ServiceNow has appointed Vijay Narayanan as its first Chief AI Officer. The appointment follows the latest release of the Now Platform, Orlando. That saw ServiceNow embed AI tools and analytics into its platform. The AI behind Orlando was mainly acquired through the acquisition of companies such as Appsee, Attivio, Parlo, SkyGiraffe, FriendlyData, Qlue and DxContinuum. It also acquired Loom Systems and Passage AI early in 2020 to boost the AI team.
Narayanan will head up the Advanced Technology Group into which most of these acquisitions now come under. He will report to CJ Desai, ServiceNow’s Chief Product Officer. Desai commented: “Our priority is to apply an ‘AI first’ mindset to our Now Platform and product development efforts. Great experiences are driven by great workflows, and great workflows are powered by ‘AI first’ platform and products. I am incredibly excited that Vijay has joined ServiceNow at this important juncture in our journey.”
Narayanan joins from Pinterest where he was Head of Content and Discovery Engineering. He previously worked at Microsoft as Head of Algorithms and Data Science Solutions. He commented: “I believe that the enduring legacy of recent advances in data, systems and AI will be in transforming our professional and personal life experiences through automation and intelligent decisions. I am excited by the opportunity for ServiceNow to be the next-generation enterprise platform that transforms the work of hundreds of millions people across the world, and I feel privileged to be part of the team accelerating this transformation.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
The appointment builds on the emphasis that ServiceNow put into its Orlando release. In bringing in Narayanan it puts an outsider in charge of a team which has come from multiple acquisitions. His task will be to forge a team that delivers progress on the AI solutions that ServiceNow can deliver with its upcoming releases.
