What if AI could help your team deliver on ServiceNow faster, safer, and with less hassle?

That’s exactly what we explored in a recent webinar with Cognizant. AI isn’t just a tool — it’s transforming DevOps, helping teams automate repetitive tasks, improving test coverage, and freeing up valuable time for innovation. Chris Pope, Chief Product Officer at AutomatePro, and Toni Fugere, ServiceNow Business Advisory and Solution Development Lead at Cognizant, shared practical ways to make AI work for you — from automating documentation to boosting confidence in every release. 

Why DevOps Still Struggles  

DevOps is supposed to combine software development and IT operations to speed up delivery, but as Chris pointed out, it’s as much about people and processes: “DevOps has a lot of personas like engineers, developers, QA teams, product owners, external compliance and auditors. But how do you bring everything together and make sense of it?”  

Teams are still struggling with siloed tools, disjointed workflows and fragmented data. That’s where AI steps in — connecting systems, closing gaps, and keeping everything moving. 

 AI solves the biggest DevOps challenges  

Of all the testing challenges teams face today, 60% of attendees confirmed that manual testing is the largest challenge. Other common challenges include:  

• Gaps in test coverage and integration quality  

• Outdated documentation  

• Siloed tools, teams and processes  

• Large, infrequent and risky releases  

• Approval bottlenecks and stalled deployments  

AI doesn’t just speed things up — it fills these gaps automatically, giving you traceable results without adding more work for developers or technical writers.

How AI-driven automation makes DevOps smarter   

Automation transforms the whole workflow: from coding to testing, deployment to documentation, including:   

• Faster, safer releases — automated tests catch defects early  

• Continuous visibility — track progress and compliance in real time  

• Smarter documentation — keeps knowledge articles and training videos up-to-date   

Think of it as a co-pilot that handles the tedious stuff so your team can focus on building and innovating.

How it works behind the scenes   

1. AI- generated tests: Can create test plans that test entire workflows end-to-end, even in highly customised environments. But remember, when you start using AI to generate tests it may not be 100% accurate because it depends on the data that you’re feeding it. You’ll need to do slight modifications to ensure that the testing matches your exact configurations. But no more writing every script by hand!   
2. Repository synchronisation: Often you get assigned work in one area like production and start working on it in another. How can you connect these things without information being lost? That’s where repositories come in, it’s the glue between instances that keeps tests plans, update sets and approvals in sync. Without AI there are 10-20 manual steps in this process. Repositories automate process and bring teams together, so they can manage changes efficiently and reduce errors.  
3. Video documentation: Let’s keep up with the times, these days most people learn through short, interactive videos, not lengthy PDFs or training modules. Today, AI can automatically create & update training videos ready for approvals and compliance, so delivery isn’t stalled.   

A smart path to AI adoption  

 AI-driven DevOps does not happen overnight. Chris recommends a phased approach.  

1. Crawl:  Run nightly regressions to achieve 100% coverage   
2. Walk: Introduce continuous testing with smaller, more frequent releases  
3. Run: Implement performance and change management checks and automate deployment
4. Fly:  Identify risks before they impact delivery  

By gradually increasing automation, your team builds confidence. 

Real Results: Lloyds Banking Group  

Lloyds Banking Group is a prime example of how the “crawl, walk, run, fly” approach to AI adoption delivers real results. By starting with foundational test automation, Lloyds turned a complex, 30-hour smoke testing process into just 22 minutes of automated bliss.  

How did they do it? They focused on high-impact areas first, building reusable test blocks to eliminate repetitive work, then automated documentation to meet strict compliance requirements.  

As Toni added “the cost of owning a ServiceNow platform can feel expensive. And a lot of it is due to spending too much time on these types of activities so that you don’t have time to unlock these new capabilities.” But by nailing the fundamentals, Lloyds freed up their teams to focus on innovation and maximising platform value. 

The future is AI-driven DevOps  

AI-driven DevOps is redefining how organisations build and test on ServiceNow. It allows teams to deliver faster with greater consistency and confidence.   

With AI teams can achieve:  

• Faster testing cycles: from days to minutes  

• Reduced manual effort: freeing up time for innovation   

• Improved compliance: audit-ready documentation without extra effort

As shown by Lloyds Banking Group, you can move from hours of manual testing to minutes while balancing speed and accuracy. AI doesn’t replace people it helps us. It removes barriers, streamlines complex processes so we can focus on more important work. AI-driven DevOps brings the future of intelligent, continuous delivery to every organisation.  Watch the full webinar to learn more