Use Now Assist in Virtual Agent to provide a content-driven generative AI experience for users.

Before you begin

There are two entry points used to set up Now Assist in Virtual Agent: You can set it up from All > Conversational Interfaces > Assistants (see step 1), or from the Now Assist Admin console. If you're already within the Now Assist Admin console, select the Now Assist Features tab > Platform. Select View details from the Conversational experience card.

Figure 1. Now Assist Admin console > Platform view
Now Assist skills for Platform.

The Conversational experience page is displayed.

Figure 2. Now Assist Admin console with link to set up Now Assist in Virtual Agent
Link to set up Now Assist in Virtual Agent.

Select Set up Now Assist in Virtual Agent. The Assistants tab, as seen in the image of step 1, appears.

Role required: virtual_agent_admin or admin

About this task

Virtual Agent admins and admins can configure more than one Now Assist in Virtual Agent with this guided setup. A primary assistant can be linked to one or more secondary assistants. The linkage enables a primary assistant to use search sources from secondary assistants, enhancing its functionality and efficiency. For more information on primary and secondary assistants, see LLM assistants.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to All > Conversational Interfaces > Assistants.
    A default Now Assist in Virtual Agent assistant is already listed. It can be turned on or off, or edited, but it can't be deleted.
    Figure 3. Turn on, off, or edit the default Virtual Agent
    Assistants tab shows an existing Virtual Agent and any new ones that are created.

    Other assistants that are created can be deleted.

    Figure 4. Turn on, off, edit, or delete assistants
    Assistants tab showing the Virtual Agent delete function.

    The Relationship type column shows whether an assistant is a primary or secondary assistant, or neither. Setting an assistant as primary or secondary is set in step 2.

    To view the linkage between primary and secondary assistants, you can toggle between the list view and the map view.

    Figure 5. Toggle between list and map view
    View primary and secondary assistants as a list or map view.

    In the map view, primary assistants on the top row show secondary assistants that are linked to them. Green indicates that the assistant is turned on. Gray indicates that the assistant is turned off. Assistants can also be edited, turned on, off, or deleted by selecting an assistant on the map. The default Now Assist in Virtual Agent assistant can't be deleted.

    Figure 6. Primary and secondary assistants in map view
    Map view of primary assistants and their associated secondary assistants.
  2. Create a Virtual Agent by selecting Create new.
    The Get started (Overview) page is displayed.
    Figure 7. Virtual Agent name and description fields
    Virtual Agent Name and Description fields in the Get started page.
    1. In the Add some details section, provide a name and description for your Virtual Agent. The name of the assistant in this example is Now Assist in Virtual Agent - TEST.
    2. Select the Link this to other assistants check box to make the assistant a primary assistant to which you can add secondary assistants. If you don't want to link to any secondary assistants, proceed to step 3.
    3. Place your cursor within the Select secondary assistant(s) to link to field to see the list of available secondary assistants.
    Figure 8. Link primary assistant with secondary assistants
    Drop-down list showing all available secondary assistants.

    One or more secondary assistants must be selected. All assistants within the same instance and domain are shown in the drop-down list, enabling you to link your primary assistant with one or more secondary assistants. Two primary assistants can't be linked to each other, therefore, other primary assistants are unavailable in the list.

    If one or more secondary assistants are selected that are inactive, an alert shows The following secondary assistants are off and will be inaccessible. A list of inactive assistants is shown.

    To turn on the secondary assistants, select Exit to return to the Assistants tab. Otherwise, proceed to step 3.

  3. Select Save and continue.
    The Assign Now Assist skills page is displayed.
    Figure 9. Conversational skill status
    Activate Now Assist skills for the Virtual Agent.

    At the top of the page, the name of your Virtual Agent appears. The table shows the following columns: Skill name, LLM Service Provider, and Status.

    By default, the following Now Assist skills (Now Assist Q&A, Now Assist Topics, and Now Assist Multi-Turn Catalog Ordering) are turned on and shown as active. They're active at the global and instance level, and by default, inactive at the assistant level. Subflows and actions aren't turned on by default. At the global, instance, and assistance levels, the active flag is set to false. Selecting or deselecting a skill only controls the cards on the Information Sources page. To turn on or off a skill, see Activate a Now Assist skill. Turning on or off a skill applies to all Virtual Agents. To deactivate a skill across the entire instance, select Manage skills. One or more skills must be active.

    Note: In this admin configuration, no matter which skills you choose, all responses are Synthesized Response with Multi-turn Q&A for all portals, mobile applications, and Microsoft SharePoint Online.

