Dive Brief:

• ServiceNow is crediting its AI governance additions with bolstering enterprise adoption – and in turn, its business performance, executives said Wednesday during a Q3 2025 earnings call.
• “The AI Control Tower [has] been one of the biggest interests from any customer we speak to because every customer, when they're thinking of AI adoption and agentic, they're worried about control,” Amit Zavery, president, chief operating and product officer, said during the call. “They don't know how to manage the security. They don't know what to do with trust, safety, regulatory requirements. As soon as we start talking to customers, it resonates instantly.”
• ServiceNow exceeded its guidance across profitability metrics for the three-month period ending Sept. 30, and it raised expectations for the fiscal year. The company’s AI products are on pace to surpass half a billion dollars in annual contract value this year as deal volume for its AI Control Tower, which launched in May, more than quadrupled quarter over quarter in Q3.

Dive Insight:

Enterprises are ambitious about what AI can do for their operations and workflows, but the accompanying laundry list of risks requires they also have a healthy dose of caution. Vendors that can help reduce those risks and provide observability offer CIOs a helpful hand in the implementation process. 

Organizations are bolstering investments in this area. They are directing more resources – including time and money – to mitigation efforts as pressure builds to bridge AI’s ROI gap. Choosing to ignore AI pitfalls in pursuit of acceleration isn’t a viable option, with nearly all organizations reporting some level of financial impact due to AI risks. 

ServiceNow sees its focus on governance as a differentiator in a crowded AI provider landscape. 

“This AI sprawl that's gone on right now, whether it's built in-house proof of concepts or externally sourced dreams that haven't quite worked out, are really getting cleaned up by the AI Control Tower in this platform,” Chairman and CEO Bill McDermott said during the Wednesday call. “Having a single governance framework is absolutely a breakthrough for enterprises.”

Other enterprise AI providers have built up governance offerings this year. IBM launched a tool to help secure AI models, data and usage in June. Salesforce also strengthened its observability controls in an update to its Agentforce platform, the same month. 

Governance is particularly important as enterprises dive deeper into AI agents. ServiceNow said its Now Assist AI agent consumption has increased by more than 55 times since the end of May.