ServiceNow revs its updated Now Platform for AI, automation powered workflows

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ServiceNow launched the latest version of its Now Platform, dubbed Orlando release, with a heavy dose of artificial intelligence and analytics tools. ServiceNow's plan is to use its Now Intelligence capabilities within the platform to streamline business decisions.

The company's Now Platform has been used to integrate legacy systems and refine enterprise workflows and processes. By adding Now Intelligence, ServiceNow is adding an analytics layer to the platform to better find answers and automate tasks. David Wright, chief innovation officer at ServiceNow, said the company has been acquiring various AI companies to build out technology and expertise. ServiceNow buys Loom Systems to extend AIOps capabilities | The question of AI for ServiceNow is a question of what works

ServiceNow has been aiming to expand its reach into CEO digital transformation plans and various industries. The strategy is being implemented by former SAP CEO Bill McDermott, who joined ServiceNow in November 2019.

• ServiceNow under McDermott plans to go vertical starting with banks and telcos
• ServiceNow aims to court CEOs, expand use cases beyond IT

According to ServiceNow, the Orlando release of the Now Platform has hundreds of updates that are available via consumer-like mobile apps. Data from the Now Platform is surfaced via contextual recommendations, predictions and insights, self-service, automation with virtual agents and analytics to discover trends and patterns in real time. 

The updates to the Now Platform appear to be timely. Acorio, a consulting firm for ServiceNow implementations, recently released a survey of 429 respondents highlighting ServiceNow's platform is gaining wide-scale adoption. Indeed, 31% of customers surveyed by Acorio were using more than 4 ServiceNow Platform elements such as IT, HR and customer service. In addition, more than half of the respondents said they are focused on automation and artificial intelligence as part of their digital transformation efforts.

Adobe, Deloitte, Equinix, Red Hat and Nutanix are some of the companies building out digital transformation efforts on the Now Platform.

Features added to the Now Platform include:

• Cloud Insights, which optimizes the cost of cloud assets by making recommendations to manage usage.
• Advanced Risk Assessments so front-line workers can spot problems earlier.
• Software Exposure Assessment, which identifies vulnerable software, devices and servers and then initiating IT workflows.
• Agent Affinity for Work Assignment, which allows customer service teams to find the best agent to improve satisfaction based on knowledge and familiarity.
• Virtual Agent with Natural Language Understanding to build and maintain natural language understanding models.
• CI/CD to support the use of standard DevOps tools and orchestrate development. ServiceNow is also enabling the Now Platform to
• Mobile Agent tools for native mobile experiences for service desk agents and operators.
• Mobile Branding and analytics as well as targeted campaigns to deliver information based on location, department and job types.