ITSM agent procurement in 2026 is not three independent vendors but two acquirer ecosystems plus one product line at the intersection: ServiceNow (acquirer; Now Assist native plus Moveworks acquired 15 Dec 2025 for $2.4B closed consideration vs the announced $2.85B) and Automation Anywhere (acquired Aisera Nov 2025). The procurement decision in 2026 is shaped less by the feature matrix than by the post-acquisition reality. Picking by feature matrix without mapping the acquirer's strategic interest produces the wrong answer. ServiceNow Now Assist is the bolt-on for organisations already on ServiceNow; Moveworks is the omnichannel layer (still standalone branding, ServiceNow-owned); Aisera is the auto-resolution play that competes on closure rate, now under Automation Anywhere's portfolio.

Three-way Compare entry surfaced under /compare/. Critical pre-publish verification: ServiceNow Q1 2026 10-Q confirms $2.4B actual Moveworks consideration (1.467B stock, 905M cash, 31M loan settlement, 4M SBC) vs the $2.85B announcement still circulating in trade press; Aisera homepage banner confirms Automation Anywhere acquisition Nov 2025 with product line continuing. Customer evidence cited: BT Now Assist pilot (55% case-summary writing time reduction, 35% case-resolution time reduction with Hena Jalil on record); ServiceNow internal 90% L1 deflection (Nenshad Bardoliwalla, framed as upper bound); Aisera customer evidence (Lifescan 65% auto-resolution; NJ Transit 60% productivity gain; Gartner-cited 90% deflection). Multi-step agent reliability caveat surfaced via CRMArena-Pro (58% single-step / 35% multi-step) plus Carnegie Mellon independent verification. Salesforce Agentforce IT context: 200 customers in 6 months vs Salesforce's 150,000 base; ARR loss to ServiceNow $42K against $13.2B FY25 revenue (Bill McDermott, Citizens Tech Conference 2 Mar 2026). Linked to AM-121 as the most recent published context piece on AI in IT operations. 60-day review cadence; trigger conditions include ServiceNow Knowledge 2026 announcements (5-7 May 2026 in Las Vegas), further Moveworks-into-Now-Assist consolidation, Aisera roadmap shifts under Automation Anywhere, pricing changes >15%.