Forbes India and service now present the COO Collective hello and welcome to service now leading the AI Revolution a path to Enterprise maturity I'm Ru bandari today AI is not just a buzzword it's fundamentally reshaping how Enterprises function innovate and compete according to the Enterprise AI maturity index 2024 most businesses have embarked on on their AI transformation Journeys but only a small fraction just about 15% can be classified as true AI Pace Setters that are harnessing AI to its full potential The Divide between those leading the way and those struggling to keep up is Stark and bridging this Gap is critical for organizations that want to stay competitive in an increasingly digital and automated world today we are thrilled to have nalina atanta senior marketing representative at service now a company that has been at the Forefront of this AI Revolution and we will be unpacking not only service now's Journey along the AI maturity curve but also the broader lessons that any Enterprise regardless of its size or industry can take to accelerate its own AI adoption nalina thank you so much for joining us here today thank you for having me it's a pleasure to be here welcome to India how is the jet lag going the jet lag is very real I have gotten about four hours of sleep in the last two nights but India is exciting so it's it's all worth it all right so um we're talking about the AI Pace Setters companies that are able to harness AI to their full potential give us a sense then where do you see your organization on the AI maturity curve particularly with respect to the marketing function that you lead at this point in time and uh what specific steps are you taking to accelerate AI ad options yeah absolutely so just for some context on the AI maturity Index this was aort we commissioned with Oxford economics so we surveyed 5,000 individuals globally and this gave us a sense of how AI is tracking on a global scale so we want to understand what people are doing from an AI strategy perspective how people are adopting Ai and ultimately how people are upskilling in their organizations for AI in regard to service now we see ourselves as the AI platform for business transformation and we want to do that for organizations and we also want to do that for our own organization so we want to be able to drink our own champagne as they say so with our ability to drive AI transformation in our organization we have about 85% of our organization using gen on a daily basis so this is in a several different use cases so I'm in the marketing World um my team runs field marketing which means we work really closely with the sales um leaders of our organization so when it comes to AI from a use case perspective when it with sales and marketing there's a ton of untapped potential some examples of how our organization has started using AI use cases um in the sales world it's around sales optimization so using Predictive Analytics we're able to see what leads are most valuable for sales so our sellers aren't parsing through contacts and leads and they're really focused on having a strategic conversation right when it comes to marketing we have a lot of ability to drive campaign analytics in a completely new way we can use AI to understand audiences understand what's working pars through large volumes of data to then understand what campaign is effective and what's going to actually move the needle forward so those are just two examples in the way that sales and marketing are really transforming with AI and the use cases are coming up every single day the key is you have to start somewhere so we're trying different use cases within our organizations and we're discovering new ones as we do that so that's the beauty of AI it's changing so fast I think if we had this conversation in a month by answer will probably be different absolutely it's very exciting uh and the change is very rapid and very real um now ai Setters invest heavily when it comes to not just AI tools but also Talent Development data infrastructure in your experience what is the most critical factor that sets these AI Pace Setters really apart from the rest yeah I think it's a it's a really interesting question and we've seen it's such a small group that are deem AI pay Setters you said 15% in the beginning beginning that's a really small subset of a sample size of 5,000 um and what they're doing a lot of them have very similar approaches to how they're taking on AI and it stems from a couple common denominators one they have buyin from leadership at the top AI transformation is not a small thing it will fundamentally change the way we work and the way our organizations run that means it can't be done in isolation you need Executive buyin you need buyin from the top and it needs to go all the way down to your organization so you need to be solving these problems together the other thing is these AI paay Setters are always starting with data and governance your AI is only as good as the platform it's built in As Good As the data that you have so that's a great place to start as well and then finally another common denominator is the fact that they're investing in their people AI is one thing but your people will always be your most valuable resource and so the ability to train your people upskill your employees to actually take on the future roles that AI is going to present is going to be the biggest differentiator for your organization because AI is just going to enhance the way we do work and so it's our responsibility as employers to make sure that our employees are ready for that change absolutely and in fact uh you know nearly 60% of the Enterprises that was surveyed in this report cited a lack of AI talent and skills as a major barrier to adopting Ai and AI Le tools so uh where do you see organizations in your sector in particular struggling the most when it comes to related skills and um any Talent Development