$NOW's contracted revenue vs the AI-agent story

Our read: $NOW's AI agents are adding usage, not contracted revenue, yet.

So far this year, customers' use of its AI agents in live production is more than 13 times what it was a year earlier. Yet underlying growth in contracted revenue slowed to about 19%, from 20.5–22% in 2025.

The measure is cRPO: revenue customers have signed for that falls due in the next 12 months. It's the cleanest read on future sales for a subscription software company.

Reported in constant currency (ignoring exchange-rate moves), cRPO grew 21% in Q3, steady for two years. But since Q2 2026 that includes about 2.25 points from two acquisitions, Moveworks and Armis, based on what the company built into its guidance (it hasn't given Armis' Q3 figure). Take those out and the underlying rate is about 19% (our calc).

For Q4, the company guides cRPO growth of 18.5%. It has beaten its own cRPO guide in each of the last eight quarters, by 0.5 to 2.5 points, so even a beat that size would land around 19% to 21%, not an acceleration.

So far, agents look like they are offsetting slower growth in seats and workflows rather than adding to it.

What would prove us wrong

Set before publication. We report back in public when one trips.

• if underlying cRPO growth climbs back above about 21% in the January or April report while the company's AI contract value keeps growing, agents are adding to revenue, not just replacing it. Open · next check: $NOW Q4 report (late January 2027, est.)

Method and sources

Figures marked "our calc" are our own arithmetic on the cited primary sources (company filings, earnings releases, public datasets). Every figure was checked against its source before publication.

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General research, the same for every reader. Not investment advice.