Bill McDermott seeks to master the AI universe with 'iPhone of enterprise software'

It's the only firm that can link front, middle and back offices in a seamless interaction, he says.

- Ravi Velloor

What would you do if someone said people in Singapore spend 30 million hours on hold a year, waiting to be served by a call centre assistant or counter clerk, and that they could do something to fix it?

You sit up and pay attention.

That's the data from a study of 1,030 Singaporeans aged 18 and above, conducted by Lonergan Research in early 2024 to assess the state of service in Singapore in 2023. The average person in Singapore spent approximately two full working days (equivalent to 16.1 hours) on hold in 2023, according to the survey's findings.

How could Mr Bill McDermott help? The chairman and chief executive of Silicon Valley-based ServiceNow explains it this way.

Let's say you have the top 10 customer service issues that firms receive calls about. Sure, a chatbot can deflect those calls and resolve them automatically. But an artificial intelligence (AI) agent is a technical agent, more advanced. Think of it as an avatar with human comprehension skills and workflow automation capabilities, able to fully resolve cases on its own.

"The difference with AI agents is that they act like employees who work on the case, but they don't need healthcare or salaries," he says. "They work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. This is where investment in AI is heading - companies need to grow, and AI is the only way to optimise labour and improve customer satisfaction."

Seems a lot of people - including about 8,100 corporate customers by recent counts - have been sold on ServiceNow's pitch.

Its total revenues of US$2.8 billion (S$3.84 billion) in the third quarter of 2024 - the most recent figures - represent 22 per cent year-over-year growth. Then, there are remaining performance obligations of US$19.5 billion as at third quarter 2024, representing 36 per cent year-over-year growth in deferred or yet-to-be billed revenue.