Moveworks vs Now Assist: how ServiceNow merged the two.

Evaluating Moveworks vs Now Assist means understanding how ServiceNow unified its portfolio. ServiceNow acquired Moveworks in December 2025, combining conversational enterprise search with generative workflows. ServiceNow is absorbing both names into ServiceNow Otto, while continuing to sell Moveworks as a standalone product within the ServiceNow catalog.

Quick reference: placing the five names.

Understanding the current ServiceNow AI portfolio requires distinguishing between the company ServiceNow acquired, the legacy generative AI skill packs, the commercial EmployeeWorks SKU, the Employee Slate portal, and the umbrella brand.

The verified acquisition timeline.

The Moveworks ServiceNow acquisition completed through a formal regulatory review process in 2025, followed by product releases in 2026.

What Moveworks was, and why ServiceNow wanted it.

Moveworks built its market position around conversational AI and natural language understanding across enterprise systems. Moveworks specialized in resolving employee support requests across Microsoft Teams, Slack, and web portals by interpreting intent and searching unstructured documentation across disconnected platforms.

The Moveworks ServiceNow integration connects conversational search directly with underlying enterprise execution. In a briefing with Constellation Research, Bhavin Shah described the architectural relationship as "Moveworks is a spoke with ServiceNow as a hub." In that hub-and-spoke architecture, Moveworks acts as the frontline touchpoint across distributed chat surfaces, while ServiceNow functions as the central system of record and workflow orchestrator. In a Moveworks press release on joining the platform, the companies outlined the plan to combine conversational front ends with core platform execution.

Bhavin Shah, co-founder and former CEO of Moveworks, is now Senior Vice President and General Manager of Employee Experience and AI at ServiceNow. On 5 May 2026, Bhavin Shah stated: "Moveworks understood what employees needed. ServiceNow could do the work. Together, we built ServiceNow Otto, an AI experience that completes work, across any system, department, or any workflow."

Fun fact: our three co-founders were all early at Moveworks, and built and grew the company from <10m ARR to $100m+ ARR.

What Now Assist is across ServiceNow products.

Now Assist is the generative AI capability layer embedded across ServiceNow workflows. ServiceNow sold Now Assist as discrete add-ons to specific product families, including Now Assist for ITSM, Now Assist for CSM, Now Assist for HRSD, and Now Assist for Creator.

Organizations deployed Now Assist by licensing skill packs for individual modules. Each module targets workflow actions within that specific domain, such as generating incident summaries, drafting knowledge articles, or generating application code. Detailed breakdowns of these skill structures and per-product configurations appear in our guide on Now Assist vs Now Assist for Creator.

EmployeeWorks: the commercial SKU.

ServiceNow announced EmployeeWorks on 26 February 2026 as the first packaged product combining technologies from both companies. EmployeeWorks serves as the commercial SKU that organizations purchase to deliver an enterprise conversational interface across chat applications and browser portals.

ServiceNow's 26 February 2026 press release states that ServiceNow EmployeeWorks "connects Moveworks' conversational AI chat and deep enterprise search with ServiceNow's unified portal and autonomous workflows, turning intent into coordinated action across systems." The system receives employee requests in natural language, searches integrated repositories, and triggers backend fulfillment flows in ServiceNow and third-party systems.

Alongside EmployeeWorks, ServiceNow announced the Autonomous Workforce. The Autonomous Workforce introduces AI specialists designed to execute multi-step operational tasks across enterprise departments. These specialized agents operate with defined scope, delegated authority, and policy governance across ServiceNow workflows.

Employee Slate: the portal, and the engine behind it.

Employee Slate is the AI-first portal home page designed to succeed Service Portal Employee Center. Announced on 5 May 2026, the portal delivers a conversation-first layout, a personalized canvas, a unified inbox, an organization chart, and employee profile views, as documented in ServiceNow Community documentation. Employee Slate ships in two modules: Employee Slate Core and Employee Slate Advanced. Employee Slate Advanced requires Employee Center Pro licensing. Organizations can deploy Employee Slate alongside Employee Center without requiring prior Employee Center implementation.

