31-07-2025
Exclusive: ServiceNow calls for bold AI adoption to boost national productivity
Kate Tulp, New Zealand Country Manager for ServiceNow, is calling on Kiwi businesses to embrace generative AI and automation at an enterprise level, warning that having a "watch and wait" mindset is no longer a viable strategy.
During a recent interview with TechDay, Tulp highlighted how partnerships and AI-powered tools can help both government and enterprise unlock productivity in a tight economic climate.
"It's a core part of the strategy," she said, when asked about ServiceNow's recent partnership with Datacom.
"Datacom absolutely is somebody that you should be talking to, we managed to bring them on as a partner at the start of last year and it's going really well."
The partnership marks a strategic expansion for ServiceNow, which has quadrupled the size of its local team over the past four years. "We've gone from very small to averagely sized, and we will keep growing," she added.
Two ends of the AI mindset
According to Tulp, businesses in Aotearoa are currently split between early adopters and more cautious observers when it comes to AI.
"There's one end which is like, 'Whoa, let's go, I've jumped in the pool,'" she said. "And then there's the other side, like, 'This is scary, I'm going to watch nine other people swim.'"
She acknowledged New Zealand's traditionally risk-averse culture and strong governance frameworks, but argued this "should be seen as a strength."
"We've already got the guardrails here. We've got legislation, regulation, privacy laws, we've got great governance," she said.
"Now we've got this incredible technology moment that we can have as a country. I cannot be more excited for New Zealand taking advantage of this."
AI as disruption, not transformation
While many in the tech industry continue to tout "digital transformation," Tulp prefers to frame the shift in terms of disruption - and not in a negative sense.
"We should really think about, how can I disrupt my own business in a really positive way that generates greater productivity, greater profit, helps me engage in markets that I haven't been in before, helps me scale up when I need to without risk."
She cited one insurance customer's real-life example during Cyclone Gabrielle. Faced with thousands of flood claims over a weekend, one employee built an AI-powered solution that helped the business triage and process claims in record time.
"It was literally one dude who went home and decided to try to do something over the weekend to make a difference for customers," she said.
"I'm pretty sure we'd give them a national parade in New Zealand, right?"
Are digital employees here?
With AI agents now widely integrated into ServiceNow's platform, Tulp sees them not as tools but as digital workers that need to be managed like any other employee.
"Everything that you would provide to your employee to make sure they're awesome and happy and effective, you should definitely think about that for digital agents as well."
That includes onboarding, training, performance feedback, and compliance.
"If they don't play well with others, if you don't know how they're engaging, you're going to get clunkiness, dissatisfaction, customers leaving - same thing with agents."
To support this, ServiceNow has built tools like Agent Orchestrator and Agent Control Tower, allowing enterprises to manage multiple AI agents across platforms and maintain visibility over operations.
AI maturity slipping
Recent data from ServiceNow's Data Maturity Index - while focused on Australia - paints a cautionary picture that Tulp believes applies to New Zealand as well.
"Our AI maturity is actually dropping year on year," she said.
The reason? Too much experimentation and not enough enterprise-grade implementation.
"We definitely need to stop thinking that we're in the trial or the demo or the experiment phase," she explained.
"This is full-fledged, out-in-production, running enterprise stuff."
The alternative, she warned, is irrelevance. "It's no longer optional. It's an actual market-driven, board-driven imperative to crack on with this stuff."
Automation still a major opportunity
While AI is making headlines, Tulp noted that billions of dollars in value remain in "straight-out automation" - including streamlining routine IT processes.
She described how ServiceNow's platform can already handle common support issues like a slow laptop, automatically troubleshooting, ordering a replacement, and shipping it to where the user is working - all without human intervention.
"It knows what kind of worker you are, how much you can spend, asks if you need a keyboard or a mouse or a bag, that is all entirely possible today," she said.
A call for ambition
"There's a massive weight given to risk and fear as opposed to opportunity and excitement," Tulp said. "Could we shift it up for ourselves and put the good news up front?"
She believes New Zealand's size, governance, and collaborative nature are strengths - if the country is bold enough to act.
"There's an actual moment here where everyone's learning at the same time," she said. "If you leap in and get back into it, then I think that could be very cool for New Zealand."
