Businesses that adopt AI solutions face new risks, which Cisco and ServiceNow will address jointly with their advanced and integrated security tools.
Continuing their seven-year successful business relationship, Cisco, a leading telecommunications and networking provider, and ServiceNow, a transformative AI-driven business platform, have deepened their partnership to enable customers to simplify, secure and scale their AI use.
The first integration unites Cisco’s AI Defense end-to-end security capabilities with the ServiceNow SecOps platform, which integrates IT operations with security processes, to provide a more holistic AI risk management and governance approach.
Cisco AI Defense is embedded within the Cisco Security Cloud platform and integrates with other existing Cisco security solutions, such as Secure Access and Multicloud Defense. The solution addresses unique risks characteristic of AI technologies, including model vulnerabilities, data leakage, adversarial attacks, and unauthorised use of third-party AI tools. Along with standard cybersecurity tools, AI Defense helps organisations prevent sensitive data exposure and mitigate external threats, ensure the integrity of AI-powered and other corporate applications during operation, and manage multiple risks associated with the AI supply chain.
Meanwhile, the ServiceNow Security Operations (SecOps) platform offers a unified approach to managing and responding to security incidents, vulnerabilities, and compliance issues. It streamlines the detection, prioritisation, and resolution of security incidents, enabling businesses to identify, assess, and remediate vulnerabilities across their whole IT infrastructure. The switch to a holistic view from a fragmented approach helps orchestrate complex workflows and enables proactive measures to strengthen cyber defences. Additionally, the solution incorporates threat intelligence feeds to enrich real-time incident data with wider context about known threats, indicators of compromise (IOCs), and attack patterns. That makes security decision-making more informed and nuanced.
When integrated with ServiceNow SecOps, Cisco AI Defense offers a unified solution that enhances AI security across various enterprise sectors by combining deep visibility into AI workloads with streamlined security operations. Cisco AI Defense discovers and assesses AI models and vulnerabilities, while ServiceNow maps these findings to business services, prioritises remediation, and manages incidents and compliance. This collaboration enables real-time protection, automated risk response, and governance alignment, thus empowering organisations to secure their AI systems proactively and efficiently.
So far, the integration is being prepared for initial field trials, which will be available to mutual customers of Cisco and ServiceNow in the second half of 2025. The two firms also plan to introduce additional integrations of their separate capabilities later this year.
Amit Zavery, president, chief product officer, and chief operating officer at ServiceNow, noted that AI was unlocking unprecedented speed and scale in business, but as innovation accelerated, so did the risks. He emphasised that cybersecurity measures could no longer be merely reactive, but need to change their character to a predictive and proactive one.
A new set of risks businesses face when they adopt and scale AI are distinct from traditional IT threats. These risks include a lack of visibility into how AI models operate, where sensitive data is processed, and whether AI behaviour aligns with compliance and security standards. Unlike traditional software, AI systems can be more dynamic and unpredictable, creating blind spots for security and governance teams. A siloed approach only aggravates the issues. To address these risks, businesses need integrated platforms which unify infrastructure oversight, automate workflows, and enable proactive governance across all AI assets. That’s exactly what Cisco and ServiceNow are now aiming to provide.
