ServiceNow Expands Automation Capabilities with Intellibot Acquisition

ServiceNow has recently joined the growing number of companies investing in robotic process automation (RPA), announcing the acquisition of Intellibot, a startup specializing in RPA technology. Intellibot is headquartered in Hyderabad, India, and the financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.

Growing Demand for Workflow Automation

This acquisition arrives as organizations increasingly prioritize the automation of workflows throughout their operations. RPA offers a solution for automating established processes, frequently involving the reduction of manual, repetitive tasks performed by human employees.

The move follows ServiceNow’s recent announcements regarding no-code workflow solutions and represents a key component of the company’s overall workflow strategy, as stated by Josh Kahn, SVP of Creator Workflow Products at ServiceNow.

Enhancing ServiceNow’s Automation Suite

According to Kahn, RPA significantly strengthens ServiceNow’s existing automation features. These include low-code development tools, workflow design, playbooks, integrations with over 150 pre-built connectors, machine learning, process mining, and predictive analytics.

With this acquisition, ServiceNow aims to integrate RPA capabilities directly into its platform. However, the company will also continue to support RPA bots from other vendors, providing customers with flexibility in their automation choices.

Partnerships with Leading RPA Providers

ServiceNow intends to maintain its partnerships with prominent pure-play RPA vendors like Automation Anywhere, UiPath, and Blue Prism. Kahn emphasized that many customers will likely utilize both ServiceNow’s native RPA features and solutions from these partners to create comprehensive, intelligent automation workflows on the Now Platform.

Increased Competition in the RPA Market

ServiceNow’s entry into the RPA market mirrors a trend among other large enterprise vendors. SAP recently unveiled a new RPA tool and acquired process automation startup Signavio. Furthermore, Microsoft announced a free RPA tool earlier this month, indicating a heightened level of interest in this space.

Strategic Acquisitions to Drive Automation

Over the past year, ServiceNow has actively pursued acquisitions, having purchased five companies including Element AI, Loom Systems, Passage AI, and Sweagle. Kahn explained that these acquisitions are all focused on enabling organizations to implement automation across their entire business.

“Integrating these technologies into the Now Platform will accelerate our capacity to automate increasingly complex scenarios,” Kahn stated. “This includes improved handling of unstructured data from sources like documents, emails, and PDFs, as well as more robust automation for larger datasets and irregular tasks.”

Expanding ServiceNow’s Presence in India

Founded in 2015, Intellibot will also provide ServiceNow with a stronger presence in the Indian market. The acquisition is expected to be finalized by June.

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