ServiceNow and Dynatrace on Building Smarter IT Operations

What happens when two enterprise technology giants combine observability, automation, and AI to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing modern IT teams?Recording live from the showfloor at Dynatrace Perform in Las Vegas, I caught up with Pablo Stern, EVP and GM of Technology Workflows at ServiceNow, to discuss how the company's expanding strategic partnership with Dynatrace is helping organizations move closer to autonomous IT operations.For years, IT teams have been trapped in a cycle of alerts, escalations, war rooms, and lengthy root-cause investigations. But as AI matures and observability platforms become increasingly intelligent, a new model is emerging. One where systems can identify issues, understand their impact, recommend actions, and eventually resolve problems with minimal human intervention.Pablo explains why the journey toward autonomous operations is less about replacing people and more about removing friction. We explore how ServiceNow workflows and Dynatrace observability work together to shorten the path from detection to resolution, helping organizations reduce downtime, improve service reliability, and create better experiences for both employees and customers.The conversation also examines the realities behind concepts such as self-healing systems, intelligent automation, and agentic AI. Rather than focusing on futuristic promises, Pablo shares a practical view of how enterprises can build trust in automation one step at a time, starting with insights, progressing to guided actions, and eventually enabling autonomous outcomes where appropriate.We also discuss why change management remains one of the biggest causes of outages, how AI can help organizations understand potential risks before changes are deployed, and why the next generation of IT operations will rely on stronger collaboration between platforms, people, and processes.From customer expectations and operational resilience to the future role of IT teams, this episode offers a thoughtful look at how enterprise technology is evolving beyond monitoring and ticket management into something far more proactive and intelligent.So as organizations push toward higher availability, faster resolution times, and increasingly complex digital environments, are we finally approaching a future where IT operations become truly autonomous?