Guest post by Cathy Mauzaize, President, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at ServiceNow
As businesses shift from AI experimentation to full-scale implementation, bridging the AI trust gap has never been more urgent. While AI-driven innovations drive productivity, they also introduce new uncertainties. Executives across the C-suite must take the lead, embracing change and continuous learning.
In EMEA, we are at a pivotal moment. Governments and business leaders alike are looking to ensure the benefits of agentic AI are maximised responsibly. As intelligent agents become embedded across front and back-offices, trust and accountability remain top priorities. Governance isn’t just IT’s responsibility – it requires active leadership from the entire C-suite.
As global AI regulations tighten, clear governance can ensure AI is deployed transparently, ethically, and securely. AI decision-making must be explainable and fair to earn trust from employees, customers, and stakeholders. This trust doesn’t just happen – it’s built by active commitment, which business leaders must champion from the top down.
Attitudes towards AI are shifting
The dramatic rise in the use of generative AI and agentic AI has raised valid concerns around security, data privacy, regulatory compliance, and even the risk of employee over-reliance on AI, at the expense of human judgment. The key is balance: pairing the speed of AI with the empathy of human insight.
ServiceNow’s 2025 Consumer Voice Report shows how attitudes are evolving. Today, only a fraction of consumers in EMEA trust AI to handle a suspicious transaction. Yet, in the next three years, 33% say they would trust AI in the same scenario. Growing confidence signals greater comfort with AI handling critical tasks. Crucially, increased trust doesn’t remove the need for human oversight. This isn’t a choice of one over the other. AI and humans thrive when working together seamlessly, with leaders setting the direction for integrating AI effectively into workflows.
Trust in AI starts with data
For AI to be effective and trusted, it must be built on a solid foundation of clean, reliable data. I’ve seen this happen time and again over the past two years with proof-of-concept projects. Without strong data management that ensures accuracy, fairness, and relevance, AI will deliver weak outcomes – and take longer to deliver value.
Meanwhile, users trust AI more when they understand how data is used and how decisions are made. However, biased data can lead to biased results, eroding confidence. By taking the lead in identifying bias and maintaining oversight, leaders ensure AI operates responsibly across both teams and data flows.
Transparency shouldn’t stop at internal audiences. Communicating clearly with customers about how AI processes data helps foster long-term trust and ensures that business impact is fully understood. Innovative leaders put governance and orchestration at the heart of AI adoption, establishing transparency as a core component of their business transformation.
Leadership-led AI
AI has the power to transform businesses, offering new ways to solve real-world challenges. This isn’t some future promise. AI agents are already delivering tangible results today. One utility provider I recently met in the Middle East is a great example – they’re exploring how to leverage AI agents to automate billing dispute resolution by analysing historical consumption data, recommending solutions, and triggering downstream actions. The result: faster resolution times, higher customer satisfaction, and reduced operational costs. Given the tangible value, it’s no surprise that IDC projects that, by 2025, 50% of organisations will use enterprise AI agents configured for specific business tasks.
Yet, the difference between unlocking AI’s full value and falling short comes down to leadership.
The path to success starts with leadership buy-in and investment in innovations that enable centralised, transparent, and secure AI management. ServiceNow’s AI Agent Orchestrator, for example, gives businesses control of AI agents across IT, customer service, and HR – all on a single platform. This integrated model is crucial. Early AI agents functioned like standalone chatbots – creating complexity, fragmented processes, and siloed data. With a single platform, AI agents can remove those barriers, offering seamless intelligence and action across the enterprise.
Trust is the defining factor of success
AI’s potential is limitless, but only if businesses get it right. As agentic AI becomes deeply embedded across industries, trust and governance will define success or failure. Leaders who take an active role in AI oversight won’t just avoid risks; they’ll be able to embrace AI’s full power to drive innovation, efficiency, and growth.
AI adoption shouldn’t create new silos or uncertainties. Instead, it should empower people, enhance decision-making, and streamline collaboration. Setting the tone starts at the top. Trust is not a byproduct of AI adoption; it’s a deliberate leadership choice and can be a lasting competitive advantage.
ABOUT CATHY MAUZAIZE
Cathy Mauzaize is President, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at ServiceNow, leading the company’s second largest geographic region. In her role, she drives the growth strategy in EMEA to support ServiceNow in becoming the defining enterprise software of the 21st century.
Cathy joined ServiceNow in March 2021 as Vice President, EMEA South, to spearhead the company’s expansion across France, Spain, Italy, Israel, the Middle East and Africa. She successfully drove the company’s expansion within these markets and continues to deliver world class service to customers in the EMEA region and be a champion for culture and belonging initiatives.
Cathy previously held senior leadership roles across companies including Microsoft, SAP, Dell, PwC, and Hewlett Packard. Prior to ServiceNow, she was General Manager at Microsoft France, where she led the company’s commercial team, supporting growth through new business models and helping customers to integrate solutions such as Artificial Intelligence and Mixed Reality.
Cathy has a degree from the Lyon School of Management and is now based in ServiceNow’s Amsterdam office. In 2015, in recognition for her work advocating for belonging in the workplace, she was awarded the Women in Business distinction (Trophée des Femmes d’Commerce) by “Usine Nouvelle” as part of the Women in Industry Awards (Trophées des Femmes de l’Industrie).
ABOUT SERVICENOW
ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) is putting AI to work for people. We move with the pace of innovation to help customers transform organizations across every industry while upholding a trustworthy, human centered approach to deploying our products and services at scale. Our AI platform for business transformation connects people, processes, data, and devices to increase productivity and maximize business outcomes. For more information, visit: www.servicenow.com.
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