IBM and ServiceNow, the AI control tower for business reinvention, announced an expanded collaboration to address two of the biggest barriers blocking enterprise AI at scale: the AI-ready data problem and the legacy application layer. The collaboration aims to combine IBM’s AI, data and automation capabilities with the ServiceNow AI Platform to help enterprises break through outdated systems and put their data to work for AI. IBM and ServiceNow plan to deliver joint solutions that modernize aging systems, extend ServiceNow Workflow Data Fabric with IBM’s enterprise data capabilities, and enable autonomous IT operations so the world’s largest enterprises can unlock the transformative value of agentic AI.
Decades of deeply interconnected legacy systems are the biggest barrier to moving fast on AI. IBM and ServiceNow are changing that by building solutions to help organizations evolve existing systems rather than replace them, run AI on any model they choose, and unlock the full depth of their enterprise data.
“Most enterprises have the ambition to deploy agentic AI, but lack the foundation to run it at scale,” said John Aisien, general manager and senior vice president, central product management, at ServiceNow. “IBM brings the tooling to modernize the systems and extend ServiceNow’s data capabilities; ServiceNow provides the platform to put that data to work across every workflow in the business. Together, we’re helping enterprises move from AI ambition to real, scalable outcomes.”
“AI adoption at scale requires more than access to models. It requires rethinking the systems, data and governance that support them,” said Raj Datta, general manager of ISV and AI partnerships, IBM. “Together with ServiceNow, we’re building an open, flexible foundation for AI that helps enterprises move faster while maintaining control and trust.”
The collaboration integrates IBM’s software solutions with the ServiceNow AI Platform and aims to create new solutions for customers across three key areas:
- Application modernization: Scans and refactors legacy systems using tools like IBM Bob, Enterprise Application runtime (Java) and IBM watsonx.data so enterprises will be able to bring aging applications into the AI era without starting from scratch.
- Enterprise data governance: Extends ServiceNow Workflow Data Fabric with IBM watsonx.data to unlock key capabilities like Data Quality, Observability, Master Data Management – leveraging ServiceNow Data Catalog so that mutual customers can keep their data AI-ready.
- Autonomous infrastructure operations: Integrates Red Hat Ansible, IBM Bob, Instana, Hashicorp Terraform, and Hashicorp Vault into ServiceNow IT workflows to detect, remediate, and resolve issues before they affect the business.
These joint solutions are expected to be available in the second half of 2026.
