Expert Advice from Andrei Buchman on leveraging ServiceNow
Learn more about how to leverage ServiceNow’s low-code platform with GenAI capabilities from Andrei Buchman, ServiceNow Solution Arhitect.
In this interview, Andrei Buchman, ServiceNow Solution Arhitect shares his insights on leveraging ServiceNow's low-code capabilities in combination with the power of Gen AI.
With over a decade of experience in architecting and delivering ServiceNow solutions, Andrei plays an important role at Accesa, driving innovation and client success. His expertise is reflected in his technical skills and commitment to team collaboration, making him a key player in shaping tech and organisational growth.
How can enterprise organisations leverage ServiceNow’s low-code platform to accelerate digital transformation? Before we can discuss accelerating digital transformation, we need to address a few pre-requisites around low code and citizen development in general.
More to the point, you will need to:
Know what you want to achieve: Identify the type of use cases you want to make available to your citizen developers, how they will be supported, and the business objectives you aim to achieve through this exercise.
Clearly define the rules of the game: Carefully consider the level of governance needed. How will access be managed? How will custom functionality be transferred between instances?
Identify your citizen developers: Determine who among your team is willing to invest their time and expertise in low-code initiatives. You will typically need technically inclined individuals with extensive knowledge of the processes and procedures you want to automate. If in doubt, focus more on business knowledge rather than purely technical skills.
Provide appropriate training: Ensure that citizen developers receive training on platform functionality. Additionally, establish a support group that can assist with any technical questions on short notice.
Once the pre-requisites are met and you have a plan in place, you are ready to leverage the power of the ServiceNow platform for low-code development. Depending on your appetite for these types of programmes, you can explore providing limited access to functionalities such as the Catalog Builder, Decision Builder, and Process Automation Designer, or to more complex features like App Engine Studio and UI Builder.
The key benefit that ServiceNow brings to the table is a single platform that can be used to address low-code automation in a wide range of scenarios, while also offering solutions to key issues around governance and control.
How does combining low-code development with Generative AI capabilities in ServiceNow empower teams to innovate faster?
GenAI capabilities come as an addition to the already extensive low-code functionalities of the ServiceNow platform. This significantly enhances the delivery time for new features and expands the range of tasks that citizen developers can successfully complete.
For instance, ServiceNow now offers code generation capabilities that increase the complexity of what a citizen developer can deliver. GenAI is a highly dynamic field, and functionalities that are new today can become outdated in a matter of months. Once GenAI reaches a certain level of maturity, it will drastically shorten implementation times, particularly in areas traditionally served by low-code initiatives.
For example, with the latest ServiceNow release, you can use Now Assist to generate complete workflows (along with every underlying configuration) in minutes by simply providing instructions in text format via a chat window. This enables tasks that once took hours or days to be completed in just minutes.
In your experience, what are the most common challenges enterprises face when integrating GenAI capabilities into their workflows via ServiceNow and how does Accesa support overcoming these challenges?
AI in general, and GenAI in particular, is a major buzzword at the moment, with most organisations attempting to incorporate it into their strategy moving forward. I believe we are currently at an inflection point where hardware capabilities can finally allow AI to truly excel and deliver consistent results. That being said, AI maturity, even among front runners in the industry, remains relatively low. Questions regarding data security, accuracy of information, regulatory compliance, and the risk of intellectual property infringement are crucial for anyone navigating the development of an AI strategy.
Ultimately, the main obstacle to widespread AI adoption is one of trust and mindset change. In this context, what we at Accesa bring to the table is our expertise in developing high-performance solutions based on GenAI capabilities in ServiceNow and other platforms.
While GenAI may not yet deliver optimal results, we can at least prepare your instance and its data to be of sufficient quality for a successful GenAI adoption process.
What were the key takeaways for organisations looking to use ServiceNow’s low-code and GenAI features to streamline processes and improve decision-making?
For any successful citizen developer or GenAI adoption initiatives, regardless the size of the company, the following key steps need to be achieved:
Stakeholder’s buy-in and full commitment
Establish a clear governance model
Ensure full involvement and commitment from citizen developers
More to the point of the question, for instance, a common use case we see for AI based solutions in ServiceNow is when the platform is being used to integrate information and knowledge from numerous other platforms and tools into one common user interface. It is then used to provide support to end users or clients, either through automated workflows (where low-code capabilities are typically used) or through an AI assistant.
The results of this type of initiative drastically reduce resolution times and increase customer satisfaction.
Conclusions
By establishing a clear framework for citizen development, defining governance structures, and providing comprehensive training, organisations can effectively control the power of low-code solutions to drive digital growth and transformation. The integration of GenAI capabilities further amplifies this potential, enabling teams to develop more complex functionalities and streamline workflows with remarkable speed.
As demonstrated through successful case studies, the combination of low-code development and GenAI enhances operational efficiency and fosters a culture of collaboration and creativity within organisations.
