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Ingrid Franzen can talk the talk. If you want to have a spirited discussion about ServiceNow’s agentic AI transformation, how she’s guiding a team of more than one hundred to build autonomous, self-learning support workflows that elevate the customer and employee experience, the vice president of technology and services is excited and engaged. But there is something decidedly different about the twenty-five-year veteran of organizations that include LinkedIn, Cisco, AT&T, Workday, GE, and others.
There is a humanity, a groundedness, and a connection that, for better or worse, doesn’t feel like that Silicon Valley tech and thought leader. Maybe it’s her early years spent in Mexico, maybe it’s the thousands of hours she’s devoted to mentoring both formally with organizations like Dev/Mission and Conectado, and informally as a rare Latina in tech in a position of leadership. The VP is a unicorn of sorts in a world that desperately needs more role models with Franzen’s background and expertise.
Whatever it is that makes Franzen different, it’s special. And it’s working.
“I’m proud that my tone and my energy might seem a bit different,” Franzen says, after being confronted with this observation. “We have to be that inspirational lighthouse full-time. I hope the signal I put out is inspiring. I hope it’s engaging and inviting and not commanding and controlling.”
Franzen came to ServiceNow in early 2025 with a clear remit. She was to completely reimagine the very processes that define a modern support organization. Her vision for AI-driven support is to move from a “case management” paradigm, where support is reactive and case-based, to a conversational and anticipatory AI-fueled experience. The VP posits the possibility of contextual interaction where AI can sense frustration and urgency and respond in kind.
What sets the VP’s approach apart is the human layer she intertwines with digital transformation. She doesn’t see AI as a force in tension with employees. Instead, she views it as an accelerator, a partner in delivering exceptional experiences.
“We can utilize AI to activate and energize our workforce to shift our mindset around how we partner with technology,” Franzen says. It’s as much about helping employees reimagine what’s possible as it is about the change itself.
The VP is backed by two-and-a-half decades of technology and operations leadership. Franzen previously held roles in engineering, product, infrastructure, and data centers. This may mark her first foray into leading a support division, but it was a change she was excited to embrace.
“I am the AI transformation and operations leader here; that is my scope,” the VP says. “It’s my job to bring about change here that is meaningful and heartfelt to the entire organization while also delivering on all of my other obligations.”
While some of those obligations are in her job description, others aren’t. Franzen has been a vocal and supportive activist for underrepresented groups in tech. The VP sees herself as an “unlikely” candidate as a leader in tech: she is Latinx and a woman who has made her way to the executive level without a typical engineering degree. She has leveraged her business foundation and rapidly expanded her tech acumen to navigate deeply technical environments with speed and credibility.
Franzen is involved with a number of nonprofits and mentoring initiatives, and she currently serves on the board of directors at Dev/Mission, which encourages inner-city youth in San Francisco to pursue careers in tech. The leader has spearheaded programs to advance diverse talent in tech and has consistently prioritized one-on-one mentoring throughout her career.
She’s directly mentored over fifty students, primarily from Latinx and underrepresented backgrounds, as a YearUp Champion. Franzen also supported and led Workday’s Elevar and Unidos programs, which were created to support Latinx advancement in tech.
The leader has made her voice heard, as a multiple-time keynote speaker, and has regularly spoken on the importance of advancing and pipelining Latinx employees. She landed multiple awards at GE and AT&T while advancing these missions. And while her family didn’t serve in the military, Franzen has taken veteran issues to heart, acting as an executive sponsor for Workday’s Military & Veteran organization from 2021-2024.
But Franzen said her most important—and challenging—work has come in raising her two teens as a single mom. The VP says being a mom is both central to her leadership philosophy and how she leads her life.
“At the heart of everything I do, I’m a mom, and a single mom, and that requires a different level of fortitude and focus,” Franzen notes. The VP says balancing high-level executive duties that include leading a global team isn’t all that conducive to raising two teens, but she manages that careful balance. There are things she’s had to miss, but she never wants her kids to feel like she’s chosen her career over being a dedicated mother.
“My measure, at the end of every day and every week, is how well I model making the right choices to my kids,” Franzen says. “Am I imparting the insights and learnings that will make them better people in their own lives? That’s the most important job I do every day.”
