SynopsisKulmeet Bawa, managing director for India and SAARC at ServiceNow said the company’s next phase of growth lies in becoming the “AI control tower” for enterprises by orchestrating AI workflows across multiple software systems rather than competing directly with foundation model providers.AgenciesAs enterprises race to deploy hundreds of AI agents, the next battleground for software companies will not be traditional services but the ability to govern, orchestrate and secure those agents, according to Kulmeet Bawa, managing director for India and SAARC at ServiceNow.The shift is also reshaping competition in enterprise software. As traditional software licensing and services businesses come under pressure, SaaS companies are investing heavily in AI governance and security through acquisitions to strengthen their platforms and position themselves as the control layer for enterprise AI. “The new moat is governance,” Bawa told ET in his first interview since taking over the new role this April. “The issue today is not how much money you are spending or how many AI agents you have. The issue is who is governing them better. The companies that will succeed are those that can orchestrate and secure these agents with the right controls in place.” ServiceNow has backed that strategy with a string of acquisitions, buying cybersecurity firm Armis for $7.75 billion, its biggest acquisition, AI assistant startup Moveworks for $2.85 billion and identity governance company Veza for $1 billion. Salesforce acquired Informatica for about $8 billion, while Cisco completed its $28 billion acquisition of Splunk. IBM strengthened its governance portfolio by acquiring HashiCorp for $6.4 billion, while Palo Alto Networks bought multiple AI security startups, including Protect AI, to expand its AI risk management offerings. Bawa said ServiceNow’s next phase of growth lies in becoming the “AI control tower” for enterprises by orchestrating AI workflows across multiple software systems rather than competing directly with foundation model providers. “In the new avatar of ServiceNow, we want to become the governance engine, the orchestration engine and the AI control tower for organisations. India can become the showcase for the world on how agentic AI adoption should happen,” he said. Bawa, who returned to India after holding global leadership roles at SAP and Adobe, said enterprises are creating AI agents far faster than they can monitor them, creating a new governance challenge. ...moreElevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea.Subscribe Now