ServiceNow warns Australian businesses risk falling behind in AI integration

ServiceNow urges Australian companies to embed AI across workflows rather than relying on point solutions, highlighting the risks of complacency and the benefits of integrated, governed AI implementations for customer and employee experience.

Many Australian businesses that hoped to lag briefly behind innovators in artificial intelligence risk being overtaken, ServiceNow executives warn, as the company presses the case for embedding AI across workflows rather than bolti...

According to ServiceNow’s 2026 Customer Experience Report, Australians spent 113.5 million hours on hold in 2025, a fall of 10 million hours from the prior year, yet the study exposes a sharp mismatch between expectations and reality: almost half of consumers say a poor encounter would drive them to a competitor and 67% worry AI may not understand their problem. The research further finds three-quarters of customers prefer self-service and around half have seen benefits from AI-driven tools such as 24/7 support and more personalised interactions, but only 39% of executives rate AI as at least moderately important for improving customer experience. ServiceNow frames the shortfall as both a customer and employee experience challenge, because friction for staff translates into worse service for customers.

“Everyone’s got to be acting at pace,” said Pete Andrew, group vice-president for Australia and New Zealand at ServiceNow, urging organisations to move beyond “fast follower” strategies and redesign how work is done. He and his colleagues point to the employee domain as fertile ground for rapid returns: freeing HR teams from routine administration allows them to focus on complex human-centred work that improves retention and productivity. “Get the experience right – an important part of which is making it seamless – and you’ll do OK,” Andrew added.

ServiceNow highlights a string of product moves intended to deliver that seamlessness. The firm’s recent integration of Moveworks into its platform created EmployeeWorks, a conversational AI layer that converts natural-language requests into end-to-end execution across multiple systems. The company says the capability underpins its broader Autonomous Workforce initiative, which it describes as an “AI specialist” able to act with the scope, authority and governance required for enterprise tasks. ServiceNow also unveiled AI Control Tower, a governance-centric product that not only monitors but can enact policies and controls across models and applications.

Industry users describe practical payoffs and the governance tensions organisations must manage. Mining services group Orica adopted EmployeeWorks to unify multiple HR systems and support multilingual, accessible interactions through Microsoft Teams. Leo Luk, Orica’s global process strategy and enablement manager, said the tool went live in North America and produced immediate results, such as enabling a regional HR team to create a new position overnight. Irene Klymenko, Orica’s senior manager of AI portfolio and delivery, cautioned that while innovation could not be unduly delayed for risk reasons, “We can’t scale what we can’t see”, the company insisted on governance from the outset and moved away from tracking projects in spreadsheets.

Third-party analysis and previous ServiceNow research underline the scale of the opportunity and the risk of complacency in Australia. A 2025 ServiceNow readiness study scored the country 36 out of 100 for AI preparedness, noting that although around 82% of organisations planned greater AI investment, only a minority had clear visions, suitable skills or formalised data governance. Independent reporting earlier highlighted that employees spend significant portions of work time on administrative tasks, waiting for answers or chasing internal information, while only a small share of organisations currently deploy AI chatbots despite customer appetite for self-service.

Consultants and board-level sponsors who spoke at ServiceNow events urged a dual focus on measurable value and trustworthy controls. Deloitte representatives said governance tools such as AI Control Tower help with risk assessment, asset visibility and tying AI investments to business outcomes, while senior practitioners stressed the need to measure the value of AI agents and to stop projects that fail to move the needle. One warning was particularly stark: failure to weave AI into existing workflows risks a recurrence of shadow IT, fast, local solutions that create fragmented spending, security gaps and inconsistent outcomes across an organisation.

The public sector is also a vector for accelerated adoption. ServiceNow has promoted versions of its EmployeeWorks and Autonomous Workforce offerings tailored for government environments, arguing that mission-critical functions require enterprise-grade trust, scale and compliance. Separately, industry announcements indicate a surge of major cloud and AI deals in Australia, with both private groups and agencies pursuing multi-year partnerships to deploy AI across functions from retail to banking.

Taken together, the evidence advanced by ServiceNow and its users points to a simple prescription for firms that want to avoid being left behind: invest in AI that orchestrates across systems, pair rollout with early governance and measurement, and shift attention from point tools to workflow automation that delivers demonstrable outcomes for employees and customers.

Source: Noah Wire Services