Artificial Intelligence · Profile from AI Research Companion
ServiceNow
The Santa Clara workflow-software company, founded in 2004 by Fred Luddy as an IT help-desk ("IT service management") platform, that became the system of record for how large organisations route requests, incidents and approvals — and then tried to turn that position into the control layer for enterprise AI agents. ServiceNow sells its generative-AI features under the Now Assist brand as premium "Pro Plus" and "Enterprise Plus" editions (launched September 2023), added autonomous AI agents (announced September 2024) and a governance product, AI Control Tower (May 2025), and bought its way into adjacent layers: Moveworks for ~$2.85bn (announced March 2025, closed December 2025 after a US Department of Justice second request), Armis for ~$7.75bn in cash (announced December 2025, closed April 2026) and Veza (identity security, announced 2026). Its AI revenue is real but still small next to a ~$16bn subscription business: Now Assist annual contract value (ACV) passed $600m at the end of 2025, and the company twice raised its 2026 year-end AI ACV target, from $1bn to $1.5bn (April 2026) and to $1.7bn (October 2026) (company). Despite ~20%+ growth, its shares fell sharply in 2026 as investors questioned whether AI agents would erode seat-based enterprise software (section 06).
At a glance
- Founded
- 2004 (as Glidesoft, renamed Service-now.com and then ServiceNow), by Fred Luddy, former CTO of Peregrine Systems; first headquarters San Diego
- Headquarters
- Santa Clara, California
- Ownership / structure
- Public (NYSE: NOW) since its June 2012 IPO; widely held; S&P 500 member; a 5-for-1 stock split took effect in December 2025 (reported, verify)
- Leadership (2026)
- Bill McDermott (chairman and CEO since November 2019, ex-SAP CEO); Amit Zavery (president, chief product officer and COO); Gina Mastantuono (president and CFO); Fred Luddy (founder, board) (company, verify current titles)
- AI products
- Now Assist (generative AI inside IT, HR, customer service and creator workflows; GA September 2023); Now LLM (domain models built with Hugging Face's BigCode StarCoder base and Nvidia); AI Agents and AI Agent Orchestrator (2024–25); AI Agent Studio; AI Control Tower and AI Agent Fabric (May 2025); Workflow Data Fabric (with data.world, 2025); Moveworks employee assistant and enterprise search (from December 2025); Armis cyber-exposure and Veza identity security (2026)
- Scale
- Subscription revenue ~$10.6bn (2024, company, verify); Q4 2025 subscription revenue $3.466bn (+21%) and total revenue $3.568bn; Q3 2026 subscription revenue $3.988bn (+21%), total $4.106bn (+20.5%), current remaining performance obligations (cRPO) $13.65bn, total RPO $29.7bn (company, October 2026); 2026 subscription guidance $15.74–15.78bn (April 2026, company); ~26,000+ employees (2024, verify)
- AI metrics
- Now Assist ACV >$600m (Q4 2025); 2026 year-end AI ACV target $1bn (January 2026) → $1.5bn (April 2026) → $1.7bn (October 2026); agentic AI consumption in production up >13x year to date (October 2026) (all company-reported; definitions not audited)
- Key AI deals
- Element AI (~$230m, closed January 2021); BigCode with Hugging Face (September 2022); Nvidia generative-AI partnership (May 2023); Moveworks (~$2.85bn, 2025); Logik.ai and data.world (2025); Armis (~$7.75bn, 2026); Veza (2026); model partnerships with Microsoft, Nvidia, Google, OpenAI and Anthropic (2024–26, verify each)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Element AI and the 2020 AI-acquisition spree; BigCode, StarCoder and Now LLM (2022–23); Now Assist and premium "Plus" pricing (2023); AI agents and the move to hybrid pricing (2024–25); the Moveworks acquisition (2025); AI Control Tower and the data bets (2025); Armis and Veza (2025–26); the 2026 share sell-off and Middle East deal delays; the AI ACV targets and agentic pivot (2026)
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2020
Element AI and the AI Acquisition Spree
Acquisition (talent and technology)
2022
BigCode StarCoder and Now LLM
Partnership (open-science collaboration) / model release
2023
Now Assist and Pro Plus Premium Pricing
Launch / pricing
2024
AI Agents and Hybrid Pricing
Launch / pricing change (with a market setback)
2025
AI Control Tower and Data Bets
Launch / acquisition
2025
Armis and Veza Security Expansion
Acquisition
2025
Moveworks Acquisition
Acquisition / regulatory review
2026
AI ACV Targets and the Agentic Pivot
Strategy / disclosure (public AI revenue targets)
2026
Software Sell Off and Middle East Delays
Market setback (share-price falls, guidance pressure)