ServiceNow acquires Israeli AI agent startup ai.work

ServiceNow has acquired ai.work, an Israeli startup that builds AI agents for enterprise workflows, in a deal valued at tens of millions of dollars, according to Calcalist.

The acquisition marks ServiceNow's fourth Israeli purchase in 2026 and continues the American software giant's aggressive expansion into AI-powered automation. Founded in 2024, ai.work had raised only $10 million before the exit.

Why it matters

ServiceNow is betting that autonomous AI agents—not just assistive tools—will define the next generation of enterprise software. By acquiring ai.work's platform, which learns from organizational workflows and operates across complex systems, ServiceNow gains technology that can automate work end-to-end rather than simply surface recommendations. The deal signals that enterprise AI is moving from pilot projects to production-scale deployment.

The founding team

ai.work was founded by two former WalkMe executives: Maor Ezer, who previously sold his own company to WalkMe and later served as marketing director and strategic advisor to the CEO, and Nir Nahum, part of WalkMe's founding team who served as CTO. WalkMe itself was acquired by SAP.

In a letter published on the company's website, the founders explained their vision: "AI that could understand an incoming request, reason through the steps to resolve it, operate across complex enterprise systems, stay aligned with ever-changing policy, navigate approval chains, and learn from every interaction and outcome along the way."

What ai.work built

The startup developed AI agents that integrate into existing enterprise environments to handle manual and repetitive tasks. These agents specialize in IT, operations, legal, human resources, procurement, travel, and finance, and work with enterprise systems including Microsoft 365, ServiceNow, Slack, Jira, Google Workspace, and Salesforce.

The founders emphasized that autonomous AI for work is both a technological and trust challenge. "For AI to cross the line from assisting work to doing work, enterprises have to trust the platform underneath it," they wrote. "They need governance, security, controls, auditability, deep workflow context and a partner that genuinely understands how work moves inside a large organization."

ServiceNow's Israel strategy

Over the years, ServiceNow has completed seven acquisitions of companies with Israeli ties, with a cumulative value exceeding $8 billion. The bulk of that total comes from the April 2026 acquisition of cybersecurity company Armis for approximately $7.75 billion in cash.

Other 2026 deals include Traceloop in March for $60-80 million and Pyramid Analytics in February for several hundred million dollars. Earlier acquisitions include Neebula (2014, approximately $100 million), SkyGiraffe (2017), Appsee (2019), and Cloudcraft (2022), with the latter three for undisclosed amounts estimated between several million and tens of millions of dollars.

The ai.work founders noted that ServiceNow's scale and trust with large enterprises made it the right partner to take their vision to production. "ServiceNow is a clear leader in enterprise workflows and one of the most important AI platform companies in the world," they wrote.

The details were first reported by Calcalist.