AI specialists that execute enterprise work autonomously, not just suggest answers, launched this week from ServiceNow as the company positions its platform against what it calls "feature-function AI bolted onto disconnected SaaS apps." The Autonomous Workforce product line begins with a Level 1 Service Desk AI Specialist set for general availability in the second quarter of 2026, handling password resets, software installation, and network troubleshooting end-to-end.
ServiceNow claims its internal deployment already processes more than 90% of employee IT requests 99% faster than human agents. Beta customers include the city of Raleigh and CVS Health, with the healthcare giant's 300,000 colleagues using the platform to automate repetitive tasks while maintaining compliance requirements.
The governance-first approach arrives as OpenAI research from September 2025 concluded hallucinations in large language models are mathematically inevitable. "Other vendors are putting AI in charge and hoping governance catches up," a ServiceNow spokesperson stated.
"We are building governance first. The AI specialist is running inside a system that has been managing enterprise risk, compliance and approvals for two decades."
Autonomous Workforce agents operate within defined roles—Level 1 Service Desk Specialist, Employee Service Agent, Security Operations Analyst—orchestrating work from start to finish rather than completing individual tasks. They follow established organizational processes, learn from outcomes and employee feedback, and escalate issues when human intervention becomes necessary.
Managers can set escalation thresholds and behavior policies during initial setup.
Alongside Autonomous Workforce, ServiceNow introduced EmployeeWorks based on Moveworks technology acquired last year for $2.85 billion. The conversational front door combines Moveworks' chat and enterprise search with ServiceNow's unified portal and autonomous workflows, available in Teams, Slack, or any browser.
It turns natural language requests into coordinated action across systems while maintaining governance and audit trails.
"Businesses don't need more pilots or promises," said Amit Zavery, president and chief product officer at ServiceNow. "They need AI that gets work done. The leaders realizing value from AI are investing in platforms where intelligence, execution, and trust work as one system."
Future expansion plans include AI specialists for security operations, finance, legal departments, and beyond IT use cases. One planned tool will help IT teams maintain configuration management databases by automatically removing duplicate and outdated information.
Another will condense network error logs to speed troubleshooting. A Project Coordinator tool will automate tasks like detecting project cost overruns.
At Siemens Healthineers, an AI assistant built on Moveworks saves 5,000 hours monthly with 91% satisfaction among 74,000 employees. "ServiceNow EmployeeWorks takes this further with autonomous workflows that complete tasks fully," said Nicole Hulst, head of digital workflows tooling at Siemens Healthineers.
The Level 1 Service Desk AI Specialist enters controlled availability immediately before its Q2 2026 general release.
