Is ServiceNow Ready to Compete in the Agentic CRM Era? Industry Analysts Weigh In on the Knowledge 25 Opening Keynote

Last week ServiceNow held their annual Knowledge event for their customers, partners, shareholders and employees....and for folks in the analyst community like a bunch of us who attend a bunch of these types of conferences every year. And for Knowledge 25 that meant approximately 25,000 people were there in Vegas to attend, the biggest Knowledge ever according to ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott.

ServiceNow has been on a signifiant roll with a great quarterly earnings report with annual revenues ARR crossing $12 billion annually mark. And over the last several months they've made it pretty clear they want to be a real player in the CRM space, even announcing acquisitions like Logik.ai and Moveworks to improve customer and employee experiences. 

So with CRM growing in imporrtance, and with an opportunity to add mindshare in the space as the definition of CRM is being impacted at its core by AI, we wanted to see just how baked in to the opening keynote CRM would be, and decided to "assemble the crew" for what turned out to be one of the most anticipated keynotes of the year.  And the crew we assembled, in addition to The Venerable Paul Greenberg and yours truly, included:

• Hyoun Park -  CEO and Principal Analyst @ Amalgam Insights 
• Rebecca Wettemann - CEO and Principal Analyst, Valoir and host of The Crunch

Below is a clip from our watch party of the opening keynote featuring ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott, and President, CPO, and COO Amit Zavery.  Also featured were a few ServiceNow customers/partners, including former SAP Co-CEO and current CEO of UKG Jennifer Morgan and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.  As stated, we were focused pretty heavily on the CRM stuff, and how it fit into the overall ServiceNow story.  It's important to keep that in mind as there was a lot of news that was announced beyond our focus area that we touch on but not as deeply.

Also below is an edited transcript of the clip, and finally we fed the overall transcript of our complete conversation into Perplexity to see what it thought of what we were saying.  To view the full opening keynote watch party go to https://youtube.com/live/gmFInUAD7dQ?feature=share to see how we reacted to everything we heard (or didn't hear).  The Day 2 keynote will becoming shortly.

A couple of key points that stood out:

• McDermott positioned AI as the greatest opportunity of the century, describing it as a $22 trillion global market by 2030 and a driver for eliminating $4 trillion in operating expenses.
• He predicted the collapse of the traditional app stack, with ServiceNow positioned as the platform to unify and orchestrate enterprise operations across all functions and systems.
• Zavery announced the AI Agent Studio (no-code agent creation) and the AI Control Tower (centralized management, governance, and security for AI agents).
• The Workflow Data Fabric provides real-time, zero-copy access to data across disparate sources, to enable "instant insights and action"
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Huang announced a new joint developmentcalled Apriel Nemotron, a reasoning AI model designed to understand complex instructions, break down tasks, read and analyze PDFs, search the web, and conduct research to solve problems step-by-step. This model is intended to power advanced AI agents within enterprise workflows.

Check out the clip and transcript here:

Edited Transcript

Pre-keyote expectations

Brent Leary: Hey, before we go, they're getting close to start. Why don't we go around and each of you say, what are you hoping to get out of this thing?

Rebecca Wetteman: I'm really interested to hear more about the CRM story, but also about the HCM story. You know, as you see these two lining up. Salesforce is now going after the air service delivery market, which is where ServiceNow is.

They’ve had a solution for a while. And ServiceNow was going the other direction to seeing how we tip these two markets off.

Hyoun Park: I like looking at agent management. And right now there's all these agent silos that are being set up. And ServiceNow has to make the story of why it should be the center for all agent activity.

Paul Greenberg: You know what mine is, it's pretty obvious, right; it's going to be CRM. And again I maybe old school but I'm a bit skeptical of companies that call themselves CRM with missing pillars. This service ops stuff they have is spectacular sales ops is a start. Do they compete with, say, Salesforce or on pure CRM? No.

Look, I am wide open to it because I love ServiceNow. We'll see what they do.

Rebecca Wettemann: You know what though, Paul? I think they missed out on opportunities when they call themselves customer workflows because the CRM buyer saw customer workflow and didn't think that that applied. Well, they're changing that anyway.

Paul Greenberg: I know that for a fact.

Brent Leary: Well, that change happened when Colin [Fleming] came in. You could kind of mark a line of delineation between them talking about customer workflows and then pivoting to be a CRM company. 

Paul Greenberg: The biggest pivot I think they made or the strongest impact they had was when they recognized that the customer service ops was actually impacting customer experience. And then they linked the two. The trigger was the Disney Plus launch day. The reality is that, once they made that link, it propelled them.

Post Keynote Analysis

Hyoun Park: So far I haven't quite seen the proof points that I was looking for, quite honestly. Of course Bill is selling, and to a large audience I think he's giving the right type of pitch. But I'm not seeing the follow up on his, talking so far that convinces me that there's this next generation of CRM, out there.

Paul Greenberg: I was looking for a substantial commitment to CRM, I guess because they'd been indicating they were having it. They indicated moving toward it, but I didn't see it.

Back to what I said earlier, the messaging around AI it's the same messaging I've heard from everybody with the same hyperbolic claims. At the same time, technically, I'm sure they're building everything, and it's going to be really tight and done really well. So, you know, that part I'll never, ever take away.

