Definition
The Portal Case Form enhanced by Now Assist enables a smarter self-service experience when customers create a case through your Service Portal. As users enter their issue, the system surfaces context-aware suggestions, including knowledge articles, catalog items, and conversational Q&A, all powered by AI Search and generative AI.
This experience helps reduce case creation when a resolution is already available and sets the foundation for proactive agentic workflows, such as auto-triaging, guiding customers through structured troubleshooting, or surfacing relevant services in real time.
This form also supports rich summaries for agents once the case is submitted, allowing more efficient routing and context for follow-up.
Key Capabilities
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Personalized Deflection: Out of the box model record producer that you can duplicate and make yours
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Direct answers: increase self-service success and case deflection by providing answers instead of a list of articles or links
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Seamless Hand-off: if the customer wants more answers or a follow up they can either proceed to open a case or hand off to the Now Assist in Virtual Agent
Implementation
Key Best Practices
Activate AI Search on Your Portal Case Form
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What is the Portal Case Form with Now Assist and how is it different from the standard form?
This form embeds AI Search and Q&A functionality directly into the case creation flow. As the customer types their issue, relevant knowledge and catalog results are dynamically surfaced, allowing the user to self-resolve before submitting a case.
2. How does it reduce case volume?
By intercepting potential cases early with relevant answers or service actions, many users resolve their issues without completing the submission. Deflection is tracked when users click a suggested result and abandon the case form.
3. What role does AI Search play here?
AI Search provides the semantic understanding needed to match the user’s phrasing with indexed content. It supports retrieval from Knowledge Bases, Service Catalogs, Communities, and more, returning ranked and relevant results directly in the case form.
4. What is the Q&A experience and how is it powered?
The Q&A interface uses a generative AI model to synthesize an answer from indexed articles and documents. This allows the user to receive a direct, conversational answer rather than clicking and reading through multiple links.
5. Can I configure what content appears in search results?
Yes. You can control indexed sources, visibility rules, filters, and boosts within the AI Search configuration. You can also restrict access based on portal audience or case category.
6. What if the user still submits a case after seeing suggestions?
If enabled, the system can generate a case summary based on the original text and suggestions viewed. This helps agents understand context faster and handle the case more efficiently.
7. How does this tie into agentic workflows?
The portal form can trigger agentic flows once submitted, such as case triage, document verification, or immediate action execution. These workflows are often informed by what the user searched or clicked before case submission.
8. Is this experience available in all portals?
It is supported in most portals built on the Service Portal framework. Make sure your portal uses the latest AI Search widgets and is connected to an AI Search application with the required sources and configurations.
9. How do I monitor success?
Use AI Search Analytics to track:
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Total searches per form session
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Click-through and abandonment rates
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Article performance and feedback
10. Can I customize the layout or styling of the suggestions?
Yes. You can configure placement, result types, and the visibility of summaries or Q&A elements using widget instance settings or your portal theme.
