ServiceNow To Expand AI-Based Skills Tracking With Planned Hitch Works Buy

‘Hitch Works looks at the skills employees have, whether it’s on their resume, from projects completed or from classes taken, and can map that information with places where companies have gaps and find the best fit,’ says Gretchen Alarcon, vice president and general manager of human resources service delivery at ServiceNow.

Cloud-based business workflow platform provider ServiceNow Friday unveiled the planned acquisition of Hitch Works, a developer of AI-powered skills mapping and intelligence technology.

With the acquisition, ServiceNow will gain a new layer of business experience to add to its growing AI-based services, said Gretchen Alarcon, vice president and general manager of human resources service delivery at Santa Clara, Calif.-based ServiceNow.

ServiceNow has had an AI platform for a long time but has not had the ability to apply that platform toward looking at employee skills with a layer based on experience, Alarcon told CRN.

[Related: ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott: We’re ‘Executing On All Cylinders,’ Setting Sights On $15B By 2026]

“When we looked at the opportunities for measuring skills, and specifically how skills needs change within an organization, we saw Hitch Works does this using AI,” she said. “Hitch Works looks at the skills employees have, whether it’s on their resume, from projects completed or from classes taken, and can map that information with places where companies have gaps and find the best fit.”

The acquisition, which is slated to close this quarter, comes as all organizations are looking at talent development and retention, Alarcon said.

“The Hitch Works technology can be applied to different parts of an organization,” she said. “The sales department needs different skills from the IT department. We say skills are the new currency of business.”

Hitch Works has done a good job of using AI to align skills, Alarcon said.

“In some cases, an employee may not realize how close their skills are to other areas in an organization,” she said. “This technology will power a lot of applications for employee success.”

ServiceNow plans to build Hitch Works’ capabilities into its Now Platform starting with its Employee Workflow solutions and will expand to other parts of its customer service, IT and developer portfolios.

Hitch Works was founded in September 2019. Alarcon declined to discuss the company’s profitability or the value of the acquisition.