Of course. Here is the feature article, written from the perspective of Dr. Aris Thorne.
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I’ve spent the better part of my career watching the slow, grinding gears of technological adoption. We see a breakthrough, we get excited, and then we wait. We wait for the infrastructure to catch up, for the business models to adapt, for the world to finally be ready. But every so often, you witness a moment where the future doesn't just knock on the door—it kicks it clean off the hinges.
That’s what I saw when ServiceNow dropped its third-quarter earnings this week.
On the surface, it looked like just another solid report from a tech giant. They beat Wall Street estimates on earnings and revenue. The stock, which had been taking a beating all year (down about 13%), popped 4% in after-hours trading. You could almost hear the collective sigh of relief from investors as the green numbers flickered across their screens. But if you stop there, you’re missing the entire point. This isn’t a story about a good quarter. This is the story of the quiet, pragmatic, and unstoppable arrival of the AI-powered enterprise.
Let’s get the table stakes out of the way. The numbers were impressive: $4.82 in adjusted earnings per share against an expected $4.27; revenue of $3.41 billion when the street was looking for $3.35 billion. They even announced a 5-for-1 stock split (ServiceNow tops estimates, approves 5-for-1 stock split - CNBC), which the company’s finance chief, Gina Mastantuono, framed as a way to make shares “accessible to more retail investors.”
That’s a nice, democratic sentiment. But is a stock split really just about accessibility, or is it a profound statement of confidence? Is it a signal that the company believes its growth is entering a new, explosive phase, and they want as many people on board for the ride as possible?
For months, the market has been jittery. We've been inundated with a blizzard of AI announcements, flashy demos, and grand promises from nearly every company with a marketing department. But the nagging question has always been: who is actually making money from it? Who is turning generative AI from a cool party trick into a line item that drives billions in revenue? The anxiety in the market, reflected in ServiceNow’s sagging year-to-date stock price, was a search for that proof. This report was the answer.
This is the part that gives me chills—the kind that reminds me why I got into this field in the first place. Tucked inside the report was a staggering figure: ServiceNow’s AI business is on track to surpass $500 million in annual contract value this year, with a clear target of hitting $1 billion by the end of 2026.
Let that sink in. This isn’t speculative revenue. This isn't a forecast based on hope. This is real money, from real companies, for real AI products that are being deployed right now. While so many others are still trying to sell the dream of AI, ServiceNow is selling AI-powered results.
So, how did they do it? The genius here isn't just in building powerful AI; it's in where they put it. Think of the world’s corporations as cities. For years, ServiceNow has been the civil engineer, building the essential, unglamorous infrastructure—the roads, the plumbing, the electrical grid—that makes everything run. They built the platforms that manage IT requests, customer service tickets, and employee onboarding. Now, with generative AI, they aren’t asking companies to build a new city. They are simply offering to upgrade every vehicle on their existing roads to a self-driving, hyper-efficient electric model. The adoption is seamless because the infrastructure is already there.
This is the paradigm shift. It’s not about a standalone "AI product." It's about embedding intelligence into every single workflow that already exists. As CEO Bill McDermott put it, "Every enterprise in every industry is focused on AI as the innovation opportunity of our generation." He’s right, but the secret is that ServiceNow is making that opportunity as easy as flipping a switch. The speed of this integration is just breathtaking—it means the gap between a complex business problem and an automated, intelligent solution is collapsing faster than we could have imagined even two years ago.
You see the proof in their other numbers, too. Their U.S. federal business grew by more than 30%. Government agencies—notoriously slow and cautious adopters—are jumping on board. Why? Because this isn’t a risky, experimental bet; it’s a pragmatic upgrade to a system they already trust. And their current remaining performance obligations, or cRPO, hit $11.35 billion. In simpler terms, that’s a backlog of over $11 billion in contract revenue that’s already locked in. It’s a mountain of guaranteed work.
Of course, this rapid acceleration of automation brings with it a profound responsibility. As we build these incredibly efficient systems, we have to be thoughtful and deliberate about the human side of the equation, ensuring that we’re augmenting human potential, not just replacing it. But what an incredible opportunity we have to redefine work itself. What could we achieve if we automated the mundane and liberated human creativity to tackle the world’s biggest challenges?
Forget the after-hours stock pop and the quarterly analyst calls for a moment. What we are witnessing is something far more profound. The AI revolution isn't going to be a single, cataclysmic event. It won't arrive with a thunderclap. It’s arriving quietly, in the background, through the workflow platforms and enterprise software that power our global economy. It’s happening right now, inside the systems that process your insurance claim, manage your company’s cybersecurity, and onboard your new colleagues. ServiceNow didn't just have a good quarter; they provided the clearest evidence yet that this future is no longer a distant vision. It's already being built.
