ServiceNow Inc. announced on Tuesday an expanded collaboration with NVIDIA Corp. to bring advanced artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to enterprises across multiple industries, with an emphasis on regulated sectors.
Apriel 2.0, the next generation of ServiceNow’s open-source AI model family and cornerstone of the news, addresses a critical inflection point in enterprise AI adoption. Developed through post-training with data from NVIDIA and ServiceNow, the new model is built to deliver enhanced reasoning and multimodal, the companies said.
“The next wave of AI is about more than innovation. It’s about execution — how fast and how responsibly enterprises can put advanced intelligence to work,” said Pat Casey, chief technology officer and EVP, DevOps, at ServiceNow. “Our collaboration with NVIDIA is built around that idea. By releasing open models with best-in-class reasoning, we can deliver AI that’s efficient, trusted, and built to scale.”
The new model represents a significant technical advancement, Casey said, matching the reasoning and accuracy of much larger models while operating at a fraction of the size. The efficiency gain comes as industry analysts predict a major shift toward smaller, specialized AI models.
Gartner forecasts that by 2027, context-specific models will see usage volumes at least three times greater than general-purpose large language models (LLMs).
Apriel 2.0 features native support for multimodal inputs, enabling it to interpret screenshots, forms, and diagrams. Its capability expands its utility across enterprise workflows, particularly in industries with stringent regulatory requirements such as financial services, healthcare, and telecommunications. The model incorporates responsible data vetting, safety guardrails, and transparency controls designed to meet compliance standards in these sectors.
The model builds on ServiceNow’s earlier Apriel Nemotron 15B model, which launched at the company’s Knowledge 2025 event and is already in production. The company also recently released Apriel-1.5-15B-Thinker, an open-source model that delivers advanced reasoning capabilities on a single GPU.
Additionally, the partnership will integrate ServiceNow’s platform with NVIDIA AI Factory reference designs to build AI applications.
Practical applications include AI agents for retailers to handle service requests like gift card replacements and point-of-sale system malfunctions. In the public sector, the technology will support federal government operations, helping agencies capture, track, and fulfill citizen and interagency requests more efficiently.
Kari Briski, NVIDIA’s vice president of generative AI for enterprise, emphasized the strategic value of open models. “Open models empower enterprises to customize AI with transparency and control — unlocking innovation while meeting the unique demands of their data, workflow and trust requirements,” Briski said.
ServiceNow expects Apriel 2.0 to enter production by the first quarter of 2026, with the AI Factory integration available on a similar timeline.
