ServiceNow Bets Big on Claude Code for Smarter App Building

The company's Build Agent now defaults to Anthropic’s developer-focused model, aiming to speed up production-grade apps and complex agentic workflows

ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott gestures on stage during his keynote address at the company's Knowledge conference on May 6, 2025 in Las Vegas, NV. Credit: Ken Yeung

ServiceNow is upgrading its Build Agent, shifting the coding assistant to run by default on Anthropic’s Claude Code instead of the general-purpose Claude model. This change gives users access to a language model purpose-built for software development, better suited to handling coding tasks and application logic when building production-grade apps and agents. This move is part of a broader push by the two companies to deepen their enterprise ties.

When it was introduced in September, ServiceNow said its Build Agent could turn an idea into a production-ready app in seconds, with no coding required. The launch pushed the company into an increasingly crowded field that includes Claude Code, Loveable, Vercel, GitHub Copilot, Base44, Cursor, Replit, and Windsurf; enterprise rival Salesforce would unveil its own vibe-coding agent a month later.

But despite vibe coding taking hold in the enterprise, concerns persist about the risks posed by these bots and by citizen developers using them. Even seasoned developers are saying they’re taking a “trust but verify” approach to using these AI tools. To assuage fears, ServiceNow boasts that anything built with its Build Agent automatically includes built-in audit trails, security, and compliance.

“A common error enterprises make with AI is to treat it as a kind of ‘bolt on’ tool that you access now and then,” Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s co-founder and chief executive, says in a release. “The way to get much better results is to make AI an integral part of how you get work done—woven into the whole range of things workers do every day. That’s where you actually start to see what these systems can do…”

To emphasize the value Anthropic’s model brings, ServiceNow has rolled out Claude Code across its entire organization. Engineering, development, and technical teams are using this AI coding assistant to write and review code, debug issues, automate repetitive development tasks, and improve internal tooling. All of these efforts have reportedly helped reduce the time between idea and implementation.

And while Claude was initially the default model for ServiceNow’s vibe coding bot, it wasn’t the only one developers could choose from. The company, like its peers, takes a model-agnostic stance—it doesn’t subscribe to a one-size-fits-all philosophy—partnering with multiple AI providers and offering suggestions depending on the task.

“Having multiple partnerships like these creates opportunities to build unique offerings with each provider, so that we can partner to solve specific customer needs together versus simply plugging in a model,” Amit Zavery, ServiceNow’s chief product and operating officer, remarks.

Case in point: Last week, ServiceNow signed a deal with OpenAI that will see GPT-5.2 power its enterprise platform and also be used to create AI voice technology.

“We don’t view these partnerships as competitive or mutually exclusive. Enterprise customers want model choice,” Zavery adds. “They want the right model for the right job—keeping governance, security, and auditability consistent on the ServiceNow AI Platform. Each model brings different strengths, and our role is to orchestrate them in ways that deliver the best outcomes for customers.”

But beyond the Build Agent, ServiceNow is further integrating Claude into its platform. The company reveals it’s using the model to develop agentic workflows for the healthcare and life sciences industries with the goal of assisting with research analysis, claims authorization, and other tasks. “Claude is an industry-leading AI model for these tasks, with Claude Opus 4.5 leading major medical benchmarks and life sciences evaluations,” ServiceNow writes. “With the ServiceNow AI Platform underpinning these capabilities, claims authorization could be reduced from days to hours while also decreasing costs.”

“ServiceNow with Anthropic is turning intelligence into action through AI-native workflows for the world’s largest enterprises,” ServiceNow Chairman and Chief Executive, Bill McDermott, says in a statement. “This partnership is about reimagining how work gets done. It puts the power to build, deploy, and scale mission-critical applications into the hands of every person, in every industry, at every level.”

For Anthropic, today’s announcement adds to a growing string of recent headlines. Claude Code reportedly generates over $1 billion in recurring revenue. The company also released an MCP extension that lets users interact with apps natively within the Claude chatbot, including Slack. Anthropic is in the midst of raising a new funding round that could top $20 billion and has increased its revenue forecast for the next several years, projecting sales to jump fourfold this year to $18 billion.

As for ServiceNow, it’s been on an acquisition spree, buying the identity security startup Veza for over $1 billion and cybersecurity firm Armis for $7.75 billion late last year. As it prepares to report FYQ4 2025 earnings on Wednesday, investors will be watching to see whether its AI bets are delivering results—and if they can turn the stock’s performance around.