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No Priors · 5 min · Apr 17, 2026
AI speeds implementation and changes who companies hire
Bill McDermott says major customers can now launch in under 30 days, and agents already handle most ServiceNow customer-service cases. He expects less headcount growth and a higher bar for human skills.
Bill McDermott is chairman and CEO of ServiceNow.
Sarah Guo, Host · Founder, Conviction
Ex-Greylock partner; early investor in Cognition, Harvey and Mistral.
About this segment
Bill McDermott says major customers can now launch in under 30 days, and agents already handle most ServiceNow customer-service cases. He expects less headcount growth and a higher bar for human skills.
From “Scaling Global Organizations in the Age of AI with ServiceNow Chairman and CEO Bill McDermott”, Apr 17, 2026. Watch the full episode
Answers “Which jobs will AI replace, and which are safe?” See all 102 answers
Answers “Are AI agents ready for real work?” See all 84 answers
Answers “Will AI replace customer service jobs?” See all 6 answers
Thanks. We'll look at and fix what's off.
“90% of our customer service cases now are managed by agents.”
Takeaways Pro pick
- Some major customers go live in less than 30 days.
- Agents manage 90% of ServiceNow customer-service cases.
- Future hiring will prioritize innovation and human relationships.
One of Pro's picks, open to you here. Try Pro free for 7 days
One of Pro's picks. The rest of the summary and the 3 takeaways are in Real Alpha Pro; the video, the quote and the transcript stay free.
Read it with Pro, 7 days freeIn this episode
Full episode- 19:16Enterprise platforms can cost less than rebuilding with AI6:03
36:21AI speeds implementation and changes who companies hirePro pick 4:40
- 1:34A deli taught McDermott to serve customers and bootstrap5:22Up next
- 5 more moments in the full episode
Transcript
Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.
- 36:25
One of the things that makes workflow platforms so sticky is the organization, beginning with IT, learns how to deploy workflows on it. And as you said, maybe they can do it even more instantaneously now. The cost to implement new business processes, integrate, customize has always been very high for enterprises. Is that decreasing with AI? Is that like an advantage for you, a concern for you? It's a great question. It's actually a big advantage because we were always quick to implement.
- 37:04
You know, nobody has time for multi-year projects. You know this. And the customer wants to get to value really fast. and with autonomous platform like we have now, we have major customers, big ones, that are going live in less than 30 days, big ones. And so think about it. You know, if you go back, as you mentioned, you know, think about the financial crisis era and the scale even then of SaaS applications.
- 37:34
If they could have been implemented in less than 30 days, everybody would be doing a rain dance with happiness. um it took months and to think that you can do things big things complex things in less than 30 days in some cases even faster um and it's all modular so you can get your quick wins and just keep going um you know some people thought that the si's you know would be hurt by this but the difference is they actually have many more projects and how that they can do much more quickly that's what you're saying yeah i'm saying much more quickly everything is happening much faster the customer's roi is better i'm a big you know proponent of a native ai company and everything we do is about being a native ai company every change we make is because of ai and some of those things you know they change business models they change um the way humans actually work in the
- 38:31
company. For example, you know, 90% of our customer service cases now are managed by agents. And, you know, that means like only 10% are actually involving people. And so there's a lifting and a shifting and a changing of the guard in terms of what people do for the critical thinking and the judgment calls that they have to make instead of the tactical, you know, work of just grinding out details.
- 39:01
And I think that makes people happier in the work, but it also does change the work. If you were to fast forward five years, like what do you think is different about the employee base at ServiceNow or even like the work being done? I think that in terms of employee base, I think you're going to see that the net new added headcount will be dramatically reduced. And that's because the company will be far more productive.
- 39:27
the agents are real and they will take on a tremendous workload so where to keep up with growth in a growth company like service now you'd have to hire thousands of people in finance and hr and the supporting functions and services just to keep up with it all and now the agents are going to be able to do a lot of that so you're going to invest in things that really matter like humans that engineer great innovations and that humans that actually manage The relationship and the importance of human to human connection, building trust, making promises and keeping them and enduring a relationship and the net present value of loyalty in that relationship, that's all going to be human. But I can see a company where, you know, you don't have to really increase headcount to achieve that goal. And I do think that the bar got raised
- 40:25
in terms of differentiating your skill set and making sure what you're capable of doing can't be easily replicated by an agent. Not just at ServiceNow, but in all businesses, if an agent can do it as good or better, that's an easy economic decision to make, which is why there'll be 2.2 billion of these agents entering the workforce in the next couple of years. And so, you know, there's going to be a lot more agents than there will be people.