every JSM roadmap this year.

1. Treat automation as a platform, not a helper

One of the clearest themes from the session was how far JSM automation has evolved.

With advanced automation components now available, teams can:

• Use lookup tables and dynamic lookup tables
• Run multiple automation branches in parallel
• Apply smarter delays and conditional logic
• Build loops and reusable logic

At this point, automation is no longer just about sending notifications or updating fields. It is starting to function like a lightweight development framework inside JSM.

2026 takeaway:

If you are still relying heavily on external tools for orchestration, reporting or enrichment, it is worth reassessing what can now live natively inside JSM. This is one of the fastest ways to reduce complexity and app spend.

2. Push self-service beyond “submit a ticket”

Self-service has traditionally meant a nicer request form. That definition no longer holds.

With recent improvements to Virtual Agent, customers can now trigger real actions directly from the portal, including:

• Calling APIs
• Running automations
• Performing tasks like password resets or status checks

This shifts self-service from information delivery to action delivery.

2026 takeaway:

The goal should not be fewer tickets at any cost. The goal should be fewer low-value tickets. Virtual Agent is now mature enough to take meaningful work out of human queues when implemented thoughtfully.

3. Use Rovo to improve triage, not just answer questions

Rovo is often seen as a chat interface or knowledge assistant. In practice, it is becoming far more interesting than that.

During the session, examples were shared of Rovo being used to:

• Read Confluence pages that describe what teams do and route work accordingly
• Automatically set fields such as region or team based on company context and user timezones
• Work with Loom transcripts to extract actions and either trigger automation or create review tasks

This moves triage away from gut feel and into repeatable, auditable logic.

2026 takeaway:

If triage quality is still inconsistent, Rovo is worth exploring not as a chatbot, but as a classification and routing engine that works alongside automation and can be refined to fit your organisation.

4. Invest in foundations that reduce admin drag

Not everything that matters in 2026 is flashy or AI-driven.

Several quieter improvements from 2025 are foundational for teams running JSM at scale:

• New automation actions for external platforms like Workday, Salesforce and Workato reduce the need for fragile custom API calls
• Cloud to cloud site copy for Assets makes sandbox refreshes and testing dramatically easier
• Portal styling and structure enhancements allow teams to build multi-page, content-rich service experiences without expensive theming apps

These changes remove friction that admins have lived with for years.

2026 takeaway:

Strong foundations make it easier to safely adopt AI and automation later. Skipping these basics often slows teams down when they try to scale.

5. Redesign roles, not just workflows

Perhaps the most important point raised was not about a specific feature at all.

As more level one and level two work is handled by automation, Virtual Agent and Rovo, teams need to rethink how they use people.

That means:

• Letting the system handle classification, routing and prioritisation
• Designing roles around problem-solving, judgement and improvement
• Measuring success by outcomes, not ticket volume

This shift is easy to agree with, but harder to implement. It touches process design, culture and trust in the platform.

2026 takeaway:

The real value of JSM in 2026 will not come from replacing people, but empowering them up to do better work.

What this means for your 2026 planning

If Jira Service Management is a critical system for your organisation, a strong 2026 roadmap should answer three questions:

1. What work can automation and AI reliably handle now?
2. Where are humans still doing repetitive tasks the system could take on?
3. Are we designing JSM as an enterprise service platform, or still treating it as just an IT tool?

Teams that answer those questions honestly tend to see faster resolution times, lower operational overhead and better experiences for both customers and agents.

If you would like help pressure-testing your roadmap or identifying the highest-impact changes for your environment, the Elegance Group team is always happy to help. Just reach out.