The enterprise software market is entering a new phase. After ServiceNow revealed its ambitions to move into the CRM space earlier this year, all eyes turned to Salesforce, which is widely expected to announce its own IT Service Management (ITSM) solution at Dreamforce, the company's event coming next October.
The move would place Salesforce directly against ServiceNow in a field where the latter has long dominated, and it reflects a broader trend: big vendors are expanding into adjacent markets to capture more of their customers’ workflows, data, and AI opportunities.
Salesforce ITSM announcement
Hints of a Salesforce ITSM product first appeared during the company’s Q4 earnings call. CEO Marc Benioff suggested that Dreamforce attendees might “catch a glimpse” of the new solution, which would place ITSM alongside Salesforce’s growing portfolio of AI-driven offerings, including Agentforce and Data Cloud.
What we know so far is limited, but the positioning is clear. These are Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff's words in The Logan Bartlett Show on YouTube:
“Come to Dreamforce, and you’ll see. We’ve never been in the ITSM market before, so we’re entering, and we’re building on Slack… ServiceNow is a great company. I think they automate, like 9000 companies – I don’t know what the number is that they have – but Slack is in a million companies.”
For existing Salesforce customers, this could mean managing both employee and customer support cases in a single system.
Salesforce and ServiceNow
The rivalry between Salesforce and ServiceNow is intensifying. ServiceNow was founded on ITSM and has since expanded into areas like HR, finance, and most recently, CRM — a space Salesforce has dominated for two decades. On its side, Salesforce is now stepping into ITSM, directly challenging ServiceNow’s core business.
Both companies share some characteristics:
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A focus on end-to-end workflow automation.
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Heavy investment in AI and agent technologies.
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A single-platform pitch to reduce integration complexity.
The differences lie in maturity. ServiceNow is battle-tested in ITSM, especially for large enterprises with high ticket volumes and complex use cases. Salesforce, by contrast, comes with deep CRM expertise, massive scale, and an ecosystem of integrations — but little track record in core ITSM.
Salesforce ITSM: what to expect
Early indications suggest that Salesforce ITSM will be tightly integrated with Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, and its AI-driven Agentforce. That could bring benefits like:
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Unified handling of customer and IT requests in one platform.
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AI-powered ticket triage and resolution based on Salesforce’s agent technology.
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Strong reporting and analytics leveraging Data Cloud.
However, there are also limitations to anticipate. User feedback from organizations already adapting Salesforce for ITSM points to complexity, high customization needs, and resource demands. Smaller teams may find it overkill, while larger enterprises might consider whether the solution can truly match ServiceNow’s and other specialized vendors' out-of-the-box ITSM capabilities.
Looking forward, Salesforce is likely to push ITSM as part of its broader AI and data strategy. The rise of agentic AI, the importance of connected data, and the push against siloed processes probably make ITSM a natural extension of Salesforce’s platform story.
For companies already invested in Salesforce, the new ITSM solution could reduce vendor sprawl. For those evaluating ITSM independently, it may raise the question of whether Salesforce can deliver the depth and maturity required compared to ServiceNow or other specialized providers.