strategies upskilling strategies that you think have proven very successful yeah I think everyone struggles with change management I think that's a common thing for many organizations so change management starts with the organization and it starts with making sure your employees are ready for that change service now in specific is very committed to upskilling people to drive um the skills that we need for the careers of the future I particularly Ed in the India market so in India itself we've seen that there are a ton of global organizations that are shifting their talent pools to India because there's such an abundance of talent here so we have a lot of online trainings and learnings that we have been investing in to not only Empower our own employees but actually everybody else to be ready for the jobs of the future so we have something called service now University which is powered by great Partnerships amongst government academics and um lots of other corporations who are part partnering with us to ensure that we're driving skills in the right direction and then another program that we call rise up now rise up is allowing us to drive education to underrepresented groups um which means that people can start their Tech careers no matter what education they had in the past because we know that we're not going to get to the jobs of the future by just upscaling the people we have we need to look far and wide for people who may not be in the tech sector today but have the appetite to change their field and see where AI can take their job for the future right absolutely absolutely well um also you know in this report about 40% of the companies said that they are opting for a hybrid approach building in-house Solutions where they can but also partnering with external AI vendors where required especially for extremely specialized needs now uh what are some of the key considerations that an Enterprise or an AI leader should be taking into account while deciding this build versus buy problem which of course is very very personal and very uh you know specific to the organization the sector Etc but U as service now what are some of the innovations that you are creating to empower these organizations yeah absolutely well at service now the thing is we wake up every single day with the end goal to be the AI platform for business transformation so we want to be the most trusted platform for anybody who has the ability to use us so we have quite a few innovations that have led to us um Paving the way with AI first comes our partnership so you want to work with trusted um vendors you want to work with people who have the most trusted platform at service now we're super proud to partner with Nvidia we use Nvidia technology and their gpus to really help us scale AI in a way that hasn't been done before so that allows us to bring customers time to Value much more quickly um so our customers can actually spin up AI projects and as little as four to six weeks and as we know when it comes to experimenting with AI speed to value is the ultimate currency um so that partnership with Nvidia is really special in addition we're partnered with Microsoft now Microsoft is interesting because most of us spend our day in some Microsoft app or another and with AI we don't want to create new platforms and tools for people to use we want AI to show up where our employees already are so the Microsoft co-pilot and service now now assist partnership allows us to bring Ai and surface it into Apps that our individuals are already living and breathing in every day so it just enhances that workflow so overall we want to make sure that or any executive wants to make sure that the partner that they have is driving Innovation fast because the AI pace of change is one that not everyone can keep up with so it's important to work with someone that you know is keeping up with the pace of change and creating the most trusted platform for your data and that's something that we pride ourselves in at service now right now ai leaders of course often prioritize automation because they want data driven decision making now U so where do you see the big opportunity then for Enterprises to really uh like you said achieve AI maturity with speed at scale and uh you know any one immediate action that you believe that leaders should be taking to get on board with that Journey it's it's start now I think one of the best quotes I heard is actually Jensen Wong who is famously the CEO of Nvidia and he said the train looks a lot faster when you're standing on the platform so you need to get on the train and it's much more manageable when you're on that high-speed train so the thing is AI is going to constantly change you need to get into a project find a problem that's nagging at your business and try to fix it because by doing so and investing in that technology you're going to discover so much untapped potential within your organization and find new use cases where AI can fundamentally change the way your organization runs yeah and all of this flows top down it comes from the SE Suite right now in your view how can leadership teams really Drive AI transformation better and what more can seite Executives then do to align their AI goals and AI strategies with their business goals and Enterprise strategies yeah absolutely so I think at the end of the day you need to know the problem that you are solving I think a lot of times Executives go in with an intention you want to improve customer experience you want to improve employee experience but to do that that actually underpins a lot of different pain points the organization is probably facing today that need to be fixed so I think the more specificity you have in the problem you're trying to solve the better chance you'll have in actually creating measurable impact so find the problem figure out what you want to fix and then how you're going to measure it and that's the