Serval CEO Jake Stauch says it competes with ServiceNow by bringing coding agents to IT teams, which he calls the right way to express enterprise automation.
Stauch says Serval prices on workflows run rather than tokens because customers are pulling back from token maximalism and need proof of ROI.
Stauch predicts point solutions will consolidate into systems of record like ERP, HRIS, ITSM and CRM, and calls background agents the ultimate enterprise software moonshot.
Serval Bets Coding Agents Can Unseat ServiceNow in IT
Serval is betting that code is the right way to express enterprise automation, and that AI now lets IT teams write it without being engineers. That opens ServiceNow's market to a challenger that wraps coding agents in permissions, approvals and audit trails. Large enterprises will adopt agents only when those guardrails exist.
Takeaways
Code is the right enterprise automation layer. ServiceNow is powerful but expensive and slow to change. Building on it is hard, consultants are common, and projects run six to twelve months behind what customers want. AI lets IT staff build in code without being engineers.
Guardrails are what make agents safe at enterprises. Personal agents have narrow permissions in large companies. Serval uses service accounts, deterministic approval cycles, an audit trail and just-in-time access, with a ticketing system underneath. It follows the software development life cycle with staging and approvals, which most new AI products ignore.
Serval attacked the incumbents head on. The company aimed to be the largest enterprise software company from day one, starting with two people in a living room. Stauch says a thin layer on Salesforce caps out. The bet was that coding agents would improve because automation scripts are verifiable.
Implementation is hands-on, with no custom features. Deployment strategists and deployed software engineers work on-site, then automation engineers in ProServal stay on. Serval never builds for one customer. Recurring automations, such as reclaiming unused licenses, become platform features. Fox Corporation adopted it company wide.
Pricing follows workflows run, not tokens. Some CIOs are pulling back from early token maximalism, though overall AI spend will still rise. Customers want proof of ROI. Stauch says tokens reflect verbosity and inefficiency more than work done, so Serval charges per workflow.
Systems of record survive and point tools consolidate. Stauch says building enterprise software internally is expensive, so buying stays right for non-core needs. Companies run hundreds of SaaS applications but probably need about two dozen. Point solutions will fold into ERP, HRIS, ITSM and CRM.
Serval reinvents itself quickly. Headcount is about 200, up from 20 in January, and hiring will accelerate. Engineers are embedded with customers, most join a customer call weekly, and there is no separate product function. Stauch is proudest of erasing past decisions.
What Stauch expects next
Enterprises will tighten individual permissions toward least privilege, and Serval grants the exceptions.
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On this episode 3
Show 1
Personal agents will become common at work, as email and Slack did, and will talk to one another.
Consumer products offer a window into enterprise trends, with governance as the tension to solve.
Background agents are the ultimate moonshot. The safe path is incremental approval of deterministic workflows, and permissions remain the hardest problem.