ServiceNow’s acquisition of Moveworks is currently under regulatory fire from the US Department of Justice. What was hailed as a bold bet to supercharge ServiceNow’s AI capabilities and cement its leadership in workflow automation is now a focal point of antitrust allegations, raising questions about market competition and the future of AI.
The Deal: A Strategic Play for AI Dominance
On March 10, 2025, ServiceNow announced its intention to acquire Moveworks for a whopping $2.85 billion in cash and stocks, making it the largest acquisition of the company. The acquisition of Moveworks was viewed as a major step forward into the rapidly developing fields of generative AI and AI-powered applications.
However, following antitrust allegations by the DOJ, the purchase that was supposed to be finalized by the second half of 2025 has been delayed. ServiceNow is in the process of seeking regulatory approval from the DOJ, which will be possible at the conclusion of the investigation by the department.
Why Did ServiceNow Intend to Purchase Moveworks?
Moveworks was co-founded in 2016 by Bhavin Shah (CEO), Vaibhav Nivargi (CTO), Varun Singh, and Jiang Chen. The company offers an agentic AI assistant for large enterprises that helps employees find information, automate tasks, and improve productivity across enterprise systems.
Moveworks has aided over 350+ leading enterprises like Palo Alto Networks, West Monroe, CVS Health, Databricks, Broadcom, Micron, Ciena, GitHub, Toyota, HP, Hearst, and more. Moveworks has helped these organizations by aiding workflow acceleration, instant ROI to roadblock removals, and customizable solutions.
ServiceNow’s interest in acquiring Moveworks stemmed from the company’s need to bridge critical gaps in its ecosystem, particularly in conversational AI, enterprise search, and mid-market penetration.
Let’s dive deeper into these gaps and how Moveworks helps bridge them.
- AI Architecture: ServiceNow’s AI was largely rule-based and required structured inputs, which limited its ability to handle unstructured queries in a conversational manner. On the other hand, Moveworks is known for its Natural Language Understanding (NLU) engine that enables dynamic free-text AI interactions.
By integrating Movework’s technology, ServiceNow aimed at creating more intuitive, human-like, proactive AI experiences on its platform to allow employees to interact with its AI system in a natural, free-text manner.
- Product-Led Growth (PLG): ServiceNow’s self-service AI capabilities required users to interact with predefined workflows, which led to slower adoption of the service and the company’s dependence on professional services.
Access to Movework’s rapid deployment model will reduce configuration overhead, drive faster adoption, and support ServiceNow’s 30% operating margin target.
- Mid-Market Expansion: ServiceNow’s pricing and deployment complexity makes AI adoption challenging for mid-market firms that prioritize speed and flexibility. With Movework’s commercial model, ServiceNow will be able to offer mid-market firms faster and easier AI integration and deployment.
- Need for top-tier Agentic AI: ServiceNow is heavily invested in the concept of Agentic AI that can autonomously complete business processes with minimal human intervention. Moveworks is perfect for this vision, as its agentic AI not only answers questions but is also capable of taking action and proactively completing requests.
The acquisition will aid ServiceNow’s ability to develop more advanced and autonomous AI agents.
“Moveworks hides the complexity employees face at work by giving them an intuitive, engaging starting place to search and drive action across any enterprise system,” said Shah (CEO) in a statement with TechCrunch. “Becoming part of ServiceNow presents an incredible opportunity to accelerate our innovation and deliver on our promise through their AI agentic platform to redefine user experience for employees and customer service teams.
The Antitrust Probe
In June 2025, according to reports from Bloomberg, it was revealed that the DOJ opened an antitrust investigation into the acquisition. Both companies received a “second request” for documentation and data before the deal can move forward, which is often a sign of serious and extended scrutiny.
The probe, which began in June, is being treated as a thorough investigation into the impact the deal will have on market competition in the AI industry. Should the DOJ determine the acquisition could harm market competition and lead to a monopoly, it may seek to block the transaction through litigation.
Any action that might result in market concentration is closely watched as AI tools become more and more integrated into corporate operations. The DOJ is worried that combining ServiceNow’s powerful workflow platform with Moveworks’ AI copilot could give one supplier too much influence.
The Impact: Delays, Uncertainty, and Market Ripples
If one thing is sure concerning the effect of this probe, it’s the “uncertainty” it poses for the ServiceNow and Moveworks merger. For ServiceNow, this means potential delays in executing its AI strategy and integrating MoveWork’s technology.
For Moveworks, it means a protracted time of uncertainty as its future is uncertain. Beyond the parties involved, the investigation makes it abundantly evident that “AI-related mergers will be placed under heightened regulatory scrutiny” in the AI-tech sector.
The outcome of the probe could significantly shape the competitive landscape in the AI industry and influence future M&A activity and strategic partnerships within the AI ecosystem.