Configuring Employee Slate on a demo instance shows that EmployeeWorks functions as the commercial SKU, while the portal exposes an engine selection between Otto and Moveworks. Otto is included with the EmployeeWorks license. Moveworks is licensed separately and purchased in addition to EmployeeWorks. When configured with the Moveworks engine, the portal operates as the EmployeeWorks Web App.

The substantive capability difference between the two engines centers on external content access. Moveworks includes prebuilt native connectors to outside content repositories, including SharePoint, OneDrive, Google Drive, and Slack. With the Otto engine, external content connectors are built from scratch and run through Integration Hub, which carries its own transaction consumption.

Employee Slate operates exclusively on either Otto or Moveworks. The platform provides no bring-your-own-model option for pointing the portal at external large language models.

ServiceNow Otto and the brand replacement.

ServiceNow announced Otto on 5 May 2026 to unify its AI capabilities under one brand name. The ServiceNow Otto platform page states: "ServiceNow Otto combines the workflow intelligence of Now Assist and Moveworks along with the multimodal capabilities of AI Experience. It replaces Now Assist and Moveworks across all ServiceNow products, channels, and surfaces, to deliver one AI assistant for everyone in the enterprise."

AI Experience represents the third input to Otto. ServiceNow introduced AI Experience in September 2025 as an agentic AI interface for the Now Platform. Otto brings together the conversational search from Moveworks, the workflow skills from Now Assist, and the agentic interface from AI Experience.

Availability began at announcement. The Otto announcement on 5 May 2026 specifies that Otto is currently available in ServiceNow EmployeeWorks and AI Control Tower, and "ServiceNow Otto will be rolled out across all products in the year ahead." ServiceNow has not published a detailed per-product rollout schedule beyond that timeframe.

Moveworks vs Now Assist: resolving the brand and product tension.

ServiceNow documentation contains two statements that require clarification:

1. The Otto platform page states that Otto "replaces Now Assist and Moveworks across all ServiceNow products, channels, and surfaces."
2. ServiceNow's 26 February 2026 press release states: "Moveworks continues to be offered as a standalone product within the ServiceNow portfolio."

These statements operate at two different levels. Otto replaces the Moveworks brand, conversational layer, and user interface inside ServiceNow products. Moveworks the standalone product remains purchasable as an independent offering within the broader ServiceNow portfolio. Organizations asking whether Moveworks is still available will find that customers running standalone Moveworks continue to operate their software. Organizations using ServiceNow platform tools will see the Moveworks and Now Assist names phased out in favor of Otto.

As of publication, no source states how long standalone Moveworks will remain available in the portfolio. Organizations evaluating standalone deployments can purchase Moveworks independently or integrate it with existing ServiceNow installations.

What this means for your ServiceNow contract.

The transition from Now Assist and Moveworks to Otto is a branding and interface change. The Australia release notes state: "ServiceNow Otto is the new AI experience brand. This change is reflected in the name of ServiceNow products, including AI Desktop Actions."

Regarding existing licenses, the Australia release notes confirm: "Your product entitlements remain unchanged. Check your entitlements to determine your access to specific features." Renaming Now Assist to Otto does not alter existing contract terms, purchased SKUs, or assigned platform seats.

Pricing changes stem from a separate commercial event. On 9 April 2026, ServiceNow announced a transition to an AI-native tiered model, documented in the 9 April 2026 packaging announcement. The product tiers documentation defines these packages as Foundation, Advanced, and Prime tiers, applied per product. Organizations preparing for upcoming renewals should evaluate these tiers separately from the Otto rebrand, as detailed in our analysis of 7 questions to ask before you renew ServiceNow.

