ServiceNow makes it easier to build AI agents, gives them verifiable identities

ServiceNow is enhancing its AI Control Tower with new features, renaming it to Super Intelligence Control Tower (SICT) to gain favor with the US President. The company is also updating EmployeeWorks to simplify the process of creating AI agents. AI Passport, a component of SICT, provides every agent—whether developed by ServiceNow or a third party— with a verifiable identity and runtime control over their activities.

Nenshad Bardoliwalla, SVP of AI product management at ServiceNow, explained that AI agents need identifiable credentials to ensure scaling does not become a risk. The passport is a cryptographically signed credential that is checked at runtime to verify the authorized scope, allowing agents to operate freely if they remain within their designated boundaries.

If an agent tries to deviate, defined actions are enforced, such as redirecting, restricting, or killing the agent. AI Passport is built on open specifications, ensuring compatibility with other governance products, identity providers, and enforcement points. Frank Dickson, principal analyst at Dickson Research, praised the new controls, comparing them to a "bouncer at every door."

The controls extend beyond ServiceNow's own agents, applying to third-party agents as well. In addition to AI Passport, ServiceNow has strengthened its governance tools, including shadow-AI detection, more than 400 connectors for AI discovery, access mapping, continuous enterprise AI observability, cost governance, "value intelligence," AI cost management, and policy enforcement.

By year-end, AI Passport, Shadow AI detection, and AI Cost Management will be available. ServiceNow's latest EmployeeWorks enhancements enable employees to add automations to their AI personal assistants, with the new ToolSmith offering a natural language interface for developers to build and refine agentic automations. Non-coding employees can create Productivity Assistants for contextual and persona-based tasks, and pre-built assistants are available for HR service delivery.

EmployeeWorks also includes two AI assistants out of the box, and Productivity Routines run in the background to automate repetitive tasks. While Dickson applauded the progress, he cautioned that the guardrails are only as effective as the decisions behind them, emphasizing the need for human oversight in unsupervised work.