How Enterprise Tech Learns from Consumers | With Rajeev Sethi, Group VP of Tech at ServiceNow

Rajeev Sethi, SVP of Emerging Technologies at ServiceNow, joins Mala Ramakrishnan for a candid conversation on how large enterprises actually adopt AI, automation, and agentic systems.With nearly four decades across engineering, IT, consulting, and enterprise platforms, Rajeev shares how ServiceNow evolved from a workflow engine into a category-defining company, why automation matters more than AI buzzwords, and where agentic AI is genuinely useful versus overblown.The episode dives deep into consumerizing enterprise software, working with early-stage startups, pitching to CIOs, embedding AI responsibly, and why autonomous enterprises are closer than we think—but still hard to build.A practical, grounded discussion for founders, product leaders, and operators building enterprise and AI-first products.___________________________________________________Timestamps00:00 Intro and Rajeev Sethi’s background01:10 From engineer to enterprise leader02:30 Designing systems for the future, not today03:50 Early customer deployment and consulting lessons05:10 Why ServiceNow created the Emerging Tech group06:30 Learning from 200+ early-stage startups08:00 How ServiceNow works with founders and VCs09:20 What ServiceNow got right early on10:40 Pivoting from platform to ITSM12:00 Embedding AI before GenAI hype13:30 LLMs, Hugging Face, and frontier models15:00 From generative AI to agentic workflows16:40 Why AI agents need guardrails18:10 AI is not autonomous without workflows19:40 The limits of AI accuracy in enterprises21:10 Why unstructured data is the real bottleneck22:40 Autonomous enterprise vs autonomous vehicles24:10 Where AI will create real enterprise value25:40 Final thoughts on automation and opportunity___________________________________________________🔗 Connect with Rajeev Sethi → https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeevsethi1/🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan🎧 Subscribe to the podcastYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4ASpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQApple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7Visit our Website: https://malaramakrishnan.com | https://founderscreative.org