ServiceNow Industry Trends: Where AI, Data, and Automation Deliver

Every few months, a new “can’t-miss” trend hits your feed. You know the ones, “AI will revolutionize everything including Monday Night Football,” “Data is the new heating oil,” etc. But inside the ServiceNow ecosystem, the real story is quieter (and smarter): it’s about how those buzzwords play out in each industry.

Because let’s be honest, a workflow that solves a patient scheduling nightmare won’t look anything like one that fixes a broken telecom line or accelerates product delivery.

So, we pulled the thread. From banks to factories, here are some industry-specific ServiceNow trends that are quietly shaping how work actually gets done, and which ones might just make your next roadmap review a little more interesting.

Healthcare & Life Sciences: AI + workflow orchestration for patient and operational experience

Trend: Healthcare organizations are massively expanding their use of AI and automation. The volume of data generated across clinical and administrative systems demands smarter orchestration, and ServiceNow is becoming a central hub for connecting it all.

Why it matters: From patient scheduling to discharge to claims processing, the workflows that define healthcare success depend on how efficiently data moves between systems and teams.

Actionable for leaders:

• Identify where patient-facing workflows intersect with back-office operations like billing, procurement, and compliance.
• Explore how GenAI or agentic AI can support case management, triage, or clinician assistance.
• Build governance models that ensure compliance with HIPAA and other data standards while maintaining agility for clinical users.
  
  

Telecom, Media & Technology (TMT): GenAI-infused service operations and micro-vertical workflows

Trend: With ServiceNow embedding GenAI directly into service operations (the processes that keep telecom, media, or technology services running reliably), organizations are beginning to see real-time predictive workflows for network maintenance, customer service, and field operations.

Why it matters: In industries where uptime and customer experience define success, the ability to predict issues before they impact users is a differentiator. GenAI adds a layer of proactive intelligence to workflows that were once purely reactive.

Actionable for leaders:

• Review end-to-end workflows, from customer reporting to field technician response, and identify points of latency.
• Embed GenAI modules to accelerate diagnostics and automate customer interactions.
• Connect network and billing systems to ServiceNow’s workflow layer to improve visibility and shorten resolution times.
  
  

Financial Services: Hyper-automation + compliance as workflow differentiators

Trend: The financial-services sector is moving beyond generic ITSM or HR use-cases: with ServiceNow’s Financial Services Operations (FSO) solution, banks, credit unions, and insurers are automating end-to-end workflows and integrating with legacy core systems.

Why it matters: In a sector defined by regulation, margin pressure, and new entrants, being able to unify operations, governance, and customer experience on one platform is no longer optional.

Actionable for leaders:

• Map high-friction, high-risk workflows (like dispute resolution) and assess how industry modules can automate them.
• Align data models and integrations with core banking and CRM systems to avoid fragmentation.
• Treat workflow automation and compliance automation as two halves of the same coin, both critical for trust and transparency.
  
  

Retail & Consumer Goods: Experience-centric operations, store-to-HQ workflows

Trend: Retailers are increasingly connecting the dots between customer experience, inventory management, and field service, with ServiceNow serving as the glue between store operations and enterprise systems.

Why it matters: With consumer expectations rising in parallel with market costs, speed and consistency matter more than ever. And, when you consider today's tariff and supply chain volatility, every inefficiency has a cost. Delays, duplication, or poor visibility can increase landed costs and erode already-thin margins. Retailers that unify workflows from front-of-house to back-office gain real-time insight into inventory, logistics, and sourcing decisions, allowing them to offset tariff impact with smarter operations and faster response to market shifts.

Actionable for leaders:

• Map store-associate to HQ workflows and find the bottlenecks that degrade experience.
• Unify field-service, warranty, and inventory workflows to ensure visibility and responsiveness.
• Measure workflow efficiency not just in operational metrics, but in experience metrics that reflect customer satisfaction.

Manufacturing & Industrial / Energy & Utilities: Resilient operations + asset-centric workflows

Trend: Manufacturers and utility providers are extending ServiceNow well beyond ITSM, applying it to asset management, OT workflows, regulatory compliance, and supply chain resilience. And, in IMMEX situations, where cross-border production depends on precision and traceability, ServiceNow is becoming the digital backbone for connecting trade, logistics, and production data. With IoT and telemetry data flowing into the platform, organizations can now predict and prevent downtime before it impacts output or delivery.

Why it matters: Global volatility and shifting tariff structures are forcing manufacturers to rethink how data drives resilience. Advanced IT and operations teams are solving complex problems not just through automation, but through intelligent connection, linking backend systems that track assets, trade, and compliance into a unified operational layer.

Actionable for leaders:

• Identify workflows that cross domains (like outage to technician dispatch to customer communication).
• Integrate IoT and telemetry data to trigger workflows automatically.
• Leverage low-code tools to rapidly prototype asset-centric workflows tailored to your environment.

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If previous years were about proving that ServiceNow could do anything, 2025 is about proving it can do something specific (and do it brilliantly).

Every vertical has its quirks, constraints, and moments where generic platforms fall flat. That’s where ServiceNow’s new wave of industry-specific solutions shines, translating AI, data, and automation into something that truly fits how people work.