I'm disappointed, actually, though. And overall where they're approaching things. 

Brent Leary: I don't think they did a as much as they could have interpreted saying how they can be the CRM company in the agentic era. Maybe that was part of what was going on at the end there, because Jensen was doing a really good job of explaining why ServiceNow is so important; and why they have that opportunity to do what they're talking about doing.

That phrase about 21st century problems can't be solved by 20th century, technology and how that applies to what they want to do and what they want to be. I think that would have been great if they factored that [specifically] into the CRM talk.

Also this general thought about all these companies talking about how they're the one, you know, the only one doing this or doing that. They should be paying attention to all these other vendors saying that, and then figure out how do they sound different.

How do they message different based on that? I mean, if you got the technology and you got one of the best endorsements I think you can get in this area, use that. You don't have to say all the same things that everybody else is saying, and you've got the tools and you got the opportunity to do that. I just think it was a missed opportunity for them.

Paul Greenberg: Look, ultimately they do have the tools. They have the actual strategy too.

Brent Leary: And they got the people. 

Paul Greenberg: Yeah, they've got everything they need to be the world's largest unicorn continuously. But they didn't prove it.

Brent Leary: Rebecca, what did you think?

Rebecca Wettemann: A lot of great energy, a lot of great things to share. I would have loved to hear more from customers on the CRM side, but I thought it was really interesting. Bill going after CRM and in the [analyst]meeting we had with him later, he sort of walked that back a little bit and said, you know, we're not looking to replace Salesforce.

We're not going to have any of this kind of locker room talk about other vendor bashing. But I think it'll be really interesting to see how customers interpret that and how they take a lot of that. 

Brent Leary:  Same sentiment is said on some of these keynotes and other conferences. I think their customers would rather hear a little bit more about how they work together.

I think all the vendors would get a lot out of it. If they focus a little bit more on how their agents will work together with agents that aren't theirs. 

Rebecca Wettemann:  That's why the fabric announcement is so important. But also, it was great to see Jennifer [Morgan] from UKG on stage talking; they made a huge investment in AI.

They've got their own AI technology. But having her come on to talk about how they're working with ServiceNow really is about helping their customers take advantage of technology across the entire portfolio.

Perplexity's take on the conversation

## Summary and Key Points from the ServiceNow Knowledge 25 Opening Keynote Analysis

**Pre-Keynote Expectations**

- **CRM and HCM Market Dynamics:** Panelists were interested in how ServiceNow would address both CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and HCM (Human Capital Management), especially as Salesforce targets service delivery-a space where ServiceNow is established[1].
- **Agent Management:** There was curiosity about how ServiceNow would position itself as the central platform for agent activity amid increasing agent silos[1].
- **CRM Positioning Skepticism:** Some skepticism existed regarding ServiceNow’s CRM credentials, with concerns about missing pillars compared to competitors like Salesforce. The panel noted a shift in ServiceNow’s messaging from "customer workflows" to positioning itself more directly as a CRM company[1].
- **Strategic Pivot:** The panel highlighted ServiceNow’s significant pivot when it linked customer service operations to customer experience, notably after the Disney Plus launch, which was seen as a catalyst for the company’s growth in this area[1].

**Post-Keynote Analysis**

- **Lack of Proof Points:** Panelists felt the keynote lacked concrete evidence or compelling demonstrations of a next-generation CRM, despite strong salesmanship and high-level messaging[1].
- **CRM Commitment Questioned:** There was disappointment over the absence of a substantial, clear commitment to CRM. The keynote’s AI messaging was seen as generic and similar to industry-wide hyperbole, without sufficient differentiation[1].
- **Missed Messaging Opportunity:** The keynote did not fully articulate how ServiceNow could be the CRM company for the "agentic era." Panelists believed ServiceNow missed an opportunity to distinguish its messaging from competitors and to leverage its technological strengths and endorsements[1].
- **Tools and Strategy, But Unproven:** While ServiceNow was acknowledged to have the tools, strategy, and people to succeed, panelists felt the keynote did not convincingly demonstrate this potential[1].
- **Customer Stories and Vendor Collaboration:** There was a desire for more customer stories, especially regarding CRM use cases. The panel suggested that customers want to hear more about how ServiceNow collaborates with other vendors, rather than competitive posturing[1].
- **Fabric Announcement and AI Partnerships:** The announcement of ServiceNow’s "fabric" was highlighted as important, and the appearance of Jennifer Morgan from UKG underscored ServiceNow’s collaborative approach and investment in AI, aimed at helping customers leverage technology across their portfolios[1].

## Key Takeaways

- ServiceNow is attempting to reposition itself as a CRM leader but has yet to convincingly differentiate itself from established competitors like Salesforce[1].
- The keynote was seen as energetic but lacking in specific, differentiated proof points-particularly around CRM and AI[1].
- Panelists emphasized the need for more concrete customer stories and clearer messaging about ServiceNow’s unique value and collaborative capabilities[1].
- The "fabric" announcement and AI partnerships were considered positive steps, signaling a focus on integration and customer-centric technology solutions[1].