Stef Knaepkens on Leading Plat4mation’s AI Journey as new Chief AI Officer

Earlier this month, we appointed Stef Knaepkens as our first Chief AI Officer. Stef has been our Chief Strategy Officer for almost four years, and before that, he led our BeneLux region as Managing Director. His experience thus combines both the vision and practicality needed to accelerate Plat4mation’s AI strategy. In fact, AI has already been central to Stef’s work as CSO, making this new role rather a natural evolution – and one he is genuinely passionate about.

There was still much more to know, so we sat down with Stef to uncover the gaps, dig into the role, and learn from him how AI is set to shape both Plat4mation and the future of work altogether.

Q: Plat4mation has built a strong reputation for driving automation and innovation on the ServiceNow platform. Why was now the right moment to take the next step and introduce a Chief AI Officer role?

Stef: We see AI as a game-changer, with agentic AI in particular. This moment is just as significant as the development of the internet. Agentic AI will change how we live and work, much like how the internet and mobile devices introduced IT into everyone’s lives.

Soon enough, digital agents will be working alongside us as co-workers and autonomous assistants to better organize our personal and professional lives. This might impact every consumer, worker, and business, and we want to be among the first to effectively use these capabilities and help other businesses do the same.

Q: Beyond understanding AI, the CAIO role also requires the ability to bridge the gaps between innovation, governance, and the people using it. How are you going to achieve that at Plat4mation?

Stef: AI impacts every part our business: sales, delivery, human resources, finance, and operations. All of my C-Suite colleagues have ambitious goals regarding AI, but without coordination, we risk moving in different directions. In my role as CAIO, I aim to ensure synergy across these teams so we can advance toward a shared AI vision. That means prioritizing initiatives, ensuring alignment across departments, and making sure everything we build is secure, reliable, ethical, and valuable to both our employees and customers.

Q: You were Chief Strategy Officer before; how do you see that feeding into your new role?

Stef: As CSO, AI was core to my work. I focused on defining our value propositions — where to play and how to win — and today, every winning value proposition must be AI-powered or AI-enabled. So, this transition feels natural, as I was already managing our value-creation plan with investors, which included GenAI initiatives. That focus now is consolidated in the CAIO role, which also provides me with the opportunity to further develop it.

Q: You sound genuinely excited about AI, even as many people feel anxious about it. What drives that enthusiasm?

Stef: I’ve been in business for about forty years, and I’ve seen major technological shifts – many of which created endless opportunities for the workforce and humanity in general. AI is evolving faster than anything I’ve seen, and the results we’re achieving are nothing short of mind-blowing. It has already removed so much repetitive work and opened space for creativity and connection, and that’s a huge opportunity for society as a whole.

Q: How would you define Plat4mation’s approach to AI: practical, strategic, or experimental?

Stef: It’s really a combination of all three. Our approach is strategic because AI is part of how we help customers reach their goals. It’s experimental because the technology is evolving fast and we keep learning, testing, and refining. And it’s practical because we care about results, not buzzwords.

We’ve already delivered measurable GenAI outcomes for customers in just a few months, proving that AI can create real business value when it is applied with purpose. What sets us apart is our mix of functional vision and deep technical expertise on the ServiceNow platform. We move fast, involve users from the start, and focus on delivering value continuously.

Q: How do you see AI shaping the way we deliver projects or build solutions for customers?

Stef: We are shifting from a traditional project mindset to an outcome-driven one, where success is measured by the value and results our solutions create rather than the hours invested. In some cases, we already run AI solutions for our customers instead of handing them over, which makes delivery faster, more efficient, and ultimately more reliable. Over time, this approach could make traditional business-process outsourcing obsolete. As automation continues to close global cost gaps, companies will rely less on outsourcing and more on intelligent servicing — and that is where we intend to lead.

Q: Can you share some examples of where AI is already making a difference inside Plat4mation?

Stef: Absolutely. We are already using AI across several areas of the business. In HR, for example, we automated processes like sick-leave handling, which freed up valuable time for the team. We are also applying AI in contract management, sales matching, and RFP responses, helping our people focus on higher-value work.

Our developers use AI within our own ServiceNow instance as a sandbox for experimentation, testing new capabilities before introducing them to customers. At the same time, we are guiding customers through their own AI journeys, from defining roadmaps and priorities to implementing solutions that are either enhanced by AI or built entirely with it.

Q: ServiceNow is rapidly expanding its GenAI capabilities with Now Assist and beyond. How do you see these developments shaping what comes next for Plat4mation and your customers?

Stef: ServiceNow is evolving at incredible speed, and the scale of what is coming is impressive. Soon, the platform will include hundreds, even thousands, of intelligent agents that can be combined and customized in countless ways. The challenge for organizations is not access to technology but learning how to integrate it effectively into daily work.

At Plat4mation, we help customers go beyond deployment to adoption, which means building the right governance, ensuring data quality, and involving people early so they understand and trust what these systems can do. When AI becomes part of the way people work rather than something added on top, that is when it starts creating real value.

Q: Looking ahead, what’s next for Plat4mation from here?

Stef: My focus is on three areas: customers, people, and systems. For our customers, the goal is to keep expanding our AI-powered business, making sure every new service we design is supported by AI to deliver higher-quality outcomes. For our people, upskilling and reskilling remain essential, because everyone in our organization should have the opportunity to grow and redefine their role in an AI-driven world. And for our systems, we are rethinking our operating model to embed AI into everything we do, improving both the way we deliver projects and the way we run as an organization.