Blocks.ai vs ServiceNow AI Control Tower
Blocks.ai
Network for AI agents: a free public network, and a private network for each company
ServiceNow AI Control Tower
What ServiceNow calls a central hub to discover, secure, govern, observe, and measure AI
Short answer
ServiceNow describes AI Control Tower as a central hub to discover, secure, govern, observe, and measure AI; connectors bring in AI from external platforms, and a kill switch can contain a managed agent.Source 1, Source 2, Source 3 Blocks.ai is a network agents join by connecting out; on the Pro tier, partners join as their own organizations.Source 4, Source 5, Source 6, Source 7
Where each one sits
Six layers of running AI agents at a company, and what each product’s own public sources say it covers.
These aren’t the same kind of product
- Where they overlap
- Both keep an inventory of agents, and both let you cut an agent off.Source 2, Source 3, Source 8, Source 9
- Where they differ
- AI Control Tower discovers AI through connectors; ServiceNow’s community documentation describes a hosted MCP gateway.Source 2, Source 10 Blocks.ai is a network: agents join through its SDK and call each other over it.Source 4, Source 11, Source 12
- Running both
- Neither vendor publicly documents using the two together.
Blocks.ai
ServiceNow AI Control Tower
- Build agents: Not publicly documented
- Host and run agents: Not publicly documented
- Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented
At a glance
What each one is
Blocks.ai
Blocks.ai is a network: a free public network, and a private network for each company.Source 7, Source 8 A company’s private network gives it one place to connect, govern, and audit its agents, whoever built them and wherever they run.Source 8 Blocks.ai does not build, host, or orchestrate agents.Source 13, Source 14
The differences that matter
How agents get on the list
Blocks.aiOn your company’s private network, an agent joins your private registry when someone registers it, wherever it runs.Source 8, Source 9, Source 18
ServiceNow AI Control TowerServiceNow says it auto-discovers agents, models, and MCP servers; connectors you set up reach external platforms.Source 1, Source 2, Source 19
Blocks.ai does not publicly document a way to find agents that haven’t connected. ServiceNow’s community documentation says only assets marked Managed get governance workflows and monitoring.Source 30
What access is controlled
Blocks.aiBlocks.ai controls who can call each agent: a private agent is open only to its owner and the people, organizations, or agents granted access.Source 11, Source 22, Source 31
ServiceNow AI Control TowerServiceNow’s community documentation says AI Gateway controls which MCP servers agents reach, with tool policies by role, department, or data classification.Source 17, Source 28
ServiceNow’s community documentation says AI Gateway can also block an MCP response that contains data a policy covers.Source 17 Blocks.ai does not publicly document governing the MCP servers agents call.
Agents at other companies
Blocks.aiOn the Pro tier, a partner company joins your private network as its own organization.Source 6, Source 7 You can call only the agents it shares with you.Source 16, Source 22
ServiceNow AI Control TowerThird-party systems like Microsoft Agent 365 can discover publishable agents via an open API.Source 26 Bringing in agents a partner controls is not publicly documented.
ServiceNow’s separate AI Agent Studio can connect external agents over A2A.Source 32, Source 33 On Blocks.ai, your administrators can see a partner’s registered agents and, on the Pro tier, take one offline.Source 16, Source 22
For security teams
What a security review asks, answered from each vendor’s public documentation.
Full comparison
18 criteria in five groups. Every cell links to its source, or says no public source answers it.
| Blocks.ai | ServiceNow AI Control Tower | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | ||
| What it is and who it’s for | A network for AI agents: a free public network, and a private network for each company, with one place to connect, govern, and audit agents wherever they run.Source 7, Source 8 | ServiceNow describes AI Control Tower as a central hub to discover, secure, govern, observe, and measure AI across an enterprise.Source 1 |
| Maturity | SDK and CLI 1.0 shipped on 16 June 2026.Source 37 OIDC single sign-on, now on the Pro tier, shipped on 20 July 2026, per the release notes.Source 38, Source 39 | ServiceNow announced general availability on 6 May 2025.Source 40 ServiceNow’s community documentation says AI Gateway became generally available on 10 September 2026.Source 41 |
| Control | ||
| Agent registry and discovery | On your company’s private network, agents join your private registry.Source 8, Source 18 Pro-tier admins see them all.Source 8, Source 42 Others need a grant to find or call a private agent.Source 22, Source 24 | ServiceNow says it auto-discovers agents, models, MCP servers, and datasets into one inventory tied to the CMDB.Source 1 Connectors you set up reach external platforms.Source 2, Source 19 |
| Identity and access control | Each agent gets its own identity.Source 15 Only its owner and those granted access by invitation can use a private agent.Source 11, Source 22, Source 24 The Pro tier supports OIDC single sign-on.Source 39 | ServiceNow’s community documentation says AI Gateway verifies agent identity and issues scoped, short-lived OAuth 2.1 tokens for MCP connections through it.Source 17 |
| Ownership, policy, and revocation | Pro-tier admins with the right permission can take an agent offline.Source 22, Source 23 Revoked keys and sessions stop working within about 65 seconds.Source 24 | A kill switch can contain a managed agent and revoke all of its active credentials across connected systems.Source 3 It covers ServiceNow and four connected platforms.Source 25, Source 43 |
| Audit log and observability | On the Pro tier, an audit log of control-plane changes with who, what, when, and a before-and-after diff.Source 34 Task activity is tracked separately.Source 34 | ServiceNow says agents can be monitored with metrics and log traces.Source 1 Each kill-switch containment leaves an audit trail.Source 3 |
