Service portal users have consistently reported frustration when Genius Results cite sources that don't appear at the top of the search results list. Articles sometimes fall to the bottom half of the first page, or in rare cases, to the second page. Historically, Portal Search used keyword-based retrieval while Genius Results used semantic retrieval, creating an inconsistent user experience. Now, Hybrid Search is available for Portal Search out of the box, aligning Genius Results and Portal Search results for a more consistent experience. Combining keyword precision with semantic matching, it delivers better relevance immediately, but your portals need additional configuration to get the full benefit. This document walks through those configurations and how to set them up correctly.
ServiceNow platform prerequisites
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Requirement |
Details |
Comment |
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Platform Version |
Zurich or later |
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Store app |
Now Assist in AI Search |
Upgrade to latest version |
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Store app |
AI Search Admin Console |
Upgrade to latest version |
Hybrid Search activation for a portal
To understand if Hybrid search is activated for a certain portal, follow the steps below.
1. Navigate to All > AI Search Admin > AI Search Admin Home.
2. Click the Applications tab in the AI Search Admin Console.
3. Select Portals.
4. Select a portal which you’d like to configure Hybrid Search for.
5. You will be redirected to a general overview of the Search configuration related to the portal.
a. NOTE: In this example, Hybrid search is turned off.
6. To activate Hybrid Search, select ‘Manage hybrid search’.
7. You will be redirected to the ‘Search Sources’ overview page.
8. On the right-hand side, you can toggle Hybrid Search on or off.
9. Toggle Hybrid Search on.
a. NOTE: Blue means active
Hybrid Search has now been activated for this portal and Search Application.
Indexed Sources, Search Sources, and Semantic Index Configurations.
Before reviewing the Search Sources, it helps to understand where they sit in the AI Search hierarchy. Index Sources and Search Sources are core AI Search capabilities. The diagram below represents standard AI search configuration, and the below image was pulled from ServiceNow Documentation.
With Hybrid Search, you can now configure Semantic Index Configurations within your Indexed Sources to blend semantic (AI-driven) signals with lexical (keyword-based) signals.
To deep dive into semantic index configuration for Indexed Sources, review this documentation: LINK
The following sections show you how to:
- Identify whether your Indexed Sources are configured correctly for Hybrid Search in the AI Search Admin console
- Correct any misconfigurations
Search Source configuration requirements for Hybrid Search
From the Search Sources overview page in the AI Search Admin Console, you can:
- View your Search Sources
- Inspect their Indexed Source configuration to understand if Hybrid Search is configured correctly
For a Search Source to enable Hybrid Search on a portal, two records are required via the Semantic fields column:
- body
- title
Each mapping to source fields that will be used for semantic retrieval.
Correct: In this example, the Search Source 'Service Portal Catalogs' is configured correctly. It has a Semantic Index and both required semantic fields, ‘body’ and ‘title’, are each mapped to a source field shown in parentheses next to the field name
For Portal Search semantic indexing, the body field carries the most semantic weight and can map to multiple source fields, while the title field carries less semantic weight and should map to only a single field (such as name or short_description).
Incorrect: In this example, the Search Source 'Change Request’ is misconfigured for Hybrid Search in a portal. Although the semantic field similarChangeRequests and a Semantic Index are present, Hybrid Search on a portal requires both a title and a body field to function properly.
The semantic field similarChangeRequests is valuable for other use cases – such as AI Agents and NASK Now Assist Skill Kit (NASK) but it doesn't support Hybrid Search on a portal. This article focuses exclusively on Hybrid Search via portal; other articles cover broader semantic field usage.
After completing Step 9 in ‘Hybrid Search activation for a portal’, you can check whether your Search Sources are configured correctly. In this example, the Search Source 'Change Request' is misconfigured, and the next section will walk you through how to fix it.
Semantic index configuration for a Search Source to enable Hybrid Search on a portal
Follow these steps to modify your Search Source, so that it's configured correctly for Hybrid Search in portal:
1. Copy the Search Source name.
a. In this example it’s ‘Service Portal Default Search Profile’.
2. Navigate to the table ais_search_profile.
3. Filter the AI Search Profiles using the label field, and the Search Source name noted in step 1.
4. Select the record.
5. Via the related list Search Sources, select the Search Source which is incorrectly configured.
a. In this example Search Source ‘Change Request’, will be selected because it was incorrectly configured.
6. Navigate into the reference field Indexed Source by clicking on the reference icon and clicking Open Record.
a. You may need to change the Application Scope to see the reference icon.
7. Via the related list Semantic Index Configurations, click New.
8. Create a Semantic Index Configuration with the following values:
a. Name: title
9. Do not change any other fields. Right click and select Save.
a. NOTE: For details related to attributes present on Semantic Index Configuration record see the ServiceNow Documentation: Semantic Index Configuration form
10. Via the related list Semantic Index Fields, click New.
11. Configure the record aligning to the screenshot below and press Submit.
a. NOTE: For details on the attributes shown below, see the ServiceNow Documentation: Semantic Index Field form
12. Navigate back to the Indexed Source and create another Semantic Index Configuration for body.
13. Via the related list Semantic Index Fields, click New.
a. For the body Semantic Index Configuration, add multiple fields as needed by repeating step 11 for each field, but ensure the title field is also included in the list of Semantic Index Fields. Your configuration should resemble the example below, though specific fields will depend on your organization's requirements. As a best practice, if you're working with a task table, also include the description field, as it's typically a valuable field for task tables.
14. Navigate back to the indexed source and press Index All Tables.
Indexing can take considerable time depending on data volume. Verify that the process completes successfully before proceeding to the final section.
Property configuration
The final step in configuring Hybrid Search is to update the property glide.ais.query.hybrid_allowed_tables with the table names where you want Hybrid Search enabled. In this example, you would add change_request to this property.
Takeaways
1. To correctly enable Hybrid Search for a portal, you need both a title and body Semantic Index Configuration, and you must update the property glide.ais.query.hybrid_allowed_tables with the appropriate table names.
2. The weighting for the body Semantic Index Configuration is the heaviest. Fields added to the body configuration that match the query will be ranked highest in results.
3. To enable additional weighting, create a separate Semantic Index Configuration record for title containing only a single field, such as name or short_description.
Call to action
Evaluate your current state:
- Use AI Search analytics dashboard to review key performance metrics. These metrics can provide insight that can help answer the following questions:
- Are portal users frustrated with search irrelevance?
- Is search quality impacting user satisfaction?
- Are the correct search results appearing at the top?
- Are searches over time going up or down?
