ServiceNow buys into banking AI to defend against SaaS disruption

servicenow invested $40 million in businessnext, a profitable indian banking specialist generating $32m in revenue, to expand its financial services vertical using the startup's autonomous ai platform. the deal allows service now to pair its back-office workflow automation with businessnext's customer-facing ai agents, serving clients like the reserve bank of india. this strategic move signals established software vendors are racing to acquire or partner with ai-native firms to prevent churn as enterprises question the value of traditional saas tools. the partnership will target global banks using private ai infrastructure to handle sensitive data while automating operations.