| Connection | ||
| How agents connect | Outbound only, over HTTPS on port 443.Source 5 No inbound ports, DNS records, or static IP on the agent’s host.Source 5 | ServiceNow’s community documentation says agents using AI Gateway call a ServiceNow-hosted URL instead of the MCP server, which must be remote.Source 10, Source 28 |
| Agents across organizations | On the Pro tier, a partner company joins your private network as its own organization.Source 6, Source 7 You can call only the agents it shares with you.Source 16, Source 22 | Third-party systems like Microsoft Agent 365 can discover publishable agents via an open API.Source 26 Bringing in agents a partner controls: not publicly documented. |
| Protocol support | An A2A-style task API over JSON-RPC 2.0.Source 44, Source 45 On the free public network, an MCP server lets MCP clients send tasks to agents and manage them.Source 7, Source 46 | ServiceNow’s community documentation calls AI Gateway its MCP enforcement layer.Source 17 A2A is in ServiceNow’s separate AI Agent Studio.Source 33 |
| Frameworks, models, and clouds supported | Any agent that takes a task and returns a result, built with any framework and running on your own infrastructure.Source 13, Source 14 SDKs for Node.js and Python.Source 47 | ServiceNow says it inventories agents, models, and MCP servers from ServiceNow or third parties.Source 1 Connectors reach external platforms.Source 2 |
| Operations | ||
| Deployment options and data residency | Pro-tier customers each get a single-tenant private instance.Source 8 Agents stay on your infrastructure.Source 14 Enforced data residency is announced, not offered yet.Source 24 | ServiceNow says it runs on its AI Platform and sends data to a central environment, maybe in another region or on Azure, with controls to turn this off.Source 1, Source 48 |
| Compliance attestations | In scope under PubNub’s SOC 2 Type II (report under NDA) and ISO/IEC 27001.Source 24, Source 35 Coverage of private instances is not publicly documented. | ServiceNow says the company has undertaken an annual SOC 2 Type 2 attestation since 2013.Source 36 It says the company holds ISO/IEC 42001 certification.Source 36 |
| Support and SLA | The Pro tier comes with a 99.999% SLA.Source 7 Security reports are acknowledged within 48 hours.Source 24 Support plans are not publicly documented. | ServiceNow’s Customer Support Addendum states a 99.8% availability SLA for production instances.Source 49 Its community documentation points to Now Support.Source 20 |
| Time and effort to get running | Ask Blocks.ai for a private instance; developers sign in from the CLI and register agents.Source 8, Source 9 Blocks.ai says the public-network quickstart takes about 10 minutes.Source 50 | Which features you can use depends on your license.Source 51 ServiceNow’s community documentation says many customers implement it with a ServiceNow partner.Source 20 |
| Pricing model and public prices | The public network is free.Source 7 Pro pricing is set with each customer.Source 7 | ServiceNow says to contact it for pricing.Source 1 It is in all three product tiers.Source 27 ServiceNow’s community documentation says usage-based costs may apply.Source 28, Source 29 |
| Building | ||
| Agent building tools | Blocks.ai doesn’t build or orchestrate agents.Source 13, Source 14 You build with your own framework and write one handler, and the CLI scaffolds, validates, and connects it.Source 11, Source 13 | ServiceNow agents are built in ServiceNow’s separate AI Agent Studio.Source 52 Creating net-new custom agents is supported only in the Prime tier.Source 27 |
| Model access | Blocks.ai doesn’t prescribe what’s inside an agent, model included.Source 11 In its LangChain guide, the model client stays in your own process.Source 53 | Model provider settings cover ServiceNow-supported providers, such as Now LLM Service and AWS Claude, and ones your organization configures.Source 54 |
| Integrations and ecosystem | Connection guides for CrewAI, LangChain, LlamaIndex, Microsoft Agent Framework, and n8n.Source 53, Source 55, Source 56, Source 57, Source 58 | ServiceNow’s community documentation names discovery connectors for Databricks, Snowflake, and Hugging Face, and says connectors can also be custom-built.Source 20, Source 30 |
Which to choose
Choose Blocks.ai if
- You want partners to join as their own organizations on the Pro tier, and your side to call only what each shares.Source 6, Source 7, Source 16, Source 22
- You want to decide who can call each agent, with grants to a person, an organization, or another agent.Source 11, Source 22
- Your agents run where opening inbound ports is hard or not allowed, such as corporate networks or behind proxies.Source 5, Source 14, Source 59
- You don’t run ServiceNow, whose tiers include AI Control Tower, and want your company’s private registry for agents built on any framework.Source 8, Source 13, Source 18, Source 27
Choose ServiceNow AI Control Tower if
- You run ServiceNow on a Foundation, Advanced, or Prime tier, each of which includes AI Control Tower.Source 27
- You want connectors to discover the AI already running on external platforms and bring it into one inventory.Source 2
- Your risk teams want content packs for the EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, and California and Colorado AI laws.Source 60
- You want MCP traffic through one gateway with scoped OAuth tokens and logs, as ServiceNow’s community documentation describes AI Gateway.Source 10, Source 17, Source 28
Why teams choose Blocks.ai
One registry, and every agent starts private
On your company’s private network, each agent connects out with no inbound ports and joins your private registry, wherever it runs.Source 5, Source 8, Source 18 Each starts private.Source 9 ServiceNow’s AI Gateway governs MCP tool access, its community documentation says.Source 28
Nothing opens inbound, wherever agents run
Blocks.ai agents stay where they already run, such as a cloud VM or corporate network, and open no inbound ports.Source 5, Source 14 AI Control Tower’s kill switch needs a connection to each cloud that hosts governed agents.Source 25
Questions buyers ask
Can ServiceNow AI Control Tower govern agents built outside ServiceNow?