    If selected, subflows and actions are configured in Workflow Studio and are discoverable in the designated assistant. After making subflows and actions conversational in Workflow Studio, you can view and edit them in Virtual Agent Designer. For more information, see Managing conversational subflows in Virtual Agent Designer, and Managing conversational actions in Virtual Agent Designer.

  4. Select Save and continue.
    The Choose how to display page appears.
    Figure 10. Options for where Virtual Agent appears
    Display experience page that shows where Virtual Agent is displayed, such as portals, channels, and mobile.

    On the Portals tab, select one or more portals from the Add portal drop-down list or integrate with your preferred messaging channels to display your Virtual Agent.

    One portal can only include one assistant. Any portal in the list that is already used is unavailable.

    Natural Language Understanding (NLU)-based Virtual Agent doesn't co-exist with Now Assist in Virtual Agent. They can co-exist in the same instance, but not within the same portal.

    1. To remove a portal, select X.
      Figure 11. Remove a portal from the list
      Selecting the X removes a portal.
    2. Select the Allow public access for this assistant check box to enable Virtual Agent to be on public pages for all selected portals.

      Selecting the check box only makes the assistant response publicly available to guest users. In addition to selecting the check box, make sure that the UI page and the chat widget are public. For more information, see Make UI pages public or private,Configure page security by role, and Configure widget security.

      For public access across the entire instance, see Conversational > Interfaces > Settings.

    On the Channels tab, Now Assist in Virtual Agent integrates with these channels: Slack, Microsoft Teams, SMS with Twilio, WhatsApp, and Amazon Connect. If the plugins are already installed, the available channels cards aren't displayed.

    Figure 12. Channels that integrate with Virtual Agent
    List of channels to integrate with Virtual Agent.

    Getting the plugin redirects you to the ServiceNow Store. Once the plugins are installed and configured, you can then select the ones that you want your Virtual Agent to integrate with.

    On the Mobile tab, if no mobile app is selected to display Virtual Agent, the default is the empty state.

    1. To use Now Assist in Virtual Agent on your mobile app, download the mobile application integration plugin in Mobile App Builder to configure your mobile applications integration.

      If the application for mobile in the Now Assist Admin console is turned on, Now Assist large language model (LLM) is enabled in Virtual Agent for application on mobile.

      Figure 13. Integrate Virtual Agent with a mobile application
      Drop-down list of mobile applications.
    2. Select one or more mobile apps from the Add mobile app drop-down list to display your Virtual Agent.

      Any mobile apps used by other assistants are unavailable from the list. When one or more mobile apps are used by the current assistant, a table shows a listing of all the mobile apps used by the current assistant.

    3. To remove a mobile app, select X.
    Figure 14. Remove a mobile application from the list
    Selecting the X removes a mobile application.
  5. Select Save and continue after you have selected one or more portals, or integrated with your preferred messaging channels.
    The Choose information sources page is displayed.
    Figure 15. Information sources in the default search profile
    View of the information sources.
    In the Search configuration section, all search sources associated with the profile are listed. Each assistant has its own search configuration. If this assistant is displayed on a portal or mobile app that already has AI Search, you can copy the existing configuration for a seamless experience.
    1. To change the search application, select Copy existing configuration.

      When selecting Copy existing configuration, the existing search configuration of the portal is copied into the Virtual Agent search configuration. Copying the configuration ensures that Virtual Agent and the portal have the same search configuration, providing users with consistent answers and search results.

    2. Select a search application configuration from the drop-down list.

      The associated search profile is also shown.

      Figure 16. Select a search configuration to copy
      Drop-down list with search configurations.
    3. Select Copy.

      The latest configuration from the search application that were selected in the previous step, and the search sources, are shown.

      Figure 17. Edit conditions of each source
      Edit search sources.
    4. Select Edit to show the current conditions, make modifications, or add a new condition set, then select Apply.
      Figure 18. Edit the conditions
      Table view for editing conditions.

    If you have a Now Assist Multi-Turn Catalog Ordering section, the following conditions appear. To design a topic conversation in Virtual Agent, see Create a Virtual Agent topic.

    Figure 19. Edit conditions
    Table view for editing conditions.

    If you have a Now Assist topics section, see Create a Virtual Agent topic to create or configure more topics.

    Figure 20. Create or configure additional Now Assist topics
    Create or configure additional Now Assist topics.

    If you have a Conversational subflows and actions section, the following appears.

    Figure 21. Create conversational subflows and actions
    Create conversational subflows and actions.
  6. Select Save and continue.

    The Virtual Agent branding page appears where you can select a default branding or an existing customized branding. To create a branding, see Conversational > Interfaces > Settings.

