ServiceNow looks to expand in LatAm amid AI boom

California-based IT company ServiceNow is tapping into the hype around generative AI in Latin America with new projects for major clients with partners including Nvidia and Accenture.

The IT service management company also does not rule out the expansion of its datacenter operations in the region to serve an increase in demand arising from AI, the company’s LatAm solutions VP João Cerqueira (in photo) told BNamericas.

Currently, ServiceNow operates 14 datacenter pairs globally to support its cloud-based platform and solutions. 

"Our technology for enterprises needs to run 24/7, without failures, hence why our structure is redundant worldwide," said Cerqueira.

Like other companies in its field, however, ServiceNow does not necessarily own the facilities, rather using private cloud in colocation spaces leased from third-party providers in high availability areas.

The company’s only LatAm datacenter “region” is in São Paulo, with the São Paulo 1-2 pair of datacenters. With its bet on genAI, the firm does not rule out expanding its capacity in Latin America but enlarging the São Paulo operation is not in its current plans.

ServiceNow has around 1.5% of its clients in Latin America, according to Cerqueira. Worldwide, the company’s base surpasses 7,000 enterprises.

These are mostly from the financial sector, manufacturing, telecoms and media. IBM, SAP and Zendesk are some of its main competitors in the IT services management segment.

AI

The AI topic is not new for the company, said Cerqueira.

"ServiceNow has been working with the technology since 2017, when we launched a virtual agent, and since then has been investing in new tools for the technology," he said. But with the boom of large language models and generative AI from the end of 2022, the company decided to double down on this front.

In May, ServiceNow announced a partnership with AI processors maker Nvidia to integrate the latter’s software, services and infrastructure into its platform for workflow automation.

More recently, it added Accenture to its AI push. Together, the companies are working on a program for the development and adoption of enterprise genAI capabilities dubbed AI Lighthouse.

“Basically, it's our platform, with the computational power of Nvidia and the advisory capacity of Accenture. We put these three together to start designing specific generative AI models for customers who consume the intelligence features of our platform,” Cerqueira said.

ServiceNow and Accenture have already started working in Latin America with prospects and clients, especially in Brazil and Mexico. The VP expects some initiatives to materialize into contracts and projects in the coming months. 

One of the areas where the company is working in Latin America is procurement, to automate purchase orders via simple prompt commands for the end-customers of its clients. 

ServiceNow reported US$2.15bn revenues in Q2, up 23% year‑on‑year.

The company said it reached 1,724 total customers with more than US$1mn in annual contract value (ACV), representing 18% year‑on‑year growth.