Yesterday, I experience a glimpse into the future of enterprise tech..
Yesterday, I saw a customer run multiple AI agents from Claude, interacting with ServiceNow to execute tasks. My first thought was: Will ServiceNow (and other systems of record) become “dumb” databases, with all work triggered, orchestrated, and completed by AI systems like Claude? I spent a few hours researching this last night, and the overwhelming consensus—from multiple LLMs—was no. At a high level, the reason is… AI = Brain (decides what to do) ServiceNow = System (ensures it’s done right) ServiceNow doesn’t become a dumb database, it becomes the trusted execution layer for AI-driven work. Agree or disagree? @Michael Dillon what are you seeing and hearing in your world? Does this align or no? See below for more reasons and how our roles, as sellers, will change in this new era... Why Systems of Record (Like ServiceNow) Still Matter: - It owns execution + truth: workflows, approvals, SLAs, and audit logs live there. - It enforces governance: permissions, compliance, and deterministic rules. - It integrates the business: triggers downstream actions across systems reliably. AI can suggest and coordinate—but ServiceNow ensures work is done correctly, securely, and consistently. Why AI (like OpenAI / Anthropic) Won’t Just Replace It - Non-deterministic: AI can vary, hallucinate, or mis-handle edge cases. - Lacks native governance: no built-in enforcement of enterprise rules, audits, or approvals. - Security risk: impersonating AD roles at scale creates accountability and compliance issues. - No system-level control: AI doesn’t inherently manage workflows, states, or dependencies. How Each Role Evolves BDR / SDR - From: outbound messaging - To: insight-led prospecting “Here’s something about your business you’re about to run into.” Account Executive - From: closing deals - To: shaping decisions + selling transformation “Here’s the business case for changing how you operate” Sales Engineer