ServiceNow acquires tech startup Passage AI to advance its deep learning AI capabilities

ServiceNow today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Passage AI, a Mountain View, Calif.-based conversational AI platform company. The total amount of the deal was not disclosed. The transaction will advance ServiceNow’s deep learning AI capabilities and will accelerate its vision of supporting all major languages across the company’s Now Platform and products, including ServiceNow Virtual Agent, Service Portal, Workspaces and emerging interfaces.

Passage AI uses deep learning algorithms to build chatbots that respond to your customer and employee requests with very high accuracy. With the acquisition of Passage AI, ServiceNow also gets truckload of AI talent, which in itself has value, but it also gets AI technology, which should fit in nicely with ServiceNow’s mission.

Founded in 2016 by CEO Ravi N. Raj, CTO Madhu Mathihalli and CTO Mitul Tiwari, Passage AI’s conversational AI platform is built on deep learning models that can be trained to understand text in all major languages. Bringing together Passage AI’s conversational AI capabilities with it’s Now Platform and digital workflow capabilities, ServiceNow will expand its chatbot support for non-English languages and empower organizations to better understand the meaning behind work requests so they can take action to get the job done.

“Work flows more smoothly when people can get things done in their native language,” said Debu Chatterjee, senior director of AI Engineering at ServiceNow. “Building deep learning, conversational AI capabilities into the Now Platform will enable a work request initiated in German or a customer inquiry initiated in Japanese to be solved by Virtual Agent. Passage AI’s technology will enable us to accelerate our vision of empowering great employee and customer experiences by delivering great workflow experiences. ServiceNow believes in making work flow more smoothly across the enterprise, in all major languages.”

As a strategic partner to the world’s largest enterprises, ServiceNow is focused on enabling digital transformation and driving customer success. The Now Platform includes powerful AI and machine learning capabilities, which enable customers to deliver great employee and customer experiences and unlock productivity. This deal builds on ServiceNow’s previous AI acquisitions, including transactions with Loom Systems, Attivio, Parlo, FriendlyData, Qlue and DxContinuum.