ServiceNow Challenges Salesforce in its Own Game

ServiceNow has officially deepened its push into the customer relationship management (CRM) space, unveiling a wave of AI-powered capabilities at its Knowledge 2025 conference—directly challenging Salesforce.

The move follows its $3 billion acquisition of AI platform Moveworks and marks a significant shift from IT service management to a more expansive AI-driven business transformation platform.

ServiceNow’s CRM offering now spans sales, order management, field service, and customer service, enhanced by automation and a unified platform.

Unlike traditional CRMs that focus on sales support and omnichannel communication, ServiceNow emphasises resolving customer issues through orchestration and fulfillment, not just intake.

While Salesforce dominates the CRM market, but ServiceNow is positioning itself as a serious challenger. CEO Bill McDermott envisions an AI-driven CRM that automates the entire customer journey—from sales to service—minimising human involvement.

At its Knowledge 2025 event, ServiceNow emphasised its goal to transform CRM into a fully integrated, automated experience through the Now Platform.

Like Salesforce's Agentforce, ServiceNow also unveiled CRM AI Agents, a suite of specialised AI agents designed to autonomously orchestrate and complete tasks across the entire customer lifecycle—from selling and fulfilling to servicing.

Unlike traditional automation requiring predefined rules, these AI agents can dynamically determine the best course of action by resolving inquiries instantly, routing complex cases with full context, and managing workflows across departments.

At ServiceNow, AI agents are already automating 37% of the company’s customer support case workflows. By scaling live call center agents, they boost efficiency, accelerate resolutions, and enhance customer engagement, enabling businesses to shift to proactive, autonomous AI‑driven experiences.

With $1.4 billion in recurring CRM revenue and 30% annual growth, ServiceNow’s aggressive push suggests it’s aiming to disrupt Salesforce’s long-held dominance in the CRM space.

“ServiceNow is delivering a groundbreaking new vision for CRM that transforms the entire customer experience around the powerful capabilities of AI. Far beyond rebranded chatbots, we’re enabling our customers to orchestrate end‑to‑end sales and service on a single AI‑powered platform, helping organisations manage the entire customer lifecycle with greater efficiency,” John Ball, ServiceNow EVP and GM of CRM and Industry Workflows, said.