Why $NOW May Be One of the Most Misunderstood AI Stocks Right Now
I think ServiceNow, Inc. (NOW) is getting caught in the broader “SaaS is dead” narrative and Wall Street may be overlooking what the company is actually becoming.
Right now the market seems obsessed with the idea that AI will destroy traditional SaaS companies:
• fewer employees = fewer software seats
• AI agents replace workflows
• cheaper AI-native competitors appear overnight
• enterprise software margins compress
And honestly, I understand the fear. A lot of SaaS companies probably *will* get disrupted.
But I think the market may be lumping NOW into the wrong category.
Most people still think of ServiceNow as:
“enterprise ticketing software.”
But increasingly it looks more like:
an operating layer for enterprise AI workflows.
The key thing I think investors are missing is that AI inside enterprises creates *more orchestration complexity*, not less.
Large companies still need:
• governance
• permissions
• workflow automation
• compliance
• approvals
• audit trails
• cross-platform integrations
• data coordination between departments
AI agents don’t magically eliminate those problems — in many ways they make them more important.
That’s where NOW seems uniquely positioned.
The company already sits deeply embedded inside enterprise operations:
• IT
• HR
• customer service
• security
• procurement
• operations workflows
Once those systems are integrated, switching costs become enormous. The platform becomes part of the company’s operational infrastructure, not just another software subscription. Several investors and analysts have highlighted this “process entrenchment” and high switching-cost moat recently.
What’s interesting is the stock has been heavily derated anyway because of broader AI/SaaS fear.
Despite strong AI product growth, raised guidance, and expanding AI offerings, NOW has sold off dramatically from prior highs amid worries that AI could compress traditional SaaS economics.
But the bear case may actually be creating the opportunity.
The market seems to be pricing NOW like:
• a mature SaaS company,
• with slowing growth,
• vulnerable to AI disruption.
Meanwhile the bull case is that NOW becomes:
• the orchestration layer,
• governance layer,
• and workflow control system
for enterprise AI adoption.
That’s a very different valuation framework.
I’m not saying it’s risk-free. Valuation is still premium relative to many software names and AI disruption risk is real. Even bulls admit the stock has historically traded at aggressive multiples.
But I think there’s a real possibility Wall Street is underestimating how valuable workflow ownership becomes in an AI-driven enterprise environment.
Curious what others think:
Is NOW a future AI infrastructure winner?
Or is this still just an overvalued SaaS company being disrupted in slow motion?