Working at the crossroads of IT services, digital transformation, and enterprise software has given us direct insight into the forces shaping product innovation and M&A in today’s ITSM landscape. Here is a closer look at the trends defining the ITSM market as we kick off 2026:
One of 2025’s biggest headlines in enterprise software and IT operations was ServiceNow’s agreement to acquire Armis for $7.75B – a transformative move that extends the company’s platform deeper into cybersecurity and exposure management.
Armis is a leader in asset visibility and cyber-exposure management, empowering organizations to continuously identify and secure every device on their networks. Through agentless discovery, integrated threat intelligence, and risk prioritization, its platform reveals exposures that traditional IT tools frequently miss, addressing long-standing blind spots in enterprise risk management.
By bringing Armis onto the ServiceNow AI Platform, the combined company integrates deep asset intelligence with automated workflows, Configuration Management Database (CMDB) context, and AI-driven response mechanisms – bridging the gap between exposure awareness and operational action at scale. Armis is not just another point solution within ServiceNow’s stack; together, they form a unified platform where exposure intelligence is embedded directly into enterprise workflows, enabling alerts, prioritization, remediation, and governance to be managed through a single pane of glass.
At the ServiceNow World Forum NYC 2025, one clear theme emerged: AI is no longer aspirational– it is operational. Organizations are moving beyond pilot projects to deliver results by embedding AI directly into everyday systems and processes.
Key themes from the event included:
These themes mirror what we are seeing from private equity investors and strategic acquirers. The players that are truly differentiating themselves in the crowded ITSM market are not merely automating ticket resolution – they are automating decisions and delivering measurable business impact. Platforms that tightly integrate AI, data, and workflows to drive real-world results are likely to attract M&A interest.
Aside from ServiceNow’s headline deal, several other notable acquisitions in 2025 underscore key priorities in the ITSM landscape, including agentic AI, operational automation, knowledge management, and deep analytics:
1. Automation Anywhere Acquires Aisera
Automation Anywhere, a provider of Agentic Process Automation (APA) and other agentic AI solutions, acquired Aisera, a leading vendor of autonomous IT agent technology. Aisera delivers industry-leading self-service agents for ITSM, HR, and customer service. The combined platform accelerates Automation Anywhere’s vision of an “Autonomous Enterprise,” where agentic AI will manage, orchestrate, and execute operations across IT, HR, and service functions.
The transaction reflects a broader shift in the ITSM market: vendors are embedding AI agents directly into core workflows to automate decisions and execution, reduce reliance on traditional seat-based licensing models, and instead move toward outcome-based economic models.
USU, a provider of ITSM and IT asset management (ITAM) solutions, acquired Mayday to strengthen its AI-powered knowledge management capabilities. Mayday’s platform is recognized for centralizing, curating, and delivering enterprise knowledge through AI-assisted automation and an intuitive user experience. By uniting their technologies, USU and Mayday aim to help organizations convert disparate information into actionable knowledge across ITSM and customer service workflows – driving faster issue resolution, more effective self-service, and reduced reliance on manual support.
The acquisition underscores the growing strategic importance of embedding AI-driven knowledge management into core service delivery. As ITSM vendors increasingly implement AI-powered service agents and other automated tools, structured, high-quality knowledge is essential for ensuring reliable outcomes.
Atlassian, a software company that offers collaboration, development, and service management tools, acquired the developer productivity and engineering intelligence platform DX for approximately $1B. This marks a strategic expansion of Atlassian’s capabilities in measuring and optimizing software delivery and AI-driven development work.
In the broader ITSM landscape, the transaction highlights a trend toward embedding deep analytics into service and development workflows. As organizations scale AI across various departments and service functions, leaders increasingly need to justify and measure the ROI of those investments and identify friction points that affect performance.
As we look to the future of ServiceNow, AI is fundamentally reshaping how the platform is built, deployed, and valued. By embedding agentic AI, unified data fabrics, and orchestration layers into its core architecture, the company is redefining itself from a traditional workflow software vendor into an enterprise-wide AI control plane – a shift that strengthens its defensibility amid recent anxieties that AI could replace traditional software platforms. In embracing a data- and AI-centric identity, ServiceNow is signaling that the future of ITSM will be defined not merely by process automation, but by the ability to orchestrate autonomous, intelligence-driven operations across the enterprise.
As ITSM platforms evolve into operationally embedded, AI-driven systems, ecosystem partners will be pushed beyond traditional implementation roles into architects of end-to-end operational transformation. Success will increasingly depend on deep data expertise, workflow redesign capabilities, measurable ROI delivery, and the ability to operationalize AI responsibly within enterprise environments. Partners that combine technical depth with strategic business alignment will be best positioned not only to navigate near-term volatility, but to reinforce their indispensability as the next chapter of ITSM continues to unfold.
DISCLAIMER This presentation is intended for information and discussion purposes only and does not constitute legal or professional investment advice. Statements of fact and opinions expressed are those of the participants individually and, unless expressly stated to the contrary, are not the opinion or position of Harbor View Advisors, LLC (“HVA”). The information in this presentation was compiled from sources believed to be reliable for informational purposes only. HVA does not endorse or approve, and assumes no responsibility for the content, accuracy or completeness of the information presented.
