ServiceNow acquires Hitch to bring AI-powered skills mapping to the enterprise

ServiceNow has announced plans to acquire Hitch Works (Hitch), an AI-powered platform that helps companies plug the talent gap by aligning existing employees’ skills with new roles and training opportunities across the company.

The announcement comes as businesses across the industrial spectrum battle a growing skills gap and talent shortages, driven in part by trends such as the so-called “great resignation.”

With prebuilt integrations for applicant tracking systems, learning management systems, human capital management (HCM) systems, LinkedIn, online survey tools and more, Hitch offers mapping and analytics for skill supply and demand, career planning and mentoring. Leaning on machine learning, Hitch automatically interprets data across project work, job postings and people profiles, then makes recommendations — this could involve matching an employee to new training courses, internal job posts, short-term projects that are understaffed and so on.

In its five years in operation, Hitch has amassed a fairly impressive roster of enterprise clients, including Allianz, Bosch and GE Digital.

Now’s the time

Founded in 2003, ServiceNow has emerged as a $100 billion powerhouse in the enterprise realm, and is best known for its workflow automation platform spanning IT services, employee onboarding, facilities management and more. However, the company has been bolstering its core Now Platform, recently aligning itself with the burgeoning hybrid work movement with new indoor mapping functionalities procured from its Mapwize acquisition.

When the Hitch acquisition closes, which is expected later this quarter, ServiceNow will set about integrating Hitch’s skills insights into the Now Platform, and will look to bridge the existing skills and talent management data silos that often don’t move beyond their native HR software systems. It’s ultimately all about unlocking insights that could help retain talent — recent Pew Research indicated that up to 63% of U.S. workers quit their job in 2021 because there were no advancement opportunities.

“If skills are the new currency for business, insight into these skills is critical to driving talent retention and adapting to evolving business needs,” said Gretchen Alarcon, VP and general manager of HR service delivery at ServiceNow. “But skills management has historically been siloed, with numerous point solutions and fragmented processes that don’t work together. With Hitch, ServiceNow will streamline skills intelligence on a single platform to help business leaders match employees with meaningful work.”