A system, method and program product for managing IT events using a cognitive handler. A method is disclosed that includes: receiving an event in the form of a human readable message; using a discovery service that includes a machine learning model to process the event relative to a knowledgebase of previously captured events; identifying a set of matching events and associated solutions; in response to identifying a matching event that has a solution confidence greater than a predetermined threshold, automatically applying the solution to obtain a resolution; and updating the machine learning model based on the resolution.