    The preview shows how branding is applied in the chat widget. To customize your chat widget branding, see Set up your Now Assist in Virtual Agent branding.

    Figure 22. Virtual Agent look and feel

    Use the Virtual Agent branding page to select the look and feel.

  7. Select Save and continue.
    The Define your chat experience page appears.

    The Chat experience tab is where you manage your greeting, closing, and fallback messages. The fallback options are Live Agent, Reset Conversation, and Record Producer.

    Figure 23. Greeting, closing, and fallback options for Virtual Agent
    Greeting, closing, and fallback options for your Virtual Agent in the Define your chat experience page.

    Use the simple settings type to define the default chat experience.

    For fallback options:
    1. Live Agent support routes you to an available agent when configured.
    2. Reset conversation restarts the conversation to the beginning to ask another question.
    3. A record producer directs the user to a catalog record producer to create an incident or a case.
      Note: For this fallback option to work for guest users, create a public record producer. For more information, see Create a record producer. If the public record producer is set to active, it automatically appears in the Now Assist in Virtual Agent Fallback options > Record producer drop-down menu.

    More configurations are available in Advanced settings, replacing the default. Select from a pre-filtered list to override setup topics defined in Virtual Agent Designer. If you change one of your setup topics, and you return to the simple setting, that topic is unavailable.

    Figure 24. Chat experience advanced settings
    Advanced chat settings in the Define your chat experience page.

    In the Promoted topics tab, navigate to Virtual Agent Designer (VAD) to define promoted topics for this assistant.

    Figure 25. Define promoted topics
    Link to Virtual Agent Designer to define promoted topics.

    Once you have defined the topics in Virtual Agent Designer, you can then use the up or down arrows to reorder the topics.

    Figure 26. Promoted topics list
    List of promoted topics that can be reordered.
  8. Select Save and continue.

    The Review page is displayed where you can review all your settings and test your Virtual Agent. Selecting Test your Virtual Agent opens a pop-up window. It's important to test your Virtual Agent to judge the quality of results for common use cases before moving your experience into a production environment. Validate the user interface experience, use case results, and fallback options.

    Figure 27. Test the Virtual Agent
    Test the Virtual Agent in the Review page.

    Assistant details show primary and secondary assistants that are linked.

    Assistant details show primary and secondary assistants that are linked.

    Now Assist skills show the active skills.

    Figure 28. Review of all active Now Assist skills
    Now Assist section lists all active skills.

    1. Display experience shows which portals, messaging channels have Virtual Agent and the type of experience that's used.

      Figure 29. Portals, messaging channels, or mobile applications and type of experience
      List of portals, messaging channels, or mobile applications and the type of experience.

      If a portal or messaging channel wasn't selected, the following message appears.

      Message indicating that no display experience was selected.

      The Select at least one display experience in order to turn on this assistant alert appears at the top of the page, and you aren't able to turn on the assistant until you have made a selection in the Display experience.

    2. Information sources show search profile, search sources, Now Assist topics, and Subflows and actions.
      Figure 30. List of information sources
      List of information sources.
    3. Branding shows the type of branding that you have selected.
    4. Chat experience shows your greeting, closing messages, and fallback options.
      Figure 31. Review of branding and chat experience settings
      Review of branding and chat experience settings in the Review page.

    In the Additional Resources section, these items appear depending on your setup.

    1. Now Assist Topics is visible when the Now Assist Topics skill is enabled for your assistant. The View all topics link brings you to Virtual Agent Designer.
    2. Now Assist in AI Search remains visible. The View all portals link brings you to the Setup Now Assist in AI Search console to enable Genius Results generated by Now Assist in portal search.
    3. Monitor your Virtual Agent is visible once you turn on one or more assistants for the first time. The View performance link brings you to Now Assist in Virtual Agent Analytics.
    4. Proactive Triggers remain visible. If Proactive Triggers isn't installed on the user's ServiceNow instance, the Install from ServiceNow Store link brings you to the ServiceNow Store Proactive Triggers app. If Proactive Triggers is installed on the user's ServiceNow instance, Proactive Triggers can be managed in Conversational Interfaces > Settings.
    5. The notification remains visible. The Manage notifications in settings link brings you to the Conversational Interfaces > Settings Virtual Agent page.
  9. Select Turn on after you have tested your Virtual Agent to confirm that everything is working fine.
    A message appears showing that Now Assist in Virtual Agent is successfully turned on.
  10. Select Got it.

Result

Now Assist in Virtual Agent is active and topics can be associated with the Now Assist in Virtual Agent LLM assistants.