ServiceNow's HR AI agent could edit salaries. Its own testers talked it into it.
ServiceNow built an AI agent for routine HR requests, such as checking how many days of paid leave remain or adding a newborn to an insurance plan, Analytics India Magazine reported.
The company's security team tried to break it. The agent could use tools that edited the HR database, including one that changed salaries.
ServiceNow's chief technology officer told the magazine: "We had to talk to it a lot, but we were really persuasive. We talked it into changing our salaries."
He blamed the permissions, not the model. In his words, whoever ran the AI "over-gave it access to tools it shouldn't have."
He also said ServiceNow can automate about 15% of classic IT incident handling today and expects 20% next year, though never all of it.
The article does not say whether any change reached payroll.
Who on your project signs off on which tools an AI agent may call in HR or payroll?
Image: AI-generated.
Sources
Our file on ServiceNow
- 8 Oct
SAP agreed to buy HR startup TechWolf. Rivals Workday and ServiceNow had backed it.
- 20 Sept
ServiceNow found 75% of CIOs cannot see every AI tool they run.
For your next steering committee
- 1Ask which AI tools already touch your ERP or finance data, including the ones nobody approved.
- 2Ask what each tool is allowed to change, and who reviews what it changed.
- 3Ask how the result is measured, and who decides to switch a tool off.
Issue 01 of the ERP LEADERS brief puts a timeline, the three-number review and six questions on one page. Read issue 01
Welcome back. · Issue 01
