NTT DATA and ServiceNow are joining forces to help enterprises automate repetitive work using the latter company’s AI tools.

The collaboration expands upon an existing partnership between the firms. NTT DATA, one of the world’s largest IT service providers, helps organizations set up and maintain ServiceNow environments. The consultancy’s website states that it has about 900 employees focused on that work. 

NYSE-traded ServiceNow started out as a provider of ITSM, or IT service management, software when it launched in 2004. ITSM is the term for a type of program that IT departments use to process employee support requests. After former SAP CEO Bill McDermott took over the reins in 2019, ServiceNow started expanding its focus to adjacent use cases. Today, it provides tools that enable administrators to monitor the performance of cloud applications, respond to breaches and perform a range of other tasks. ServiceNow also offers tools for non-technical professionals. HR and accounting teams use its software for tasks such as paying suppliers.

When OpenAI released its blockbuster chatbot in 2022, AI became a bigger focus of ServiceNow’s product roadmap. The company has rolled out dozens of AI features to its platform over the past three years. Those features are the focus of its new collaboration with NTT DATA. 

ServiceNow has designated the Tokyo-headquartered consultancy as a strategic AI delivery partner. According to the companies, that means they will co-develop and co-sell AI automation solutions based on ServiceNow’s platform. The upcoming solutions will incorporate, among others, ServiceNow’s AI agent capabilities.

In March, the software maker released a tool called Agent Studio that enables customers to deploy custom AI agents on its platform. The tool can automate tasks such as creating post-outage reports and planning IT system changes. Enterprises can customize their AI agents in various ways, such as by connecting them to an external system or having them collaborate with one another on complex tasks. 

“Together with ServiceNow, we’re embedding AI across core workflows where intelligent automation can deliver the greatest impact, from employee and customer experience to service operations,” Sandip Gupta, NTT Data’s senior vice president of global strategic alliances, told Boardroom Insight. “By combining NTT DATA’s global delivery scale and deep industry expertise with the ServiceNow AI Platform and agentic AI capabilities, we’re co-developing solutions that connect and ‘agentify’ workflows, break down data silos, and modernize legacy processes. These AI-powered automation and workflow services will accelerate transformation in industries such as financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, telecommunications, and the public sector.”

The partnership will also see NTT Data, which is itself a ServiceNow customer, expand its internal deployment of the platform. The consultancy plans to make use of the platform’s AI agent features along with a tool called the AI Control Tower. The tool, which rolled out in May, is designed to help companies track the effectiveness of their automation initiatives. It monitors metrics such as the number of employees who adopt an AI system and the amount of manual work it automates.

“NTT DATA is also scaling its own use of the ServiceNow AI Platform and AI Control Tower to demonstrate how responsible, enterprise-grade AI can drive measurable value, agility, and innovation at scale,” Gupta said.

Photo courtesy of ServiceNow