first place to start and then like we said earlier again how are you going to enable your teams to go on this journey with you you cannot drive AI transformation without your entire organization on board so it's important that you're staying as an executive you're staying close to the project but you're also thinking of ways to bring your employees on that Journey with you whether that be getting them involved in the project or also thinking about training and upskilling so they can really be part of that change and transformation right and uh you know the Enterprise AI maturity index uh report also underscores that companies integrating AI into core workflows are two and a half times more likely to see measurable business impact now U how has your organization approached this challenge of AI integration across business functions and what are some of the results that you've seen uh you know after achieving this integration where are you on it and what results are you seeing well right now we're you know we're adopting different AI projects in our organization every single day I'd mentioned 85% of our employees are actually using gen Tools in their day-to-day work and part of that is because we're able to surface them in the apps that we already use we use Microsoft Office as a service now company so therefore with our co-pilot and now assist integration we're seeing immediate effect in how we're actually able to drive productivity for our Workforce i' mentioned also that sales and marketing are working more closely together and actually able to focus more on strategic and creative work versus the more mundane repetitive tasks that we find that often come in the day-to-day of sales and marketing whether that be lead flow um curating the right target audiences understanding sentiment analysis we're able to do that at speeds we never thought imaginable um so the the ability for AI to be in the platform is incredibly important because it underpins everything that you do in the organization and sits on top of all your data so we want to make sure as the end to end AI platform for business transformation we're allowing everyone to experiment with those kind of use cases so they can see those type of results as well wow that's fantastic um I also want to touch upon the risks now uh cyber security data privacy these are major concerns that all AI leaders or Business Leaders have around the world what strategies do you believe Enterprises should adopt to manage these risks better because uh you know risks are also growing at the pace at which technology is growing so U any strategies that they can adopt while they innovate very effectively yeah and I think with risk it's all about working with people that are incredibly trusted right you cannot trust your data with someone who is not credible so with avoiding risk it all comes with driv your integration of um in your transformation projects with platforms that are the most trusted in the industry so it really starts with working with established incredible Partners um and making sure that you have clear data governance and guidelines before you go into these AI projects so having that Clarity is incredibly important because you don't want to dive into any AI transformation project until you have that all lined up so for us we want to make sure that as a service now platform we are a trusted platform we are thinking about how we make AI secure credible and well-governed um as people drive these transformation projects and to your point of build verse by the reason people often work with other platforms is because dedicated platforms are thinking about this common rate of change um and risk different types of risk come up all the time with AI projects so we're constantly innovating to make sure that we are the most trusted platform that people can work with when it comes to working with AI right and finally um gen is the much aled about new kid on the technology block so uh what emerging Technologies or applications are you most excited about as we look at the future and how do you see them shaping the company's future and the future of your customers at L yeah I mean I think it's hard to steer away from gen there's just so much untapped potential with what gen can do for our organizations I think for um when it comes to what's coming in the future I think there's this really exciting change with Gen that's going to allow us to drive inclusive ity in a completely new way and I'm really excited about that and what I mean by that is if you think about how we like to be spoken to as consumers you want to be spoken to with the most relevancy possible you think here in India right there are thousands of dialects there are hundreds of languages but right now we're limited to only a handful of languages and translation to make things relevant for our consumers so gen is unlocking a whole new scale in the way we communicate with people the way we Market to people the way we sell to people and as consumer consor is it's allowing us to drive complete scale um with translation as well so I think it's a really exciting time it's going to make for an incredibly more inclusive environment um I think we're only scratching the surface for the change that gen is going to have on both our personal and professional lives Nina absolute pleasure talking to you thank you so much for joining us here today thank you so much for having me it's been my pleasure well from AI integration across business functions to managing the delicate balance between cyber security risks and innovation it's clear that the role of AI in shaping the future of Enterprises cannot be overstated the future clearly belongs to those willing to embrace AI with strategic intent agile leadership and a Keen Eye on emerging Trends thank you so much for joining us on this special conversation until next time it's goodbye Forbes India and service now present the COO Collective