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Speech agents and legacy automation target the gap between customer requests and actual resolution
Published: January 20, 2026
Rhys Fisher
ServiceNow and OpenAI have expanded their partnership with a multi-year deal that puts real-time voice agents and computer-use automation at the center of the CX conversation.
The agreement makes OpenAI’s frontier models, including GPT-5.2, a preferred intelligence option on the ServiceNow platform.
The two companies are building custom AI solutions designed to move faster from pilot to production, with “no bespoke development required.”
Amit Zavery, President, COO, and CPO at ServiceNow, framed the collaboration as a shift from experimentation to execution at enterprise scale.
“ServiceNow leads the market in AI-powered workflows, setting the enterprise standard for real-world AI outcomes,” he said.
“With OpenAI, ServiceNow is building the future of AI experiences: deploying AI that takes end-to-end action in complex enterprise environments.,”
“As companies shift from experimenting with AI to deploying it at scale, they need the power of multiple AI leaders working together to deliver faster, better outcomes.
“Bringing together our respective technologies will drive faster value for customers and more intuitive ways of working with AI.,”
The partnership centers on three capabilities: real-time speech-to-speech agents, computer-use automation, and a governance layer designed to keep AI-driven decisions auditable.
ServiceNow is working with OpenAI to build real-time, speech-to-speech AI agents that operate directly in audio, without bouncing through text intermediation.
According to the announcement, these agents can “listen, reason, and respond naturally without text intermediation.”
A customer can speak in their preferred language and receive an instant response from an AI agent that “opens a case, triggers an approval, and orchestrates next steps without translation delay — reducing latency, preserving meaning, and eliminating unnecessary handoffs.”
For contact centers, this tackles familiar friction points. IVRs that trap callers in menus, voicebots that lose context, and agents manually rekeying information all create delays.
By wiring speech agents directly into ServiceNow workflows, the phone line becomes a transactional channel capable of driving requests through to resolution.
The second pillar targets the legacy systems that usually limit how far AI can go in a customer journey.
Using OpenAI’s computer-use models, ServiceNow will enable AI agents to take “direct action where APIs don’t exist,” interacting with complex tools by clicking, typing, and navigating interfaces.
The release notes that these capabilities “extend secure, context-aware automation across more environments — enabling autonomous orchestration of workplace tools like email and chat, automation of legacy systems including mainframes, and greater efficiency across complex IT landscapes.”
For CX teams, that could mean refunds completed during the same interaction instead of after a back-office handoff, account updates that propagate across platforms, and fewer ‘our system won’t let us do that’ explanations.
ServiceNow says it already powers more than 80 billion workflows every year and serves 85% of the Fortune 500. Plugging OpenAI’s frontier models into that footprint turns this into more than a single-feature announcement.
The partnership builds on existing joint capabilities including AI assistance for natural language queries, summarization for incidents and cases, and developer tools that “turn intent into workflows, logic, and automation.”
Brad Lightcap, COO at OpenAI, emphasized the focus on real enterprise outcomes, explaining how “ServiceNow is helping enterprises bring agentic AI into workflows that are secure, scalable, and designed to deliver measurable outcomes.”
“With OpenAI frontier models and multimodal capabilities in ServiceNow, enterprises across every industry will benefit from intelligence that handles work end to end in even the most complex environments.”
Most high-friction customer journeys span service, IT, operations, and finance. The pitch here is a single automation layer that can move work across those functions without losing context.
As organizations embed OpenAI models across ServiceNow, the AI Control Tower provides centralized oversight of how those models are used, which data they access, and what actions they can trigger.
ServiceNow describes AI Control Tower as “the governance and orchestration layer, giving organizations centralized visibility into how models are applied across workflows, how they interact with enterprise data and systems, and how AI-driven actions are executed at scale in a controlled, auditable way.”
This is particularly important in CX scenarios that touch money, compliance, or sensitive customer data. If AI starts issuing credits, changing itineraries, or closing complaints, leaders need to explain and adjust those behaviors with the same rigor they apply to human processes.
The expanded partnership aims to move AI from the edge of customer interactions to the core of the workflow.
For CX leaders, the test will be deciding where AI can safely take on more of that work and proving to customers that the intelligence in the stack does more than listen… it fixes problems.
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