Washington, March 5, 2026, 18:33 EST
- ServiceNow rolled out EmployeeWorks and an “Autonomous Workforce” suite aimed at public sector customers.
- The company said its first Level 1 IT service desk AI specialist is in controlled availability, with broader release expected in Q2.
- Shares rose about 5.8% after the announcement, even as investors fret over AI’s impact on software profits.
ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) on Thursday announced EmployeeWorks and an Autonomous Workforce suite for public sector customers, pitching the tools as “trusted AI” for government work. The company’s shares were up about 5.8% at $120.38 in extended trading. 1
The timing is not subtle. Agencies are trying to use generative AI to speed up service desks, HR and procurement, but many still run on patched-together systems and hard security rules. Vendors keep saying “trusted” and “governed” because that’s where deals die.
The launch also comes in a rough stretch for U.S. software stocks, with the S&P 500 software index down 28% since late October as investors weigh whether AI agents will cut into subscription models. ServiceNow has pointed to buybacks—authorizing an extra $5 billion on top of $1.4 billion remaining in its plan, including a $2 billion accelerated repurchase, a structure that buys shares quickly through a bank—but Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s Andrew Slimmon called post-selloff buybacks “an attempt to stop the decline” and Chase Investment Counsel’s Peter Tuz said, “I don’t think the buybacks are enough.” 2
At its Government Forum in Washington, ServiceNow said EmployeeWorks combines Moveworks’ conversational AI and enterprise search with its Employee Center portal, turning natural-language requests into governed actions across agency systems. It also introduced Autonomous Workforce, a set of AI “specialists” designed to execute tasks in ServiceNow’s Government Community Cloud and National Security Cloud environments. Chief customer officer Chris Bedi said agencies are expected to do it with “AI that actually works,” while U.S. Public Sector group vice president Mike Hurt said workers should be able to get answers “without workarounds, without switching tools.” 3
ServiceNow said the first out-of-the-box specialist is a Level 1 IT service desk AI specialist aimed at common requests such as password resets and network troubleshooting, and that it can operate in FedRAMP High and Defense Department IL4 and IL5 environments. FedRAMP is the U.S. government’s security approval program for cloud services; ServiceNow said it is authorized at the High level and Moveworks at Moderate. Mark Wittenburg, the City of Raleigh’s chief information officer, said the city has “saved the equivalent of a full month of time” and reported a “98% deflection rate” — the share of requests resolved without a human — from its virtual agent.
A day earlier, CEO Bill McDermott tried to frame the AI shift as additive, not cannibalistic, telling investors: “While AI thinks, workflow acts.” He also said ServiceNow’s platform can sit on top of agents from rivals such as Salesforce and Workday, plugging them into business processes rather than letting them run as isolated tools. 4
But the risks are plain. Government buying cycles can drag, and agencies can balk at software that takes autonomous actions on sensitive systems, even with audit trails. And “controlled availability” is still a limited rollout — a bad pilot, or a security misstep, can stall adoption fast.
ServiceNow in January projected annual subscription revenue above Wall Street estimates and pointed to demand for its AI-powered products, as it stepped up partnerships with Anthropic and OpenAI to bake more generative AI into its platform, Reuters reported at the time. 5
Moveworks, the conversational AI firm now being folded into EmployeeWorks, was ServiceNow’s biggest deal when it agreed in 2025 to buy it for $2.85 billion in cash and stock. 6