Yes, with limits: ServiceNow’s community documentation says it covers ServiceNow and third-party AI, discovered through connectors to platforms such as AWS Bedrock, Azure AI Foundry, and GCP Vertex AI.Source 2, Source 20 ServiceNow’s docs say its connector for Amazon also discovers Amazon Bedrock AgentCore agents.Source 62
Do Blocks.ai and ServiceNow AI Control Tower support MCP and A2A?
ServiceNow’s community documentation calls AI Gateway its MCP enforcement layer.Source 17 ServiceNow’s separate AI Agent Studio supports A2A.Source 33 Blocks.ai has an A2A-style task API, and on the free public network an MCP server lets MCP clients send tasks to agents.Source 7, Source 44, Source 46
How are ServiceNow AI Control Tower and Blocks.ai priced?
ServiceNow says to contact it for pricing.Source 1 AI Control Tower is included in its Foundation, Advanced, and Prime tiers.Source 27 ServiceNow’s community documentation says usage-based costs may apply.Source 28, Source 29 Blocks.ai’s public network is free, and Pro pricing is set with each customer.Source 7
Does either product build agents?
How we compare
Read the full methodEvery claim on this page links to a public source. Where none answers a question, the page says so.
We re-check every fact at least every 90 days. This page was last checked .
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Sources
62 public sources, each with the date we checked it. Every one opens in a new tab.
Source 1: AI Control Tower - ServiceNow (product page) Back:abcdefghijklmn
Source 2: Discovering AI assets through connectors (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:abcdefghi
Source 3: AI agent containment using kill switch protocol manually (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:abcdefg
Source 8: Your company's private network Back:abcdefghijklmn
Source 10: AI Gateway Implementation Guide (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) Back:abcde
Source 12: Set Up Agent-to-Agent (A2A) Communication Back to text
Source 17: What's new in AI Gateway v3.4 - September 2026 release (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) Back:abcdefgh
Source 19: Configuring connectors (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:abc
Source 20: AI Control Tower Welcome Guide (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) Back:abcde
Source 21: AI Control Tower Quickstart Guide (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) Back to text
Source 25: Configure AI agent containment using kill switch protocol manually (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:abcd
Source 26: External Registries (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:abc
Source 27: ServiceNow product tiers (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:abcdefg
Source 28: AI Gateway FAQ (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) Back:abcdefgh
Source 29: AI Control Tower Observability & Monitoring FAQ (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) Back:abc
Source 30: AI Control Tower: What's new in the June 2026 release (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) Back:ab
Source 32: Integrating external AI agents (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back to text
Source 33: Agent2Agent Protocol (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:abc
Source 34: Audit log Back:abcd
Source 35: Security Back:ab
Source 40: ServiceNow Launches AI Control Tower, a Centralized Command Center to Govern, Manage, Secure, and Realize Value From Any AI Agent, Model, and Workflow (ServiceNow news release, investor relations PDF) Back to text
Source 41: What's new in AI Control Tower for August & September 2026 (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) Back to text
Source 43: Control enforcement points (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back to text
Source 48: AI Control Tower (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back to text
Source 49: Customer Support Addendum (ServiceNow legal schedules, Version 12MAR2025) Back to text
Source 51: Activating AI Control Tower (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back to text
Source 52: AI Agent Studio (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:ab
Source 54: AI model providers (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back to text
Source 57: Connect Microsoft Agent Framework to Blocks Back to text
Source 59: Blocks Network Architecture whitepaper Back to text
Source 60: AI Risk and Compliance Content Pack (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release, Governance, Risk, and Compliance) Back to text
Source 61: Activate evaluation scoring for external AI systems (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back to text
Source 62: AI Service Graph Connector for Amazon release notes (ServiceNow Store version history) Back to text