ServiceNow unveiled ServiceNow CRM in a move that aims to expand its total addressable market, leverage its ability to automate workflows with AI and couple selling, servicing and marketing across multiple functional groups.

The launch of ServiceNow CRM, outlined at ServiceNow's Knowledge 2025 conference, was one of the most telegraphed launches ever. On the company's first quarter earnings call, CEO Bill McDermott made the company's CRM ambitions crystal clear. "There's not a day that passes when we don't hear from customers who are dissatisfied with their status quo," said McDermott. "For a long time, I've been saying no one has to lose for us to win. Our customers have now adjusted me. They want someone else to lose, so they can continue to invest more in ServiceNow."

Also: ServiceNow, UKG integrate AI agents across platforms

McDermott, speaking at ServiceNow Knowledge in a keynote, said that "AI is the absolute requirement for survival." "You've got to balance the audacity of the dream with new business models driven by AI so you grow for 10 years from now," said McDermott. "That's why we're going to bring AI agents to every corner of your business."

There's no need to name what vendors McDermott expects to lose in CRM, but you can connect the dots. It's obvious ServiceNow is going after Salesforce. ServiceNow is coupling lead and opportunity management, configure, price and quote, order management and fulfillment, customer service and support, field service and customer success and renewals. ServiceNow also can connect CRM across other functions, inventory and supply chain.

Amit Zavery, ServiceNow's Chief Product and Chief Operating Officer, said "let's face it, traditional CRM is broken. It is a patchwork of point solutions held together with duct tape and chewing gum. The result more complexity, more cost and less value."

In a briefing, ServiceNow CRM cited customers including Xerox, National Hockey League, Lumen and Kainos as well as Pure Storage. In the first quarter, ServiceNow said CRM is its fastest-growing workflow business.

The secret sauce for ServiceNow is its AI and workflow platform, which has expanded into multiple functions and use case from its IT service management days. By working horizontally across multiple data stores, ServiceNow's approach has been to connect systems, processes and workflows without needing you to move into one data store.

ServiceNow's CRM's pitch is relatively simple: Solve issues fast, adapt, run customer operations at half the cost and go live quickly. The approach is to service, sell and deliver on one platform that combines AI, data from multiple systems including inventory, contracts and operations and workflows.

ServiceNow said its CRM is aimed at a seamless experience that integrates processes and uses AI eliminate multiple screens, applications, spreadsheets and "human middleware." According to ServiceNow, CRM's limitation is that it is a system of record that ends at the front office. John Ball, ServiceNow EVP and GM of CRM and Industry Workflows, said ServiceNow can deliver "complete workflow automation from order capture through fulfillment, allowing customers to focus on value-added selling and delivering exceptional service to their own customers, not wasting time tangled up in out-of-date systems."

Differentiating with platform

ServiceNow's approach with CRM is enabled by a series of efforts outlined at Knowledge 2025 and put in place over the last two years.

The big message from Knowledge 2025 is that ServiceNow's Now Platform can be leveraged for any industry, any AI, data platform, workflow, cloud and system. Chief Innovation Officer, Dave Wright, said ServiceNow has the right to play in CRM because "we're the only company that unites AI, workflow and data on one enterprise platform."

"All our AI is delivered natively in every layer of the platform whether it's the UI, database, or automation layer, it's enterprise grade from day one," said Wright. "We can consume all the data that AI needs. We develop the workflow data fabric to be able to connect to all the data, to be able to unify it, and then be able to activate it."

This platform approach is also enabling AI agents and models on a broad level and combining to manage a digital workforce. Here’s a look.

AI Control Tower, which is a hub to govern, manage and secure any AI agent across IT, HR and CRM, model and workflow. The system covers multiple models from OpenAI, Google Gemini, Meta Llama and more, integration with AI systems from Google, Microsoft, LangChain and Amazon Bedrock. Key points about AI Control Tower include:

  • Centralized monitoring of all AI systems (ServiceNow and third party).
  • Ability to track AI asset adoption and usage.
  • Risk and compliance.
  • Value metrics to understand AI business impact.
  • A single interface for different roles that oversee AI assets with data such as number of AI systems onboarded, deployment status, risk and compliance.

AI Agent Fabric, which connects agents across applications, provides interoperability and orchestrates agent workflows and data access on Now Platform and externally. Key features include:

  • Dynamic layer so AI agents to communicate, coordinate and learn from each other.
  • Coordinates ServiceNow and third party AI agents and external systems from the likes of Microsoft and others.
  • Support for Model Context Protocol and agent-2-agent protocols and standardization of communication and partnerships with the likes of Box, Google Cloud and Microsoft.

AI Orchestrator, which was announced in January along with a broad partnership with Google Cloud. Features include:

  • Ability to create teams of AI agents.
  • Specialized agents across functions.
  • Out of box agents for IT, CRM, HR and other enterprise workflows.

Those three capabilities, along with the data and workflow tools underneath, are powering CRM AI Agents, which are a suite of specialized agents that are designed to autonomously orchestrate and complete tasks from selling and fulfilling to servicing.

According to ServiceNow, its CRM AI Agents can do the following:

  • Determine best course of action by resolving inquiries instantly, routing complex cases with full context, and managing workflows across departments.
  • Start with conversational interactions to capture requests.
  • Take that data and manage the fulfillment process and coordinate with humans when intervention needed.

The other enabling features behind CRM AI Agents is the broader platform as well as ServiceNow's efforts with its Workflow Data Fabric, announced in 2024. This data fabric was later enhanced with the Yokohama release. RaptorDB is also critical to the Workflow Data Fabric effort as well as connectors to multiple enterprise systems.

Zavery said the company is expanding its AI agent and workflow footprint due to its platform. He said:

"I'm here to show you exactly how we are delivering that platform to our customers and why we are different from all the AI pretenders out there. The reality is that today, AI is scattered across enterprises in silos, fragmented, disconnected, and to truly transform your business, we are bringing AI, data and workflows into the enterprise, enterprise grade platform you already rely on."

Zavery worked through AI agent orchestration, agent studio and connections to other agents from third parties via the AI Control Tower. "All others are building AI agents for their silos. Our AI agent orchestrator ensures the right agent handles the right task at the right time. It works behind the scenes, coordinating, resolving and accelerating work across the enterprise. It truly is AI intelligence built for scale," he said.  

Business Research Themes

Data to Decisions, Marketing Transformation, Next-Generation Customer Experience

Roles

Chief Customer Officer, Chief Data Officer, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Technology Officer

Tags

@servicenow, #CRM, AI