Microsoft and ServiceNow Target the AI Agent Control Layer

In today’s Cloud Wars AI Minute, I break down why ServiceNow and Microsoft are embracing open protocols as the AI Agent War shifts to the control layer.

Highlights

00:01 — What I want to talk about today is that we’re actually seeing the Agent War moving up to the control layer. You’re seeing that there’s a new control layer that’s becoming the core part of what everyone is fighting over in this space, and this is really where we’re going to start seeing governance and control becoming the more important part as we continue to move forward.

00:55 — ServiceNow is building a layer that governs what agents do with it, and this is going to be shipped on the open protocol of MCP. But if we look over at Microsoft, which is building out Work IQ, it’s going to make sure that it also exposes over MCP, A2A, and REST.

01:32 — It’s actually leveraging the out-of-the-box available [protocols] that are basically industry standards at this point, and that’s actually a really good sign for the way that things are going. And it also means that what we’re also starting to see in this governance space reliance and integration starting to happen across all of these different layers.

02:17 — And I would fully expect that this is going to be a place that we need to keep a strong eye on as we continue to move forward. And, of course, here at Cloud Wars, we’ll make sure that we continue to take a look at this particular space .