ServiceNow AI Control Tower Targets Security, Governance and Enterprise ROI

Key Points

• ServiceNow’s AI Control Tower is designed to help enterprises secure, govern and manage AI agents across platforms while monitoring costs, controlling spending and measuring ROI—addressing security and risk concerns that remain major barriers to adoption.
• AI adoption is accelerating: usage increased ninefold from Q1 to Q2, more than 50 customers now pay over $1 million for new AI packages, and ServiceNow raised its 2026 AI target from $1 billion to $1.5 billion.
• Agentic workflows are producing significant customer savings, including a reported 65% reduction in IT service-desk costs for Raleigh and potential savings exceeding $5 million for a European energy company.

ServiceNow NYSE: NOW President and Chief Financial Officer Gina Mastantuono said customer conversations are increasingly centered on deploying artificial intelligence at scale while maintaining security, governance and cost controls.

Speaking at Citi’s TMT conference, Mastantuono said customers are looking beyond AI-driven productivity gains toward business-model innovation and revenue growth. However, she said security and risk management have consistently been the largest obstacles customers cite when considering large-scale AI deployments.

“AI is just top of mind for everyone,” Mastantuono said. “What it means for these companies, not only from a productivity perspective, but from a business model innovation perspective.”

AI Control Tower Focuses on Governance and ROI

Mastantuono highlighted ServiceNow’s AI Control Tower as a central topic in customer discussions. The product is designed to enable customers to manage, govern and secure AI assets across their technology estates, including ServiceNow agents, third-party agentic platforms and internally developed agents.

She said the offering provides organizations with the ability to monitor costs, manage spending by department or manager, turn off agents when necessary and assess return on investment for individual AI initiatives. Customers can also use the platform to determine whether a task requires a more advanced AI model or a less costly option, she said.

AI Control Tower is sold as part of ServiceNow’s broader product portfolio rather than typically as a standalone product, according to Mastantuono. She characterized it as part of customers’ overall AI deployment strategies.

Mastantuono said market noise around AI, including earlier debates over building versus buying AI capabilities, has begun to clear. She said customers increasingly recognize that large language models alone cannot address all enterprise needs. ServiceNow’s strategy of integrating with multiple models, hyperscalers, application providers and data warehouses gives customers flexibility as their technology strategies evolve, she said.

New AI Packaging Shows Early Adoption

At its Knowledge conference, ServiceNow introduced new AI-native packaging tiers called Foundation and Advanced, alongside its highest-tier Prime offering, formerly known as Pro Plus. The new tiers are intended to give customers access to AI functionality without requiring them to purchase the company’s most advanced package.

Mastantuono said the Foundation and Advanced tiers carry expected pricing uplifts of 20% to 30%, while the Prime tier’s pricing was unchanged and continues to generate roughly a 30% uplift. She said the company did not raise prices for customers that choose its base standard products without AI capabilities.

More than 50 customers are paying more than $1 million for the new AI packages, Mastantuono said. She also said the company saw a 45% increase in customers that had not previously bought AI products purchasing AI from ServiceNow during the second quarter.

• ServiceNow reported AI usage increased ninefold from the first quarter to the second quarter.
• Mastantuono said consumption trends are performing better than the company’s initial expectations.
• The company raised a 2026 target from $1 billion to $1.5 billion, which she said was supported by consumption-driven demand.

Agentic Workflows Drive Customer Savings

Mastantuono said ServiceNow sees a potential consumption flywheel as customers use agentic AI to automate a larger share of the billions of workflows that run annually on its platform.

She cited the City of Raleigh as the first municipal government to deploy ServiceNow’s L1 IT specialist. According to Mastantuono, the deployment went live quickly with limited engineering infrastructure, achieved 98% first-touch accuracy and reduced IT service-desk costs by 65%.

She also described an unnamed European energy company that is seeking to automate 500,000 IT service requests annually. A proof of concept completed in eight to 12 weeks is expected to produce more than $5 million in savings from that use case, Mastantuono said.

Initial subscriptions already include consumption, she said, and customers that use their allocations may renew earlier even if they do not purchase additional assist packs. ServiceNow views broader adoption of its agentic capabilities as a potential driver of additional consumption over time.

Security, CRM and M&A Remain Strategic Priorities

Mastantuono said ServiceNow’s long-term growth plans depend in part on AI penetration within its customer base and increased usage of agentic capabilities. She said assumptions in the company’s $30 billion to $32 billion long-term model are conservative relative to the adoption rates ServiceNow saw when it introduced earlier AI capabilities in 2018.

She also pointed to security and risk, customer relationship management, and data and analytics as product areas expected to grow at more than 25% on a compound annual basis over the company’s planning period.

ServiceNow has acquired Armis and Veza to expand its security capabilities and recently announced a small CRM-focused acquisition aimed at helping customers deploy agentic CRM capabilities more quickly. Mastantuono said Armis and Veza have helped ServiceNow address customers’ needs for asset visibility, identity and access controls, and remediation workflows.

While she said the company is not pursuing large transformational acquisitions, Mastantuono said ServiceNow expects to continue pursuing smaller tuck-in deals for talent and technology capabilities. The company also continues to return capital through share repurchases, with Mastantuono saying it repurchased $2 billion of stock in the first quarter and had $4.2 billion remaining under its authorization.

Looking ahead, Mastantuono said ServiceNow’s priorities include expanding the sophistication of its AI specialists, integrating acquired businesses, and introducing AI-native products for mid-market and small-business customers in the back half of the year.

About ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW)

ServiceNow, Inc is a cloud-based enterprise software company that provides digital workflow and automation solutions. Its Now Platform enables organizations to manage and connect business processes across information technology, customer service, human resources, finance, legal operations and other departments.

The company's products and services include IT service management, IT operations management, customer service management, human resources service delivery, security operations, risk and compliance management, strategic portfolio management and application development tools.

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