ServiceNow CFO: AI Deployments ‘Driving Real, Measurable Value’

‘I want to be direct: Anyone suggesting enterprise software has run its course is not looking at the data. Our ServiceNow platform is more strategically relevant than ever before. We’re seeing record deal sizes, expanding customer adoption, and AI deployments that are driving real, measurable value,’ says ServiceNow President and CFO Gina Mastantuono.

Increased AI adoption and a growing backlog point to continued strong growth for ServiceNow.

ServiceNow President and Chief Financial Officer Gina Mastantuono told CRN that the company beat the high end of guidance across all top-line and bottom-line metrics.

“I truly believe that results like these come from a powerful combination of relentless innovation and discipline execution,” Mastantuono told CRN in an interview ahead of ServiceNow’s earnings call Wednesday. “I think it shows that the strength of our business is unwavering and that we truly are one of one company.

By “one of one company,” Mastantuono referred to ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott’s claim in the past that ServiceNow is in “a market of one” thanks to its development of the Now platform, which he called a “platform of platforms.”

Mastantuono said ServiceNow’s fourth fiscal quarter 2025 shows that the company is accelerating its growth in a number of ways.

Total revenue for the quarter, which ended December 31, reached $3.57 billion, up 20.5 percent over that of its fourth fiscal quarter 2024. Subscription revenue grew even faster, 21 percent over last year, to reach $3.47 billion. On a constant currency basis, subscription revenue increased 19.5 percent, which Mastantuono said exceeded guidance by 150 basis points.

CRPO, or current remaining performance obligation, which measures the sum of deferred revenue and backlog a company has to deliver in the next 12 months, grew 21 percent over last year, exceeding guidance by 200 basis points, she said. RPO, or remaining performance obligation, a measure of deferred revenue and backlog, reached $28.2 billion, up 22.5 percent, she said.

“That strength across the board is really coming from real momentum on the ground,” she said. “We’re actually accelerating net new business. We have more users on the platform than ever before, and we have deep, expanding adoption across our workflows. [Our backlog] reflects the massive runway ahead. And if you pair that backlog of $28 billion with our $600 billion total addressable market, it reinforces just how early we still are in this growth story.”

While ServiceNow continues to hire personnel to meet its expanding business, headcount growth is only about half that of its backlog, Mastantuono said.

“We’re extremely disciplined in how we think about growth,” she said. “The other thing that’s really important to note is that Now on Now, which is our internal use of our own platform and our own software, is driving significant efficiencies within the organization, especially as we built AI into the platform. And as I’ve talked about before, about $100 million of savings fell to the bottom line in 2025 alone as a result of the reduction in potential headcount growth because of all the efficiencies that AI is driving. AI is truly driving incredible efficiencies internally, which is helping as we think about continued discipline, margin accretion, as well as best-in-class top-line growth.”

ServiceNow’s focus on AI in its Now platform is also showing strong customer acceptance, Mastantuono said.

The company in the quarter closed 244 deals with greater than $1 million in net new ACV, or annual contract value, which she said was up 40 percent over last year.

“Customers with $20 million or more in annualized revenue grew over 30 percent,” she said. “We run 80 billion workflows every year for our customers. And we’re the fastest enterprise software company that ever reached $1 billion, $5 billion, and $10 billion organically at scale.”

The data shows that AI is driving real business results at ServiceNow, Mastantuono said.

“For our customers around the world, Now Assist surpassed $600 million in ACV this year, firmly on track toward our billion-dollar-plus target for 2026,” she said. “And as we develop the prescriptive roadmap for agentic deployment for our customers, the pace of AI monetization is accelerating, which is fantastic. We had Now Assist net new ACV in Q4 more than double year-over-year. The number of AI licensed users grew 21 percent, while monthly active users grew 25 percent. We’re really excited about what the data is showing about how ServiceNow is AI business is driving real business results and real impact for our customers around the world.”

ServiceNow’s channel partner business is also contributing to that growth as partners continue to grow with the company, Mastantuono said.

“Our partners continue to grow with us, and continue to lean in and build much, much stronger businesses with us. … One of the reasons why we’re seeing what I think is pretty incredible AI momentum is our ecosystem. We built a platform that collaborates with all three hyperscalers, all of the big system integrators and channel partners, and the language models. This brings me to two announcements that we made over the last week with Anthropic and OpenAI. What hopefully this is showing is that our relationship in the ecosystem, whether it’s our SI (systems integrator) partners, our tech partners, or the hyperscalers, remains extremely strong, and it’s all about giving flexibility to our customers. We can connect to any hyperscaler, any software provider, any large language model, and it really gives our customers flexibility and choice, which is a really strong value-add and differentiator for ServiceNow.”

ServiceNow currently has about $10 billion in cash, Mastantuono said. The company’s board of directors recently approved an additional $5 billion under its share repurchase program on top of the $1.5 billion remaining in its current share repurchase authorization and is launching a $2 billion accelerated share repurchase program, she said.

“We’re driving a very disciplined capital allocation strategy. … That demonstrates our commitment to what I think is very valid capital deployment, so organic investment first, strategic M&A when it unlocks meaningful TAM (total addressable market), and shareholder returns throughout.

ServiceNow’s acquisitions in 2025, including acquisitions of Armis for security , Veza for identity security, and Moveworks for agentic AI, do not represent a pivot away from organic growth, Mastantuono said.

“They represent an acceleration of it,” she said. “We’re very focused on acquiring strategic capabilities that, when integrated into our platform, really unlock exponential value, and so we’re very excited. You’ll continue to see us do the tuck-in acquisitions that we’ve always been known for. But we’re not pivoting away from our organic growth stories. We will always be, first and foremost, an incredible organic innovation and growth company. And we will always look at potential M&A where we think it’s going to accelerate value for our customers and value for our shareholders.”

Looking ahead, ServiceNow said it expects first fiscal quarter 2026 subscription revenue to grow year-over-year by 21.5 percent to reach between $3.65 and $3.66 billion. Full year 2026 subscription revenue is slated to grow by 20.5 percent to 21.0 percent over fiscal 2025 to $15.53 billion to $15.57 billion.

“Very strong guidance,” Mastantuono said. “Though given our Q4 outperformance, we’re very confident in the bold guidance that we put forth in 2026. And so I want to be direct: Anyone suggesting enterprise software has run its course is not looking at the data. Our ServiceNow platform is more strategically relevant than ever before. We’re seeing record deal sizes, expanding customer adoption, and AI deployments that are driving real, measurable value.”