How do you get employees to submit more useful IT tickets?

Start by making the specific forms easier to recognize and quicker to complete than the general one. Use the language employees use for the problem, not internal system names, and trim fields that aren't needed to start work.

Where possible, prefill details you already know, such as the requester's identity or device. For anything they must provide, explain where to find it. A required hostname field doesn't help much if people don't know what a hostname is.

I wouldn't try to make every employee diagnose their own issue. A general request like a broken computer can be a reasonable starting point, even if it isn't enough to fix the problem.

Make sure the help desk has the staffing and skills to ask a few targeted questions, route the request, and handle common problems. Better forms can save time, but they won't eliminate the need for a conversation.

For the common automated fixes, look closely at the choices that divert people to manual handling. If the automated option is suitable for most cases, make that choice clear and explain what the employee needs to do first, such as ensuring the affected system is online.

After resolving a manual ticket, point the person to the relevant automated form for next time. Keep that explanation short and focused on the benefit, like not having to wait for a technician.

You could give incomplete general requests a different response target, since support may need extra time to establish the issue and its priority. Just be careful not to treat the form choice itself as proof that a problem isn't urgent.

Tell employees what information is missing and how to provide it. A vague request can still describe a serious outage once someone follows up.

A guided chat could replace a giant blank box for some requests. It can ask for the error message and affected system, then create a ticket or route a suitable request to an automated playbook.

If you use a language model for that, let the requester check the generated details and give them a way to reach a person. It can misinterpret the problem, so don't assume every classification or suggested fix is right.