Software stack reinvented: ServiceNow AI integration

Major enterprise vendors are placing different bets on agentic technology, yet there is one factor that will determine whether these will ultimately succeed: reinventing the software stack to eliminate silos.

One of the central players in this software stack transformation is ServiceNow Inc. Through a series of new releases and key partnerships, the workflow automation company is leveraging its software-as-a-service platform to enable agentic AI for customer support, HR, IT management and more. The streamlined integration of AI agents and intelligent task-oriented pieces of software that can carry out tasks autonomously will be a key ingredient in ServiceNow’s go-to-market strategy for AI and their software stack.

“The ServiceNow platform is integrated,” said theCUBE Research’s Dave Vellante. “It’s not a bunch of stovepipes and cul-de-sacs. People love it, and, like the iPhone, it just works. And the feature pace is accelerating.”

This feature is part of SiliconANGLE Media’s exploration of how ServiceNow is leading the reinvention of the software stack by integrating AI agents to eliminate silos and enhance enterprise automation. (* Disclosure below.)

Integrating AI agents into the software stack

ServiceNow’s AI strategy has been focused on delivering new AI features that will help enterprise employee productivity. In September, the company announced the addition of AI agents to its Now platform. ServiceNow’s agents are designed to work autonomously in the background, managing tasks and processes while collaborating with enterprise employees. A new AI Agent Studio lets organizations discover thousands of out-of-the-box agents from ServiceNow and its partners, as well as build their own AI agents using natural language.

In a conference call with analysts, ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott noted that the average worker uses 17 applications on a daily basis and much of that work can be automated with the help of AI. 

“AI is doing the soul-crushing work so humans don’t have to,” McDermott said.

A key driver of workflow automation at scale is ServiceNow’s strategic collaboration with Accenture, one of its top global partners. With more than 25,000+ ServiceNow resources globally, 37,000+ certifications, 200+ Certified Master and Technical Architects and 700+ unique enterprise clients worldwide, Accenture plays a critical role in helping businesses maximize the value of the ServiceNow platform. The firm is also a top 10 ServiceNow customer globally, demonstrating its deep expertise in driving digital transformation.

Further strengthening this partnership, ServiceNow, Accenture and Nvidia joined forces in 2023 to create the AI Lighthouse program, an initiative designed to accelerate enterprise adoption of generative AI. Since inception, AI Lighthouse has enabled early adopters to develop and deploy AI-powered workflows by combining ServiceNow’s enterprise automation platform, Nvidia’s AI supercomputing and software, and Accenture’s AI transformation services.  

Today, Accenture and ServiceNow are leveraging their joint investments in — and learnings from — AI Lighthouse to build and deploy AI agents for customers that streamline operations, increase efficiency and unlock new levels of business value in the era of AI driven transformation. 

Delivering AI outcomes

ServiceNow’s partnerships on  AI initiatives, including improving the software stack, extend beyond Nvidia. The company has also announced recent collaborations with Siemens and Snowflake.

ServiceNow has joined forces with Siemens to incorporate generative AI into shop floor operations. Siemens’ Sinec Security Guard and Industrial Copilot have been integrated with ServiceNow’s workflow automation to improve factory efficiency and bolster cybersecurity management.

Snowflake and ServiceNow are jointly collaborating on an initiative to offer a cross-enterprise data integration layer. The ServiceNow Workflow Data Fabric enables real-time data accessibility to support AI-driven workflows and agents, and Zero Copy integration is designed to connect siloed data and make AI experiences better for enterprise customers.

“Our Zero Copy integration with Snowflake … paves the way for more effective generative AI and agentic AI workflows, connecting insight to action with fast, bi-directional access to data across both our leading enterprise platforms,” said Jon Sigler, senior vice president of Platform and AI at ServiceNow, in an announcement of the partnership in October.

Reinventing the SaaS strategy

ServiceNow’s partnerships that drive its initiatives underscore key elements of a go-to-market strategy for agentic AI. With the rollout of AI Agents in September, the company signaled its interest in supporting applications across customer service, HR, IT and other functions with its autonomous technology.

As the major cloud providers outline their strategies, and the Snowflake and Databricks platforms carve out their own positions, software players such as ServiceNow, Salesforce and SAP are staking a great deal on the promise of AI agents. This will require an ability to use advanced reasoning supported by cross-enterprise data, and ServiceNow is using a high-performance hybrid transactional and analytical processing database called RaptorDB to make this work.

ServiceNow has indicated that RaptorDB Pro can deliver a 53% improvement in overall transaction times and 27x faster pulling of reports, analytics and list views on its Now platform. While the ability to tap into data stores will be an essential element in delivering the promise of AI agents, it also sets the stage for a re-evaluation of the SaaS model itself. This is a development being analyzed at the highest levels in the tech chain, as seen in theCUBE’s recent exclusive conversation with Amazon.com Inc. CEO Andy Jassy.

“I also believe that AI is going to open up all sorts of new SaaS opportunities and software and service opportunities,” said Jassy, during theCUBE’s interview at AWS re:Invent. “I’ve been saying this for a long time, I’ve told you guys this too, which is that I think every single SaaS company and application that we know of will be reinvented with what’s available in the cloud. And I think that’s doubly true when you think about what AI allows.”

The latest releases from ServiceNow provide a glimpse into what this SaaS transformation will entail. Turning every SaaS app into a database schema will only lead to more silos, and the vision is that AI agents will be able to communicate with each other across the database ecosystem. This is why ServiceNow has paid close attention to the integration of its offering, a key element in its go-to-market approach for 2025.

“ServiceNow keeps doing very well, fueled by the need of enterprises to run processes across different automation islands,” said Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc., in an interview with SiliconANGLE. “It’s on track to break the $10 billion revenue mark in the current full fiscal year, and it’s innovating in the right places, especially with AI, helping to drive more growth. Going forward, it’s all about execution for Bill McDermott and his team, and they have been doing that very well recently.”

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the “From Vision to Reality: How AI Is Transforming Work Now” event. Neither ServiceNow Inc., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

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