From Complexity to Confidence: 5 Lessons from Barclays’ Automation-Led Transformation on ServiceNow

At ServiceNow Knowledge 2025, Barclays, one of the UK’s largest banks, took the stage alongside AutomatePro to share how they revolutionised enterprise testing on the ServiceNow platform through automation.

The session, led by Chris Bishop, Account Director at AutomatePro, and Martin Jones, Global ServiceNow Platform & Product Lead at Barclays, was more than just a case study. It was a masterclass for any organisation operating in complex, regulated environments, demonstrating how to scale digital delivery without compromising speed, quality, or compliance.

Here are five takeaways from Barclays’ journey that every ServiceNow customer should consider.

1. Complexity & Growth Don’t Have to Slow You Down

Barclays has been a ServiceNow customer for over 13 years. In that time, they’ve grown one of the largest and most sophisticated implementations:

To put it into context they:

• Support 124,000 employees
• Expand far beyond ITSM into HAM/SAM Pro, SecOps, CSM, FSO, and more
• Keep up with patches and both annual upgrades
• Deliver 50–70 user stories per sprint

While this growth is a testament to their success, it has brought increasing pressure. As Martin stated, “Demand is constant and growing.” Traditional delivery methods simply couldn’t keep up. They needed a faster, smarter way to deliver, without overburdening their teams or sacrificing quality.

2. Don’t turn a blind eye to Test Coverage

If you’re deploying thousands of stories a year without comprehensive testing, you’re not scaling, you’re gambling.

In a bid to ditch manual testing, Barclays tried other automation tools, but none could match the speed and complexity of their environment. Most lacked true end-to-end test coverage, leaving the platform vulnerable with each new release, integration, or upgrade.

That’s why they partnered with AutomatePro to eliminate manual testing, improve quality and achieve complete coverage, at the push of a button.

3. Burnout Isn’t a Strategy

Manual testing had become a bottleneck. Teams were stretched thin, chasing impossible testing goals under tight sprint timelines. The result: delays, fatigue, and quality risks.

With AutomatePro, Barclays finally broke the cycle. Their teams now rely on automation to deliver fast, repeatable, and reliable test results. Giving them time back to focus on more fulfilling, value-adding projects.

4. Smart Tools Drive Sustainable Transformation

Technology should do more than speed things up – it should make real, measurable impact.

Barclays proved this with two standout wins:

• Their Change Management module, a highly customised and critical process, used to take two people six days to test manually. Now? It runs independently in just 34 minutes, no manual input required.
• Their new joiner onboarding process, once dependent on hands-on testing with dummy user profiles, is now fully automated with one click.

These are more than efficiency gains. They’ve shifted the culture of delivery, where test coverage is assumed, and scaling is sustainable.

5. GenAI Isn’t the Future — It’s Already Here

Barclays is actively embracing AI, from enterprise-wide use cases to innovations within ServiceNow, including Now Assist for ITSM and Creator Workflows.

One area they’re particularly excited about, is AutomatePro’s Agentic AI solution, AutomatePro+. Which enables teams to generate and manage test scripts using natural language.

With AI accelerating test creation and reducing friction, Barclays is building a future-ready testing model that delivers agility and compliance.

The Power of the Right Platform

Barclays’ story proves what’s possible for highly regulated, deeply complex environments. With the right tools, financial services and enterprise organisations no longer need to choose between speed and quality.

What would one-click automation look like for your ServiceNow team? Request a demo to see how AutomatePro can help you deliver faster and smarter.