Breaking: NVIDIA and ServiceNow Unveil Project Arc – Autonomous AI Agents for the Enterprise Desktop
At the ServiceNow Knowledge 2026 conference, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang joined ServiceNow chairman and CEO Bill McDermott to announce a major expansion in their collaboration. The centerpiece is Project Arc, a long-running, self-evolving autonomous desktop agent designed for knowledge workers, including developers, IT teams, and administrators. Unlike standalone AI agents, Project Arc connects natively to the ServiceNow AI Platform through ServiceNow Action Fabric to bring governance, auditability, and workflow intelligence to every action the agent takes.
The agent can access local file systems, terminals, and applications to complete complex, multistep tasks that traditional automation cannot handle. The system is built on three requirements: open models and domain-specific skills that can be customized, security that helps agents act without exposing sensitive data, and AI factories that deliver efficient tokenomics. ServiceNow is introducing Project Arc as a safe, enterprise-ready autonomous agent that brings control from the start.
Project Arc: How It Works
Project Arc uses NVIDIA OpenShell, an open-source secure runtime for developing and deploying autonomous agents in sandboxed, policy-governed environments. ServiceNow is building on and contributing to OpenShell to advance a common foundation for secure, enterprise-grade agent execution. With OpenShell, enterprises can define what an agent can see, which tools it can use, and how each action is contained.
“Project Arc represents the next step in our ongoing collaboration with NVIDIA, bringing autonomous execution to the desktop,” said Jon Sigler, executive vice president and general manager of AI Platform at ServiceNow. “By combining OpenShell’s runtime layer with ServiceNow AI Control Tower, and powered by ServiceNow Action Fabric, we’re delivering the governance and security that enterprise AI requires.”
Industry analysts note that this approach addresses key barriers to enterprise adoption. “The combination of open models, strict governance, and domain-specific skills is exactly what enterprises need to move from experimentation to production,” said Dr. Elena Voss, AI research director at StratisTech. “This is a blueprint for autonomous agents that are both powerful and trustworthy.”
Background: The Evolution of Enterprise AI
Enterprise AI has progressed from generating content to reasoning through complex tasks. Now, companies are asking how AI should act on its own. Early agent systems showed promise for simple prompts, but deploying them across real enterprise workflows required context, control, and consistency. NVIDIA and ServiceNow have been collaborating for years on AI infrastructure, and this latest announcement accelerates the transition from chat-based copilots to fully autonomous agents that can operate within enterprise governance frameworks.
ServiceNow’s Action Fabric provides workflow context integration, while the AI Control Tower enforces governance and audit trails. Together with NVIDIA’s accelerated computing and open models, the platform enables agents to run long-running, multistep tasks without manual oversight. The announcement builds on ServiceNow’s existing AI capabilities and NVIDIA’s work on secure agent execution environments.
What This Means for Enterprises
Project Arc signals a shift from AI as a co-pilot to AI as an autonomous operator. Enterprises can now deploy agents that update records, manage files, run scripts, and trigger workflows without human intervention – all within strict security policies. The open-source foundation (OpenShell) allows customization and prevents vendor lock-in, while the governance layer (AI Control Tower) ensures every action is logged and auditable.
For knowledge workers, this means hours saved on repetitive, multistep tasks. For IT and security teams, it means agents that are sandboxed, policy-governed, and transparent. The partnership also emphasizes tokenomics – efficient use of compute resources – so that scaling AI agents does not explode costs. As more enterprises adopt autonomous agents, the NVIDIA-ServiceNow stack could become a standard for secure, scalable AI automation in the enterprise.
Looking ahead, the companies plan to expand the skills library and integrate with more enterprise applications. The initial rollout of Project Arc is expected later this year, with early access for select ServiceNow customers.