Welcome to the Cloud Wars Minute — your daily cloud news and commentary show. Each episode provides insights and perspectives around the “reimagination machine” that is the cloud.
In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I explore how ServiceNow’s bold moves at Knowledge25 are reshaping the enterprise AI landscape.
Highlights
00:28 — It’s a very high-energy environment at Knowledge25. ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott referred to the past, in that after World War II, there was a lot of talk in the U.S. about the military-industrial complex. What was good for a lot of big industrial companies was when there was a war going on. So, this plays off the notion of the 20th-century software-industrial complex.
01:03 — McDermott is saying that, for the last 60 years, a lot of businesses have become entangled with the software of the 20th century. That software served its purpose well in that 20th-century model — or it served it as well as it could. But, here in the 21st century, an entirely different way of doing business has arisen, especially with the power of AI, with agents, with data, with platforms.
02:18 — The way that business was done in the past, so much of it was, “This is what I’m making. This is what you’re going to buy. I will dictate where it is sold, when it is sold, how it is sold, and you, the customer, will comply with my rules and regulations.” Completely different world today, where the customers are in charge.
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03:04 — The acceleration now is extraordinary. We can’t allow, as businesses, the time-consuming processes and functions of the past to persist. The rise of the power of data, AI, and agents is changing how C-level executives think about these things. For customers, they want technology to work in ways that are simpler, faster, and more quickly lead to business outcomes.
04:17 — McDermott said ServiceNow is willing to work with everybody. But, he said, “We’ve got to be moved by what our customers want and need — what they’re telling us.” For C-level executives you’ve got to wonder: Is the software-industrial complex of the 20th century going to be able to take you into the digital AI future you want?
