ServiceNow AI bot is resolving 90% of help desk tickets, the blueprint for modern support automation

When ServiceNow quietly began cutting jobs in early 2026, it wasn't a sign of weakness, it was a signal. The enterprise software giant, which ended 2025 with 29,187 employees, trimmed several hundred positions as part of a global restructuring. But the headline isn't the layoffs; it's the reason behind them: AI is finally delivering on its promise to transform IT service desks.

According to a recent report from The Register, ServiceNow's AI bot is now resolving 90% of help desk tickets at one early adopter organization. Nine out of ten. That's not a stretch goal or a vendor's slide deck, it's a live production result. For support leaders drowning in ticket volume and budget pressure, this is the benchmark.

But what does a 90% deflection rate actually mean in terms of ROI, team morale, and customer satisfaction? And more importantly, how can your organization replicate it without the massive infrastructure and cost of an enterprise-wide ServiceNow overhaul?

Let's break down the data, the strategy, and the actionable playbook for achieving similar results with modern AI-powered support automation platforms like Successly.

The 90% deflection milestone: what the data tells us

ServiceNow's AI bot, part of its Edwin AI suite, gives IT teams a single pane to investigate what broke, understand what it affects, find or generate a fix, and run it across existing tools. The result? A dramatic reduction in hand-offs, escalations, and manual triage.

Consider the before-and-after metrics reported by the early adopter:

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