ServiceNow Zurich Release: The AI-Driven Leap Forward in Workflow Intelligence

ServiceNow’s Zurich release closes one cycle and opens another, setting the stage for AI to work alongside human talent.

With the rollout of the ServiceNow Zurich release, the platform reaches a natural inflection point in its naming tradition. Since Aspen in 2012, ServiceNow has released updates alphabetically under iconic city names; now, with Zurich, they close that cycle and begin a new one. The company will switch to country names next (stay tuned for “Australia” in 2026), but for now, Zurich takes center stage.

It’s a fitting moment of transition. Zurich not only wraps up a familiar naming era but also ushers in capabilities that redefine how enterprises build, manage, and automate work. For organizations looking to adopt AI responsibly, reduce development cycles, and accelerate automation, Zurich offers a suite of features that bring both innovation and discipline to digital operations. 

What’s New and What’s Changed

Zurich pushes ServiceNow deeper into the era of AI-driven automation. The standout addition is the Build Agent, which can take natural language instructions and generate production-ready workflows, data models, and interfaces (with a little human review before you hit “go”). Playbooks are now enhanced with embedded AI agents that handle tasks more autonomously — think approvals, escalations, or notifications you’d normally burn hours on — while process and task mining are built directly into the platform to help organizations identify bottlenecks and prioritize automation opportunities. 

Developers benefit from the full release of sandboxes, which provide safe environments for experimentation, and the new Performance Analyzer, which highlights latency issues and performance gaps early in the build cycle. App Engine and Studio see meaningful improvements as well, making it easier to generate flows from images, manage webhooks, and debug with AI assistance. These updates make the development process faster, more reliable, and less error-prone (and frankly, a lot less tedious). 

Zurich also reimagines how the platform handles data. The Workflow Data Fabric lets organizations connect to external sources such as Snowflake, Oracle, and BigQuery in real time — no more duplicate pipelines cluttering up your architecture. 

On the governance and security side, Zurich brings new tools that matter for enterprise-scale adoption: 

• AI Control Tower for monitoring and managing AI models across environments 

• Vault Console and Machine Identity Console for stronger credential and key management 

• ReleaseOps and App Engine Management Center to streamline governance during release cycles 

And beyond core platform features, Zurich extends value in industry modules. HRSD introduces new Hiring Experiences to simplify employee onboarding, while Software Asset Management gains stronger license compliance and cost optimization tools. Healthcare and financial services get new regulatory-ready features out of the box. 

Strategic Implications: Why Zurich Matters 

The implications of Zurich for organizations are significant. By embedding AI capabilities across workflows and development tools, ServiceNow reduces the distance between idea and execution (a gap most IT leaders know all too well). Projects that once took weeks or months to prototype and deploy can now move forward in a fraction of the time. Zurich positions AI as a partner to human talent, handling repetitive or low-value tasks while freeing people to focus on creativity, strategy, and judgment. 

This release also reduces the long-term burden of technical debt. By connecting directly to external data sources, Zurich removes the need for costly integration layers and complex customizations, leaving organizations with cleaner architectures that are easier to maintain. Just as importantly, the governance improvements ensure that the platform can be scaled responsibly. Low-code and AI-driven development are democratized without losing control, allowing organizations to empower more builders while maintaining trust in the system. 

More broadly, Zurich shifts ServiceNow from being a workflow platform to what many are calling an agentic enterprise platform. By combining AI-driven agents, zero-copy data access, and built-in governance, it enables a new operating model where work can be delegated to digital agents confidently, with humans staying in the loop for judgment and oversight (as they should). 

Upgrade and Adoption Considerations 

While Zurich opens new opportunities, adoption must be handled with care. Testing in sandboxed environments is essential, particularly for organizations with custom apps or complex integrations. Training is equally important, as developers and business technologists alike will need to adapt to new paradigms such as AI-assisted development and agentic playbooks. Governance should be addressed early to avoid unchecked automation, with clear policies around access, oversight, and review processes (because “move fast and break things” doesn’t exactly fly in regulated industries). 

Figure 1: Build Agent

A structured roadmap approach is recommended: 

• Phase 0: Baseline assessment — use process and task mining to establish current state 

• Phase 1: Pilot features — test Build Agent and agentic playbooks in non-critical areas (so if something goes sideways, you’re not putting mission-critical processes at risk) 

• Phase 2: Governance setup — implement AI Control Tower, Vault Console, and App Engine Management Center to define guardrails 

• Phase 3: Scale with confidence — expand to enterprise-wide workflows, integrate Workflow Data Fabric, and deepen industry module usage 

By approaching Zurich with a deliberate, staged plan, organizations can maximize value while ensuring stability and control. 

What to Watch Next 

Zurich lays vital groundwork, but it is not the finish line. Future releases will likely expand the role of AI agents, deepen industry solutions, and make the platform even more autonomous. Observability, governance, and auditability of AI-driven workflows will be critical areas of focus, as organizations adopt agentic solutions at scale. At the same time, the ecosystem surrounding ServiceNow is expected to grow, with more third-party apps, accelerators, and templates emerging to help customers take advantage of Zurich’s new capabilities. 

Zurich is evolving ServiceNow’s platform identity. By combining AI, data integration, and strong governance, ServiceNow positions itself as a leader in the era of agentic automation. For Beyond20 clients, Zurich is a chance to rethink how digital operations are designed and executed. The opportunity lies not only in upgrading but in evolving operating models to be more agile, more intelligent, and more sustainable. Organizations can use Zurich to accelerate transformation and set themselves apart in an AI-led world.