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Open AI's Enterprise War Just Escalated · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:00
  Service Now just signed a three-year deal with Open AI to
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  embed GPT 5.2 directly into its enterprise workfield platform.
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  Now this agreement brings Open AI technical advisors and
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  ServiceNow engineers together to build custom AI solutions that
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  enterprises can deploy without bespoke development.
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  ServiceNow powers more than 80 billion workflows every year
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  across different platforms, IT, customer service and operations.
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  And this new partnership between these two gives those workflows
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  direct access to frontier AI capabilities from ChatGPT and
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  open AI, including real time speech to speech voice agents.
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  So when you're on the phone and you're talking to an agent from
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  a ServiceNow company, you're probably talking to a person.
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  Nope, that's not right. You're actually talking to an AI
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  now. That's what's going to be
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  happening for service now. The company that controls the
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  enterprise workflow layer now has the keys to one of the most
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  advanced AI systems on this planet.
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  And what does that mean for every other software company
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  fighting for the same customers? Open AI is computer use model
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  will also become part of the ServiceNow platform, allowing AI
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  agents to perform IT tasks like restarting devices or accessing
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  data locked in legacy mainframe systems.
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  Today, we're going to cover the competitive dynamics driving
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  this whole deal. It's $12 billion of acquisitions
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  that ServiceNow did this year. And why this race to become the
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  AI control tower for business just got a little bit spicy.
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  And we're going to do that right If this very short break.
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  ServiceNow is betting big on becoming the central hub where
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  AI meets enterprise. The company has spent more than
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  $12 billion on acquisitions in 2025, including Moveworks for
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  2.85 billion, cybersecurity startup Vasa for roughly a
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  billion and Armas for 7.75 billion in its largest purchase
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  ever. 7 acquisitions in a year makes a sharp departure from a
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  company that built its reputation on organic growth and
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  the mantra of one platform, 1 architecture, one data model.
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  Now this Open AI partnership accelerates that strategy by
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  adding frontier AI capabilities the company could not build
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  internally on the same timeline. ServiceNow now processes more
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  than 80 billion workflows annually across the Fortune 500,
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  and the company wants every one of those workflows running on
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  its AI infrastructure. Brad Lightcap, who's Open AI
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  chief operating officer, told The Wall Street Journal that
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  enterprises want open AI intelligence applied directly
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  into ServiceNow workflows. Customers increasingly seek what
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  Lightcap calls agentic and multimodal experiences that
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  behave like AIT mates rather than just chat bots answering
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  questions for you. And the deal includes a revenue
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  commitment from Service Now to Open AI, though neither company
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  disclosed the actual financial terms.
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  Open AI has been pursuing similar enterprise software
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  partnerships, including deals with Intuit and $100 million
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  commitment from Databricks last September.
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  This is Open AI strategy for turning research breakthroughs
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  into recurring enterprise revenue.
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  Find the platforms where businesses already run their
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  operations and then embed frontier models directly into
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  those systems. ServiceNow gives Open AI access
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  to 85% of the Fortune 500 through this single integration.
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  Now, the technical integration goes beyond just API access.
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  That's pretty simple. ServiceNow plans to build speech
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  to speech AI agents for customer service using Open AI Voice
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  Focus models. These agents will listen,
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  reason, and respond in natural language without converting
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  speech to text first. A user could speak in their
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  preferred language and receive an instant response from an AI
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  agent that opens a case, triggers an approval, and
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  orchestrates next steps without translation delays.
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  That capability eliminates the latency and context loss that
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  plague current automated customer service systems.
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  Current voice automation typically converts speech to
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  text process That text through an AI model, generates a text
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  response, and then it converts it back to speech.
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  Each conversation step introduces delays and loses
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  nuances, and speech to speech processing cuts out the middle
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  steps entirely and preserves the natural flow of the conversation
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  and service. Now this is huge.
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  They'll also integrate open a is computer use model to unlock
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  what the company calls a new class of IT automation.
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  IT professionals, watch out, A is actually coming for you.
