How does a CRM giant challenge a well-entrenched market leader? Salesforce is taking direct aim at ServiceNow’s dominant position in the IT Service Management (ITSM) market with its new Agentic IT Service and enhanced Service Cloud offerings.
Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO, has publicly announced intentions to disrupt ServiceNow’s leadership, targeting what they see as a vulnerability in the mid-market segment where ServiceNow’s complexity and high total cost of ownership create barriers to adoption.
Salesforce aims to exploit ServiceNow’s Achilles’ heel: complexity and high costs that alienate mid-market prospects.
ServiceNow currently holds over 50% market share in the ITSM space and serves 85% of Fortune 500 companies. Their mature workflows and AI-native tools like AI Control Tower position them as the established enterprise solution.
With Q3 2025 revenue projected at $3.26-3.265 billion and 19.5-20.5% year-over-year growth, ServiceNow maintains strong momentum in a market expected to reach $37.45 billion by 2030.
Salesforce brings significant advantages to this competitive landscape:
- Unified Data Cloud that integrates employee, customer, and system data
- 60,000 Service Cloud customers (compared to ServiceNow’s 9,000)
- Intuitive AI-driven ITSM capabilities similar to their customer service platform
- Complete omnichannel support through Customer 360
The ITSM battlefield is evolving rapidly. By 2026, Gartner predicts 40% of ITSM tasks will be automated by AI, up from just 10% in 2022. This transformation creates an opening for Salesforce to leverage its CRM expertise while ServiceNow simultaneously expands into CRM territory with sales and order management solutions.
Both companies are targeting cross-functional workflows across IT, HR, and customer service departments. The blurring of boundaries indicates a broader trend where enterprises demand end-to-end automation across internal and customer-facing workflows. Salesforce’s API-first approach delivers real-time data exchange capabilities that overcome traditional integration limitations. Salesforce’s Agentic AI offers a compelling advantage with its ability to autonomously execute workflows without human intervention. ServiceNow maintains advantages with enterprise-grade customization and a robust partner ecosystem, while Salesforce bets on converting existing customers to adopt their ITSM solutions.
The competition ultimately benefits customers, who can choose between ServiceNow’s IT-centric approach or Salesforce’s customer-focused platform, depending on specific organizational requirements and existing investments.
