ServiceNow Maps AI Control Tower Strategy as Agents, Security Drive Growth

Key Points

• ServiceNow is positioning itself as an enterprise AI “Control Tower,” integrating AI agents, data, identity, security and workflows on a common platform to provide governance, visibility and auditability.
• The company is expanding its security platform through Armis and Veza, aiming to unify security operations, identity, asset management and operational technology while coordinating customers’ existing security tools.
• AI is driving growth and automation across ServiceNow’s business: the company says its AI business has grown ninefold in nine months, while agents have generated $1 billion in value and eliminated about 2.5 million hours of employee work.

ServiceNow NYSE: NOW outlined its approach to enterprise artificial intelligence, security and workflow automation during a discussion at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference, with Bill McDermott emphasizing the company’s focus on integrating AI agents, data and security controls on a common platform.

McDermott said the enterprise adoption of AI differs significantly from consumer use cases because companies must manage identity, security, workflows and auditability across complex organizations. He described ServiceNow’s configuration management database and context engine as central to that effort, citing “100 billion workflows” handling “eight trillion transactions” in the global economy.

“Every CEO wants to grow their business, they want to expand their margins, and they want to do everything in a highly secure manner,” McDermott said. “You have to manage the identity of humans and agents and robots and thinking machines and do this all on a common platform.”

Enterprise AI and Agent Governance

Addressing questions about AI agents built outside ServiceNow, McDermott argued that companies face significant visibility, integration and maintenance challenges when deploying disconnected tools. He said 90% of organizations lack visibility into agents operating in their environments, whether those are enterprise-provided or employee-provided agents.

According to McDermott, building AI workflows independently can result in a total cost of ownership that is five to 10 times higher than using an established enterprise platform, due to integration, security, support and maintenance requirements. He said isolated AI applications may answer narrow questions but cannot coordinate the cross-functional activities involved in areas such as product development, supply chains, sales, fulfillment and customer service.

ServiceNow’s strategy is to support an “agentic front door” through which employees and customers can interact with enterprise systems, while allowing organizations to use ServiceNow agents as well as third-party agents. McDermott said the company has also integrated with major AI model providers and seeks to match the appropriate model to a given task while helping customers manage token-related economics.

Security Platform Expansion

McDermott said the expanding attack surface created by AI has increased the importance of visibility and governance. He noted that the average enterprise uses 47 security tools, creating what he called a “point solution mess.”

He said ServiceNow’s security operations business had already surpassed $1 billion and that the company is building an integrated security platform spanning security operations, identity management, asset management and operational technology. McDermott said ServiceNow manages 7 billion devices and expects another 40 billion devices to come into its scope in the next several years.

The company’s security strategy has been broadened through Armis and Veza, which McDermott identified as key elements of its AI Control Tower vision. He said Armis supports visibility into IT, internet-of-things and operational-technology assets, while Veza contributes to identity capabilities.

“We are the only company in the world that has integrated risk management, security operations, identity management, and operating technology on one common platform,” McDermott said.

Rather than seeking to displace every security vendor used by customers, he said ServiceNow aims to help those tools work together more effectively through its platform.

ITSM, Customer Service and Automation

McDermott called IT service management, or ITSM, the company’s “core of the core,” describing it as a multibillion-dollar business growing at a steep double-digit rate. He said the platform has expanded from IT workflows into employee experiences, customer onboarding, order fulfillment and customer service.

ServiceNow has 20 level-one AI agents “badged” into its own company, McDermott said, with agents handling 90% of customer-service, employee-service and certain tactical tasks that had previously required substantial human labor.

He cited several customer examples:

• Robinhood uses ServiceNow ITSM autonomously, with agents managing 70% of cases that were previously handled by people.
• Rossmann, which operates 5,200 drugstores in Germany, reduced customer-case resolution times from five to nine minutes to five seconds, according to McDermott.
• 3M has used a portal approach to consolidate 26 legacy point solutions for customer relationship management activities.
• Starbucks is converting at least 4,000 U.S. locations to ServiceNow Customer Service Management, McDermott said.

McDermott also said ServiceNow is conducting a beta program for a simpler AI help desk offering intended for smaller-scale use cases. The company plans to make the product available to 500,000 midmarket customers globally, while allowing existing customers to connect those simpler deployments back to the ITSM core for visibility and auditability.

Growth, Monetization and Integration

McDermott said ServiceNow’s AI business has grown ninefold in nine months, while its customer relationship management business is doubling year over year and has crossed $2 billion in annual contract value. He also said more than half of net new revenue is now coming from sources other than seat-based contracts.

He said ServiceNow estimates that its own level-one agents have generated $1 billion in value and removed roughly 2.5 million hours of work from employees. The company expects AI-driven automation to support both cost savings and revenue growth by enabling customers to serve more markets and customers with fewer people.

On acquisitions, McDermott said the company acquired Moveworks in April 2025, with the deal closing in December, and described Moveworks, Veza and Armis as important to building the AI Control Tower. He said ServiceNow’s broader goal is to integrate acquired technologies quickly while helping customers modernize workflows without replacing the systems of record they have spent years implementing.

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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