Engine selection within EmployeeWorks represents a separate licensing decision. EmployeeWorks includes the Otto engine by default. Moveworks is licensed separately and purchased in addition to EmployeeWorks. Organizations evaluating EmployeeWorks make two commercial decisions: purchasing the EmployeeWorks SKU and deciding whether to license Moveworks on top.

The rebrand rollout across ServiceNow documentation and product screens remains in progress. The ServiceNow quick-start guide states: "In some cases, the switch-over will be uneven; please pardon our dust." Customers will encounter legacy Now Assist URLs alongside Otto product titles during this transition period. Clean instance data models remain essential when deploying these AI capabilities, as outlined in our guides on Now Assist CSM data model prerequisites and instance-first readiness plans.

Planning your migration to Employee Slate.

Echelon's platform testing on a demo instance established four practical migration requirements for teams transitioning to Employee Slate:

• Virtual Agent topics require manual review: a migration tool exists, but community results indicate that migrated topics require end-to-end retesting.
• Portal migration tools do not exist: ServiceNow provides no automated path to convert existing Employee Center layouts into Employee Slate.
• Custom widgets require rebuilding: Employee Slate replaces the legacy sp_widget framework with new architecture and tables.

Configuration promotion continues through standard update sets, maintaining established release pipelines across instance environments.

Frequently asked questions.

Is Moveworks still available?

Moveworks remains available as a standalone product in the ServiceNow portfolio. ServiceNow's February 2026 announcement confirms that organizations can purchase Moveworks independently or deploy it alongside ServiceNow. Organizations running Moveworks retain their existing deployments.

Did ServiceNow discontinue Moveworks?

ServiceNow did not discontinue Moveworks. Moveworks continues to sell as a standalone product. Inside ServiceNow products, channels, and surfaces, the Moveworks experience layer is being replaced by ServiceNow Otto.

What is the difference between Moveworks and Now Assist?

Moveworks provides conversational AI and cross-system enterprise search across business systems. Now Assist provides generative AI skill packs tied to individual ServiceNow products like ITSM, CSM, and HRSD. ServiceNow is combining both technologies into ServiceNow Otto.

What is EmployeeWorks?

EmployeeWorks is the commercial SKU announced by ServiceNow on 26 February 2026 that delivers the enterprise conversational front door. It bundles the Employee Slate portal with the default Otto engine, with Moveworks available as a separately licensed engine to drive workflows and search across Microsoft Teams, Slack, and web browsers.

Do I need Moveworks to use Employee Slate?

Employee Slate operates without Moveworks licensing. Employee Slate is the portal included with EmployeeWorks, which runs on the default Otto engine. Moveworks is an optional engine licensed separately for organizations requiring prebuilt external content connectors.

Does the Otto rename change what I pay?

The Otto rename does not alter contract entitlements or pricing. Commercial changes occur under the separate 9 April 2026 packaging model, which introduced Foundation, Advanced, and Prime tiers per product.

Key takeaways.

• ServiceNow acquired Moveworks for $2.85 billion in a transaction that closed on 15 December 2025.
• Moveworks continues to be offered as a standalone product within the ServiceNow portfolio.
• EmployeeWorks is the commercial SKU, while Employee Slate is the portal interface running on either the default Otto engine or the add-on Moveworks engine.
• ServiceNow Otto, announced on 5 May 2026, combines Now Assist, Moveworks, and AI Experience into a single brand across all ServiceNow products.
• Product entitlements remain unchanged under the Otto rename, while packaging changes are governed by the Foundation, Advanced, and Prime tier model.
• ServiceNow is rolling out Otto across EmployeeWorks and AI Control Tower first, with broader product rollouts scheduled across the year ahead.

Echelon builds AI delivery for ServiceNow. We help enterprise teams prepare their data models and delivery pipelines for EmployeeWorks, ServiceNow Otto, and the Foundation, Advanced, and Prime tiers. To learn how Echelon accelerates your AI implementation and governance, book a demo with Echelon.