Why ServiceNow built a startup inside itself to take on AI-native rivals

CEO Bill McDermott explains how Flow, the company’s new conversational AI service desk, is designed to be faster to deploy—and harder for AI-native challengers to undercut.

For two years, ServiceNow’s challengers have built businesses around frustrations with its software. Their pitch centers on two complaints: Implementations take too long, and employees increasingly expect help inside tools they already use rather than through a separate portal.

The IT service management startup Serval, which says it intends to replace ServiceNow, rode that argument to a $1 billion valuation last December, raising $75 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital. Anas Biad,........

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