Bots or Bust: ServiceNow’s Bill McDermott Makes an All-In Bet on AI

Late on a Friday night in March, Bill McDermott, ServiceNow’s CEO and chairman, walked off a flight in San Jose, Calif., and then immediately asked his chief of staff to get his top sales and engineering execs on the phone. He had a task for them.

McDermott had just spent a week in New York meeting with customers, including the heads of banks and a sports league. They’d told him they had no idea where to start with AI, which has become a matter of foremost importance to ServiceNow, a giant in the deeply unsexy business of making software for resolving issues in back-office departments such as IT, finance and HR. Many of the company’s latest programs involve AI, and McDermott has pinned a substantial portion of its growth to the technology—and to customers understanding its value.

In a 15-minute phone conversation with his lieutenants, McDermott outlined the details of a new AI consulting service for marquee clients that would arguably offer more hand-holding than any other such program offered by ServiceNow and gave them a tight deadline: He wanted it finalized in a couple weeks, so he could talk it up at ServiceNow’s 25,000-person customer conference at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas.