India remains a key investment destination for ServiceNow: CTO Pat Casey

ServiceNow, a US-based enterprise software firm headquartered in Santa Clara, is rapidly growing in India, where about 20 per cent of its 20,000 global employees are located. The company focuses on digitising workflows for large enterprises and has developed several new products, including a Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) solution with ChatGPT, in India. During a recent visit, Pat Casey, Chief Technology Officer and EVP of the company told TechCircle that India is ServiceNow's largest global engineering hub, crucial for creating high-quality products that meet customer needs. He also highlighted the company’s latest technology offerings, especially in the GenAI space and how it is solving some of the most critical enterprise challenges. Edited excerpts:
 
What is the current technology investment sentiment across markets, and how does it compare to India?
 
Globally, there's a sense of restrained optimism when it comes to tech investments, especially in AI and connectivity solutions. Global VC investment in GenAI hit $3 billion in the first quarter and is forecasted to reach $12 billion by the end of 2024. The tech sector in India is thriving, thanks to rising corporate earnings, a surge in retail investments, and increasing foreign capital inflows. This strength is supported by a solid domestic economy and substantial growth in digital infrastructure, positioning India as an attractive market for tech investments.
 
What factors are driving ServiceNow’s growth momentum in India and globally?
 
There is a big shift across enterprise software with the implementation of AI that fundamentally transforms how companies address complex business challenges. For ServiceNow, by integrating AI, we're not just enhancing our platform; we're ultimately changing how our customers operate and solve problems. We're making significant strides in India through targeted investments in companies like inMorphis and Prodapt. 
 
Globally, we are investing in our people and fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth. For example, in my organisation, we host engineering boot camps to accelerate new hires' introduction to the ServiceNow platform. This encourages group learning and networking to support our talent. In parallel, we are running programs like our RiseUp initiative, which aim to train people across the globe on our tools and platform.
 
Which technologies at ServiceNow as well as industry-wide excite you the most, and why?
 
At the pure technology level, I’m proud of the work we’ve done on GenAI, all the way up from model generation, to training, to hosting, and full-stack product integration. We are one of the few companies out there that truly does run our full stack of AI technologies from the models through the infrastructure, and the products, and out to our customers. It’s a great position to be in, and it’s exciting, but it’s also a lot of work to keep up with the way the industry is evolving.
 
I’m excited about our new, in-house database, RaptorDB. For our largest customers, running the largest quantities of data through our platform, RaptorDB is a legitimate game changer that lets them expand the amount of work they execute through their instances by an order of magnitude. That allows our customers to bring new use cases into the platform and helps them position ServiceNow as their true workflow data platform across their enterprise.
 
What kind of problems are you trying to solve with GenAI?
 
There are several problems we aim to solve with our GenAI initiatives as we’re a full-stack AI development company, so we train our models, we fine-tune our own and open-source models, we host and run those models within our data centres, and we, of course, integrate those models into our products to bring solutions to our customers.
 
Almost half of our global engineering team is in India these days, so it’s probably no surprise that teams in India have been working on a lot of our AI initiatives. To give two concrete examples, there’s a cool feature in our platform that lets you generate an entire workflow inside of our Flow Designer product from a text prompt. If you can describe it in language, the AI can turn that into a workflow for you behind the scenes. That text to flow feature was driven by a team in India. Similarly, if you watched our big stage demonstration at ServiceNow Knowledge 2024, one of the things we demoed there was turning a picture of a whiteboard into a workflow. That whole idea started in India, at a hackathon.
 
Please elaborate on ServiceNow’s expansion into security operations, a rapidly growing area for the company. How do you differentiate in the competitive security landscape?
 
Security is a non-negotiable for us and our customers. We realise by integrating existing security tools into our platform, customers can prioritise and respond to vulnerabilities and incidents faster. We have built a security operations-focused solution that uses intelligent workflows, automation, and IT connections to streamline responses. By leveraging the ServiceNow Configuration Management Database (CMDB), it can map threats, incidents, and vulnerabilities to business services and IT infrastructure.
 
The company announced plans to double its workforce in the next two years. What steps are you taking to achieve this, including current recruitment and upskilling efforts?
 
It has been amazing to see the growth of our India Development Centre, from its inception in 2019 to today. India employees represent more than 20 per cent of our global workforce and upwards of 40 per cent of our engineering headcount. Hyderabad is our largest site globally in terms of employee headcount. For my organisation, the India-based team is integral to the work we do across engineering research and development. 
 
We are also very committed to the next generation of talent, having forged partnerships with 21 academic institutions across 16 states and two government entities to create equitable career pathways within our ecosystem. Our strategic partnership with ANSR will bolster global capability centres on the Now Platform and provide training for 3,500 people across India.
 
How is your partnership with hyperscalers and Indian IT services firms benefiting you? Are there any upcoming partnerships or acquisitions?
 
Our partnerships with hyperscalers and Indian IT services firms enhance scalability and performance, broaden market access, drive innovation and co-creation, and accelerate training and skill development for professionals. Companies such as Wipro and Cognizant are building billion-dollar businesses on the ServiceNow platform, leveraging our solutions to accelerate digital transformation for customers.
 
In terms of competition benchmarking, which areas do you feel need improvement or scaling?
 
The biggest differentiator ServiceNow brings is our ability to seamlessly integrate both existing and future systems without forcing customers to choose between them. We provide a unified digital blueprint and develop trusted digital roadmaps that can support growth and enhance cost efficiency simultaneously. Our domain-specific GenAI strategy, featuring solutions like the Now AI, delivers faster, more accurate, and more secure options. As a first mover in AI, we extend our capabilities across multiple enterprise domains and industries, connecting the entire enterprise end-to-end as a comprehensive system of action.
 
Looking ahead, what will be ServiceNow’s focus areas for FY25, particularly in India?
 
As mentioned, we are laser-focused on being the AI platform of choice for the enterprise, so from an engineering perspective that means delivering the best quality products for our platform. India is and will remain our single largest global engineering site, so its ongoing success is critical to us building the right products, with the right quality, for our customers. We’ll naturally do a lot of things other than GenAI work, but that work represents a must-execute field for us.
 
As a market, India remains a key investment destination for ServiceNow. We are committed to expanding our presence in the manufacturing, telecom, financial services, and government/public service sectors through scalable innovations. Traditionally, we have been strong with the global technology firms and outsourcers within India, but as we look into 2025 and beyond, we believe our products and technology can bring value to the broader Indian economy.