ServiceNow to acquire Element AI and establish an AI Innovation Hub

ServiceNow has announced the acquisition of Element AI to bolster workflow intelligence, and plans to build an AI Innovation Hub in Canada

The use of capabilities from Element AI will allow ServiceNow customers to streamline business decisions, and find new ways to be productive.

The deal, which is expected to be completed in early 2021, is ServiceNow’s fourth AI acquisition in 2020, following Loom Systems, Passage AI, and Sweagle.

The collaboration between ServiceNow and Element AI enables enterprises to surface and summarise relevant information, understand content and conversations, make predictions and recommendations, take optimal actions, and automate repetitive tasks.

Expertise from scientists and practitioners at Element AI will bring expertise in applying modern AI to text and language, chat, images, search, question response, in the aim to accelerate AI innovation in the Now platform.

By acquiring Element AI, ServiceNow looks to meet rising demand for its AI-powered products, such as IT Service Management Pro, Customer Service Management Pro, and HR Service Delivery Pro.

As part of the acquisition, Element AI lead fellow Dr. Yoshua Bengio, a winner of the 2018 ACM A.M. Turing Award for his pioneering contributions to modern AI, will serve as a technical advisor for ServiceNow.

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“AI technology is evolving rapidly as companies race to digitally transform 20th century processes and business models,” said Vijay Narayanan, chief AI officer at ServiceNow.

“ServiceNow is leading this once-in-a-generation opportunity to make work, work better for people. With Element AI’s powerful capabilities and world class talent, ServiceNow will empower employees and customers to focus on areas where only humans excel – creative thinking, customer interactions, and unpredictable work. That’s a smarter way to workflow.”

Jean-Francois Gagné, CEO of Element AI, commented: “Element AI’s vision has always been to redefine how companies use AI to help people work smarter.

“ServiceNow is leading the workflow revolution, and we are inspired by its purpose to make the world of work, work better for people. ServiceNow is the clear partner for us to apply our talent and technology to the most significant challenges facing the enterprise today.”

Canadian expansion

Along with the acquisition, ServiceNow is set to launch an AI Innovation Hub in Canada to accelerate customer-focused AI innovation in the Now Platform.

The development spells an intent to further its commitment to the Canadian market, with Canada being a long-standing leader in AI research and talent.

This follows similar investments to create technology development centers in Chicago, Kirkland, WA, San Diego, Silicon Valley and Hyderabad.