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No Priors · 2 min · Apr 17, 2026
Enterprise buyers want specific AI plans, not long discovery
Bill McDermott says buyers expect vendors to understand their business and connect AI to leadership goals. Discovery has shortened; customers want fast, predictable execution.
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 buyers expect vendors to understand their business and connect AI to leadership goals. Discovery has shortened; customers want fast, predictable execution.
From “Scaling Global Organizations in the Age of AI with ServiceNow Chairman and CEO Bill McDermott”, Apr 17, 2026. Watch the full episode
Thanks. We'll look at and fix what's off.
“how do I transform the company in keeping with the CEO vision or the management team's vision?”
Takeaways
- Buyers expect vendors to understand their business before proposing AI.
- They want plans tied to the CEO or management team's goals.
- Fast, predictable execution matters more than lengthy discovery.
In 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 bootstrap5:22
- 9:36A promise to his father helped McDermott land a Xerox job6:12
- 30:25Single-function software faces more AI disruption risk6:02
- 15:41Leaders can teach agency through repeated practice3:03
- 44:03AI adoption is moving beyond pilots at uneven rates4:36
48:33Enterprise buyers want specific AI plans, not long discovery2:13
Transcript
Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.
- 48:37
So there's high expectations for what AI can do. What is the biggest thing that's changed in customer conversations for you about AI over the last year? Right now, I think it's just, tell me what I need to know. um it's not like let me come in and discover your problems or let me bring you a solution because i have one in my pocket and i can't wait to share it with you um it's like you know my business if you don't know my business there's no conversation but let's assume you know the business be very prescriptive tell me very specifically at the macro level depending on On the level you're talking to, how do I transform the company in keeping with the CEO vision or the management team's vision?
- 49:24
At a departmental level, you really understand whether it's sales, it's human capital, it's engineering, or it's technology or CTO and its orientation. You really understand the landscape and you have very quick solutions that can get up and running and deliver the value in a highly predictable manner and it's ai driven like they have to have ai in there because they know the ai is the force multiplier and so i would say the dance um has gotten brief the execution is where they want to spend their time get me there fast uh pretty impatient set of customers but they're uh sounds like they're pretty decisive given the parameters real decisive and real fair yeah i mean you know very open-minded if you can help me do it because i need the help everyone will tell you they need the help they're not
- 50:20
telling you they have all the answers so it's our job again to know more about this than they do otherwise why do they need us in the room and then you have to have a position that you take that brings something unique and variable to the equation i always tell people If two people are in the same room at the same time with the same opinion, one of them is redundant.