Service Now just signed a three-year deal with Open AI to
embed GPT 5.2 directly into its enterprise workfield platform.
Now this agreement brings Open AI technical advisors and
ServiceNow engineers together to build custom AI solutions that
enterprises can deploy without bespoke development.
ServiceNow powers more than 80 billion workflows every year
across different platforms, IT, customer service and operations.
And this new partnership between these two gives those workflows
direct access to frontier AI capabilities from ChatGPT and
open AI, including real time speech to speech voice agents.
So when you're on the phone and you're talking to an agent from
a ServiceNow company, you're probably talking to a person.
Nope, that's not right. You're actually talking to an AI
now. That's what's going to be
happening for service now. The company that controls the
enterprise workflow layer now has the keys to one of the most
advanced AI systems on this planet.
And what does that mean for every other software company
fighting for the same customers? Open AI is computer use model
will also become part of the ServiceNow platform, allowing AI
agents to perform IT tasks like restarting devices or accessing
data locked in legacy mainframe systems.
Today, we're going to cover the competitive dynamics driving
this whole deal. It's $12 billion of acquisitions
that ServiceNow did this year. And why this race to become the
AI control tower for business just got a little bit spicy.
And we're going to do that right If this very short break.
ServiceNow is betting big on becoming the central hub where
AI meets enterprise. The company has spent more than
$12 billion on acquisitions in 2025, including Moveworks for
2.85 billion, cybersecurity startup Vasa for roughly a
billion and Armas for 7.75 billion in its largest purchase
ever. 7 acquisitions in a year makes a sharp departure from a
company that built its reputation on organic growth and
the mantra of one platform, 1 architecture, one data model.
Now this Open AI partnership accelerates that strategy by
adding frontier AI capabilities the company could not build
internally on the same timeline. ServiceNow now processes more
than 80 billion workflows annually across the Fortune 500,
and the company wants every one of those workflows running on
its AI infrastructure. Brad Lightcap, who's Open AI
chief operating officer, told The Wall Street Journal that
enterprises want open AI intelligence applied directly
into ServiceNow workflows. Customers increasingly seek what
Lightcap calls agentic and multimodal experiences that
behave like AIT mates rather than just chat bots answering
questions for you. And the deal includes a revenue
commitment from Service Now to Open AI, though neither company
disclosed the actual financial terms.
Open AI has been pursuing similar enterprise software
partnerships, including deals with Intuit and $100 million
commitment from Databricks last September.
This is Open AI strategy for turning research breakthroughs
into recurring enterprise revenue.
Find the platforms where businesses already run their
operations and then embed frontier models directly into
those systems. ServiceNow gives Open AI access
to 85% of the Fortune 500 through this single integration.
Now, the technical integration goes beyond just API access.
That's pretty simple. ServiceNow plans to build speech
to speech AI agents for customer service using Open AI Voice
Focus models. These agents will listen,
reason, and respond in natural language without converting
speech to text first. A user could speak in their
preferred language and receive an instant response from an AI
agent that opens a case, triggers an approval, and
orchestrates next steps without translation delays.
That capability eliminates the latency and context loss that
plague current automated customer service systems.
Current voice automation typically converts speech to
text process That text through an AI model, generates a text
response, and then it converts it back to speech.
Each conversation step introduces delays and loses
nuances, and speech to speech processing cuts out the middle
steps entirely and preserves the natural flow of the conversation
and service. Now this is huge.
They'll also integrate open a is computer use model to unlock
what the company calls a new class of IT automation.
IT professionals, watch out, A is actually coming for you.
These agents can interact with systems by navigating interfaces
the way a human would, turning unstructured documents into
actionable data and automating interactions with legacy
systems, including mainframes. The practical application here
is quite significant. Many large enterprises still run
critical operations on 30 year old hardware and that modern
automation tools can't touch them.
Right now they're they can't even do it.
Banks, insurance companies, they all run on it and governments
too. They depend on COBOL systems.
The process trillions of dollars in transactions annually.
An AI agent that can navigate those interfaces opens a massive
surface area for automation that was previously locked away
behind obsolete technology stack.
Now, Servicenow's president Ahmed Zavery and chief operating
officer framed this partnership around speed and scale.
Companies shifting from AI experimentation to full
development need multiple AI capabilities working together to
deliver faster outcomes. ServiceNow already offers
customers access to various AI models, but the open AI
integration makes GPT 5.2 a preferred intelligence
capability embedded natively in the platform.
That preferential treatment Signal Service now is picking
sides in the AI model wars rather than remaining model
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Now let's get back into some of this.
Salesforce agents open AI. It's all wild right now.
It's the Wild West of AI now. There's competitive pressure
right now, and it runs real deep.
Salesforce launched Agentforce 2 Point O in December, with CEO
Marc Benioff declaring that the AI revolution is already here.
And Salesforce reported 119 percent agent growth in the
first half of 2025 and expanded partnerships with Open AI,
Anthropic, Google, and AWS to solidify its ecosystem approach.
Work Day announced its Illuminate AI agents for HR,
case management, performance reviews, and financial close
processes. SAP has rolled out more than 40
jewel agents embedded across its enterprise software suite and
plans to have over 400 AI scenarios by the end of 2025.
And Oracle claims its Fusion Applications suite delivers end
to end AI within existing workflows at no additional cost
to customers. Every major enterprise software
company is racing to prove it can orchestrate AI across
business workflows in the vendor that wins controls the massive
revenue stream for all of the enterprise.
And according to Gartner, worldwide spending on
information security alone will reach $240 billion in 2026, with
AI adoption driving much of that growth.
Service Now has acquisition strategy over the past year
reveals its thinking move works deal for 2.85 billion brought AI
powered enterprise search and roughly 500 AI specialist out of
the team. Moverworks provides the
engagement layer where employees interact with AI through natural
conversations rather than just old school fly out menus and
drop down menus. Visa added identity security and
access governance, which becomes critical when you deploy
autonomous AI agents. They can take actions across
enterprise systems. An AI agent that can restart
servers, access financial data, or modify customer records needs
strict identity controls to prevent unauthorized actions.
And Armis provides security for cyber exposure management across
IT operational technology, IoT devices, and medical equipment.
Armis recently topped 340 million in animal recurring
revenue with 50% year over year growth and serves over 35% of
the Fortune 100. Each acquisition fills a gap
that might otherwise give enterprise buyers a reason to
look elsewhere, and ServiceNow wants to be the single answer to
every question about enterprise AI management.
ServiceNow stock rose 2% in pre market trading when news of the
Open AI deal broke. Investors has previously
punished the stock over concerns about the company's aggressive
acquisition pace, with shares falling to the lowest level
since April 2025 after the Armas announcement.
Chief Financial Officer Gina Mastantuno sought to reassure
investors that the spending would slow after the Armistile
closes. And the Open AI partnership
offers a different idea altogether.
Strategic AI integration. Rather than just swooping in and
buying all those companies. Whether ServiceNow can integrate
7 major acquisitions in a year while maintaining platform
coherence remains an open question.
Usually doesn't happen that way, Usually takes a little bit of
time, and we're going to see how they do integrating this all
with their own complex architecture.