Good morning. The swift acceleration of AI development late last year has upended many assumptions about how it would be a driver of growth for software companies, whose shares have suffered.

I had a series of conversations with ServiceNow CEO and veteran enterprise technology leader Bill McDermott to understand how he understands the path to value creation and growth in an uncertain world of accelerating opportunity and risk. 

“I think this is the greatest moment in my career and ServiceNow’s history. AI is expanding the boundaries of everything. It’s not a zero-sum game,” McDermott told me. “And because we are an AI platform for business reinvention, we’re in the center of the AI revolution. I only see upside." You can read the column here.

The company is addressing an age-old problem in enterprise technology: the multitude of siloed systems and data sources that don’t communicate with one another in a fluid way.

And instead of merely defending a static business model, ServiceNow is pushing into other markets, such as the massive customer relationship management and cybersecurity arenas.

The company’s revenue model is modernizing, too. It was traditionally reliant on “seats,” as the software industry refers to the number of individuals covered by a customer’s license. That strategy is at risk, as AI reduces the need for the growth of employee head count in many areas. ServiceNow has shifted to a hybrid model in which customers pay for usage of its platform as well as seats.

In the hybrid system, customers buy an allotment of usage tokens, as the basic unit of AI computing is known. As long as the platform delivers more value autonomously managing assets, securing devices and resolving employee or customer questions or needs, companies will purchase more tokens, he said.

That hybrid strategy has started to pay off, according to McDermott. During our conversation, he disclosed for the first time that 50% of ServiceNow’s new business revenue now comes from a nonseat based pricing model, including tokens and other areas such as infrastructure, assets and connectors.

Goldman Sachs software analyst Gabriela Borges sees organic growth expectations being revised higher through the year. Her 12-month price target for the company is $216.

“Like any good software company, it is focusing on adoption before monetization,” Borges told me. “They included between a year and two years' worth of consumption tokens for AI projects in some of their bundle pricing. Those packages are going to start getting burnt through, such that customers are now going to come back to ServiceNow and say, ‘Hey, we proved the value of this particular product. We are now ready to pay for it,’” she said.

Enterprises are demanding alternatives to the traditional seat-based model. And it may not stop with a hybrid model, either. “Customers will be demanding a change from the current models for sure. I do think that revenue models will be challenged,” said Kathy Kay, executive vice president and chief information officer of Principal Financial Group. “Whether it will be hybrid…or something altogether different like outcome-based [pricing] will be interesting to see.”

How is AI reshaping the employ software? Let us know.

OpenAI is getting into the business of daily news, WSJ reports.

The maker of ChatGPT said it has acquired TBPN, an online talk show that aims to compete with Bloomberg and CNBC in by-the-minute analysis of technology news and executive interviews. OpenAI declined to disclose the terms of the transaction. More highlights:

• OpenAI bought TBPN to encourage constructive conversation around the changes AI creates by helping the show grow, according to a memo sent by Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of applications.
• But TBPN will remain editorially independent, retaining control over its programming, editorial decisions, guest selection and production schedule, OpenAI said.

Under the skin of America's humanoid robots: Chinese technology. Tesla and others turn to suppliers in China for components in an industry seen as strategic by Washington and Beijing, WSJ's Raffaele Huang reports. China aims to develop a resilient domestic supply chain for humanoid robots by 2027, releasing national standards and increasing model production.

Meet the new jobs being created by AI. AI created 640,000 jobs between 2023 and 2025 in the U.S., according to an analysis by LinkedIn of job-posting data, including new white-collar positions such as head of AI and AI engineer. That tally doesn’t include the huge number of temporary construction jobs tied to building the mammoth data centers AI relies on, WSJ reports.

The 50-year story of Apple, told through the WSJ archive. WSJ has reported on every twist and turn in the epic saga of America’s most iconic tech company. With Apple turning 50 this week, we dug through the archives to trace the story from the personal computer to the iPhone to the present. Read it here.

Google announces Gemma 4 open AI models. Starting today, developers can start working with Gemma 4, which comes in four sizes optimized for local usage, Ars Technica reports. Like past versions of its open-weight models, Google has designed Gemma 4 to be usable on local machines.

Microsoft launches three new AI models in direct shot at OpenAI and Google. Microsoft on Thursday launched three new foundational AI models it built entirely in-house—a state-of-the-art speech transcription system, a voice-generation engine and an upgraded image creator, VentureBeat reports.

The college student—and his cat meme—who hunted the world's biggest cyberweapon. A flurry of powerful attacks had internet experts baffled. Benjamin Brundage had a few tricks to help solve the mystery, WSJ's Robert McMillan reports. 

• A few tips can help you steer clear of so-called residential proxy networks, which have been used to wreak havoc online around the world, WSJ reports. 

President Trump ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi, ending a yearlong tenure atop the Justice Department marked by failed efforts to prosecute his favored targets and a view by the president and his advisers that she mismanaged the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. (WSJ)

The U.S. will impose tariffs of as much as 100% on branded pharmaceuticals, the White House said Thursday, though nations or drugmakers that strike deals with the Trump administration or commit to build manufacturing facilities in the U.S. can receive lower levies. (WSJ)

The U.S. military struck the B1 Bridge, which links Tehran to neighboring Karaj on Thursday, according to a senior U.S. official. The attack was part of a larger U.S. effort to sever military resupply routes, the official said. (WSJ)

U.S. oil futures recorded their biggest gain in six years on Thursday. Oil futures gained more than $11 a barrel to close the holiday-shortened week at $111.54 a barrel. It was the biggest one-day dollar gain since April 21, 2020, as prices were climbing back from the Covid crash. (WSJ)

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The WSJ CIO Journal Team is Steven Rosenbush, Isabelle Bousquette and Belle Lin.

The editor, Tom Loftus, can be reached at thomas.loftus@wsj.com.