According to Forbes, ServiceNow has announced its intent to acquire identity security platform Veza for more than $1 billion. This deal comes just months after ServiceNow’s $2.85 billion acquisition of Moveworks in March 2025, which was focused on building AI agents. The Veza purchase is specifically to govern the permissions and access for those non-human identities. The price represents a 24% premium over Veza’s $808 million valuation from its April 2025 Series D round. This urgency is driven by a market for AI agents expected to explode from $5.1 billion in 2024 to $47.1 billion by 2030. Okta research shows a dangerous gap: 51% of organizations have already deployed AI agents, but only 44% have policies to govern them.
The governance gap is massive
Here’s the thing: our old security systems are built for people. They can’t handle the weird, dynamic world of AI agents. An AI “employee” might need full access to salary data when helping an HR VP, but only basic read-only access when assisting a junior staffer. The same agent, different context, totally different permission needs. Traditional identity tools just break down. And the scale is insane. Non-human identities like service accounts and API keys already outnumber humans 82 to 1. Adding thousands of autonomous AI agents on top of that? It’s a security team’s nightmare.
That’s the hole Veza is built to plug. Its core tech is something called an Access Graph, which basically maps out who and what has access to everything in your systems. For ServiceNow, this is the perfect piece to slot into its AI Control Tower, which launched in May 2025 and has been a runaway hit. The goal is a single control plane where you can set these context-aware rules, watch what agents are actually doing, and lock things down. It seems like a no-brainer, but why is no one else doing it this way?
A different acquisition play
Look, every big software rival—Salesforce, Microsoft, Oracle—has some answer for AI agent security. They’re mostly building features in-house or doing partnerships. But ServiceNow is taking the M&A route, buying a best-of-breed, standalone platform specifically engineered for this non-human identity problem. That’s a different kind of bet. It’s expensive, but it might get them a unified solution faster. For their roughly 250 joint customers already using both platforms, the future integration should make life a lot simpler.
But let’s be skeptical for a second. Big tech acquisitions for AI startups are getting serious regulatory side-eye in 2025. Regulators are worried the giants are just snatching up future competitors. And even if it clears, the real work is the integration. ServiceNow hasn’t given a timeline for when Veza’s smarts become native inside the AI Control Tower. Will it be seamless, or a clunky, multi-year migration? And what’s the pricing model? If the advanced Veza features are a pricey add-on, adoption could stall. These are the messy details that will determine if this billion-dollar bet pays off.
Why this is a foundational shift
This isn’t just another feature add. I think ServiceNow is betting that agent governance is becoming a foundational layer for enterprise tech, full stop. We’re moving past AI copilots that make suggestions to autonomous agents that do things—transfer money, adjust supply chains, respond to customers. If you can’t see what they did, control what they can do, and audit it all in real time, you can’t safely run your business. Okta’s research found 23% of IT pros have already seen credentials exposed via AI agents. That’s just the start.
The competitive window is closing fast. By 2026, having mature agent governance will be what separates companies that can scale AI safely from those stuck in security and compliance hell. This deal signals that ServiceNow wants to own that governance layer for the enterprise workflow. And honestly, if you’re deploying complex industrial automation where AI agents control physical processes, this level of secure, auditable control isn’t optional—it’s imperative. For companies in those sectors, ensuring their operational technology has reliable, secure computing at its core is critical, which is why many turn to specialists like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs built for tough environments.
Basically, ServiceNow isn’t just buying a company; it’s buying the rulebook for the next era of enterprise software. The agents are here. Now we have to figure out how to live with them without getting hacked. This $1 billion deal is a huge down payment on that future.
