The CIO playbook for leading the Agentic AI race with the ServiceNow AI Platform Zurich release

[Juergen Lindner]

The Agentic AI race is on

As a CIO, you’re leading this revolution. Peers and competitors are surging ahead, accelerating with confidence. Yet, your own revolution might still feel like an evolution with AI gravity settling in. The question is not if AI will define the future, but how can you defy AI gravity so that the gap does not become impossible to close.

Transforming IT for the autonomous era

To break free and jump ahead in the race, you need to redefine your IT now. In the Age of AI, hesitation isn’t an option.

AI is fundamentally changing how business works. What once lived in pilots and isolated experiments is now the driving force for business transformation. CIO.com reports that 75% of CIOs are devoting more time to AI in 2025, underscoring its rise as a strategic priority. Your foundation matters more than ever: when built on the right platform, AI becomes more than a tool; it becomes a teammate and innovation engine, where measurable and scalable outcomes are the standard.

Imagine a business where AI isn’t an add-on, but part of the very fabric of how you operate. No patchwork integrations. No disconnected sidecars. Instead, it’s seamlessly embedded into autonomous workflows, fueled by the right data. And it delivers outcomes with precision without ever compromising security or performance. Every process, every decision, every corner of the business is elevated by intelligence that scales. The possibilities aren’t just endless. They’re transformative.

Augmented IT teams delivering real business value: Instead of putting out fires, AI agents assist your teams by anticipating, fixing, and securing issues before they become problems. IT teams can reclaim time previously devoured by tedious and manual tasks with the help of AI applications , helping them focus on innovative and fulfilling work.

Responsive, contextual digital services that employees love: Employees use simpler, faster, and smarter digital experiences built on modern AI solutions, clean data, and intelligent workflows. They’re getting immediate, relevant answers and direct access to services through Now Assist, Virtual Agent, and Employee Center, preventing them from going rogue to find their own solutions that can put your business at risk.

IT that sparks exponential business growth—with you at the center: You control a unified platform where your systems, data, teams, and processes all work in harmony. Your people are empowered, your stakeholders see the value of IT, and technology is adapting to your business, not the other way around.

What would that do for your agility, innovation, and bottom line?

 

Take control of your AI future with ServiceNow

We’re seeing CIOs become heroes of their AI business transformation by removing blockers to innovation, instilling confidence in their people, and realizing a world of operational excellence where autonomous workflows fuel transformative outcomes.

The ServiceNow AI Platform isn’t just another layer of tech—it’s the core of your business transformation. Its unified data model eliminates complexity, delivering clean, secure, and proactive systems of action. Most solutions are patched together from costly acquisitions, but only ServiceNow gives you one data model and architecture that makes AI work seamlessly across your business.

What does this mean for your business? AI agents resolve issues before people even notice them, so that they can focus on driving innovation. Workflows are no longer static—they are autonomous, evolving, and adapting with your business. Teams collaborate better, developers build faster, and the entire organization performs smarter.

The ServiceNow AI Platform Zurich release delivers intelligent solutions to make this transformation real:

Evolve workflows from manual to hyper-intelligent using Agentic Playbooks, Process Mining, and proactive task orchestration. Bring agentic AI and people together for a faster, more efficient, and hybrid way of working.

Encourage safe, iterative AI experimentation on the secure ServiceNow AI Platform by adding vibe coding to your developer toolkit with Build Agent. Imagine developers of any skill level creating and editing full-stack ServiceNow apps in minutes using natural language prompts. Harness the creative talent of your teams, propelling your business to greater heights.

Elevate and simplify services by giving your people the experiences they crave. Proactively monitor and troubleshoot issues securely on employee laptops—up 1,000 devices simultaneously—with Digital End-user Experience. Deflect over-the-phone IT support requests with Now Assist Voice, enabling employees to check, manage, and escalate tickets in real-time with an AI agent that they can speak to in their own words. It’s part of the 24/7 IT mentality, giving people support when they need it most, in the way they need it now.

Bring visibility and governance across your entire AI landscape with AI Control Tower, while turning to innovations like Vault Console to protect and secure sensitive data using auto-classification, recommended actions, and easy-to-read dashboards.

Innovations like this help you solve today’s challenges, but equally as important, position you for whatever comes next.

Be the AI pacesetter

The future of work for your business is yours to shape, and the opportunity to lead boldly starts right now.

With ServiceNow, you’re setting the pace for what’s possible in the Age of AI. Stakeholders won’t just cheer for you to go faster. They’ll celebrate the journey you’ve taken to transform IT into the engine that powers every part of the business. That’s leadership.

The race towards AI can seem daunting for your business. But with ServiceNow, it’s winnable—your way, your terms.

Let’s win this race together. Watch our latest AI and autonomous IT innovations in action from the ServiceNow Zurich release.