FriendlyData is a natural language search interface for Enterprise Data, powered by Machine Learning and NLP, got acquired by ServiceNow. ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW), Forbes’ No.1 World’s Most Innovative Company, has decided to acquire FriendlyData, which makes it easy for non-technical users to ask quantitative questions in plain English and get fast results through direct answers or data visualizations.

For ServiceNow, FriendlyData’s natural language query (NLQ) technology will help reduce the amount of time spent figuring out how to ask questions technically. NLQ allows users to just ask a question and then act.
When used within ServiceNow, the technology will reduce some of the complexity that slows down work, including:
• Outdated customer and employee work experiences that are not intuitive and easy to use like the ones people experience as consumers.
• Inability to act due to reliance on time-consuming manual processes.
• Burdens on business analysts and data engineers who can’t keep pace with the increasing volume of requests coming from non-technical users within their company.

“ServiceNow is bringing NLQ capabilities to the Now Platform, enabling companies to ask technical questions in plain English and receive direct answers,” said Pat Casey, senior vice president, development and operations at ServiceNow. “With this technical enhancement, our goal is to allow anyone to easily make data-driven decisions, increasing productivity and driving businesses forward faster.”

ServiceNow plans to re-platform FriendlyData’s NLQ technology, extending the Now Platform’s intelligence capabilities by making NLQ interfaces available across ServiceNow applications for IT, Human Resources, Security Operations, Customer Service Management, partner products and for developers.