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  These agents can interact with systems by navigating interfaces
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  the way a human would, turning unstructured documents into
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  actionable data and automating interactions with legacy
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  systems, including mainframes. The practical application here
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  is quite significant. Many large enterprises still run
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  critical operations on 30 year old hardware and that modern
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  automation tools can't touch them.
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  Right now they're they can't even do it.
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  Banks, insurance companies, they all run on it and governments
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  too. They depend on COBOL systems.
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  The process trillions of dollars in transactions annually.
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  An AI agent that can navigate those interfaces opens a massive
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  surface area for automation that was previously locked away
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  behind obsolete technology stack.
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  Now, Servicenow's president Ahmed Zavery and chief operating
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  officer framed this partnership around speed and scale.
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  Companies shifting from AI experimentation to full
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  development need multiple AI capabilities working together to
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  deliver faster outcomes. ServiceNow already offers
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  customers access to various AI models, but the open AI
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  integration makes GPT 5.2 a preferred intelligence
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  capability embedded natively in the platform.
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  That preferential treatment Signal Service now is picking
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  sides in the AI model wars rather than remaining model
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  agnostic. I've been digging through all of
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  Now let's get back into some of this.
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  Salesforce agents open AI. It's all wild right now.
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  It's the Wild West of AI now. There's competitive pressure
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  right now, and it runs real deep.
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  Salesforce launched Agentforce 2 Point O in December, with CEO
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  Marc Benioff declaring that the AI revolution is already here.
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  And Salesforce reported 119 percent agent growth in the
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  first half of 2025 and expanded partnerships with Open AI,
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  Anthropic, Google, and AWS to solidify its ecosystem approach.
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  Work Day announced its Illuminate AI agents for HR,
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  case management, performance reviews, and financial close
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  processes. SAP has rolled out more than 40
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  jewel agents embedded across its enterprise software suite and
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  plans to have over 400 AI scenarios by the end of 2025.
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  And Oracle claims its Fusion Applications suite delivers end
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  to end AI within existing workflows at no additional cost
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  to customers. Every major enterprise software
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  company is racing to prove it can orchestrate AI across
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  business workflows in the vendor that wins controls the massive
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  revenue stream for all of the enterprise.
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  And according to Gartner, worldwide spending on
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  information security alone will reach $240 billion in 2026, with
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  AI adoption driving much of that growth.
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  Service Now has acquisition strategy over the past year
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  reveals its thinking move works deal for 2.85 billion brought AI
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  powered enterprise search and roughly 500 AI specialist out of
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  the team. Moverworks provides the
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  engagement layer where employees interact with AI through natural
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  conversations rather than just old school fly out menus and
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  drop down menus. Visa added identity security and
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  access governance, which becomes critical when you deploy
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  autonomous AI agents. They can take actions across
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  enterprise systems. An AI agent that can restart
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  servers, access financial data, or modify customer records needs
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  strict identity controls to prevent unauthorized actions.
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  And Armis provides security for cyber exposure management across
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  IT operational technology, IoT devices, and medical equipment.
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  Armis recently topped 340 million in animal recurring
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  revenue with 50% year over year growth and serves over 35% of
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  the Fortune 100. Each acquisition fills a gap
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  that might otherwise give enterprise buyers a reason to
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  look elsewhere, and ServiceNow wants to be the single answer to
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  every question about enterprise AI management.
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  ServiceNow stock rose 2% in pre market trading when news of the
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  Open AI deal broke. Investors has previously
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  punished the stock over concerns about the company's aggressive
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  acquisition pace, with shares falling to the lowest level
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  since April 2025 after the Armas announcement.
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  Chief Financial Officer Gina Mastantuno sought to reassure
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  investors that the spending would slow after the Armistile
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  closes. And the Open AI partnership
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  offers a different idea altogether.
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  Strategic AI integration. Rather than just swooping in and
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  buying all those companies. Whether ServiceNow can integrate
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  7 major acquisitions in a year while maintaining platform
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  coherence remains an open question.
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  Usually doesn't happen that way, Usually takes a little bit of
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  time, and we're going to see how they do integrating this all
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  with their own complex architecture.