Level Up Your Workflows: Introducing Conversational Subflows and Actions in Yokohama

[Travis Toulson]

With the Yokohama release, ServiceNow has introduced a powerful new capability for developers: Conversational Subflows and Actions. This feature lets you execute Flow Designer logic—like creating records, updating data, or fetching information—within conversational interfaces like Slack, Microsoft Teams, the Now Assist panel, and more.

In the latest Creator Toolbox episode, Gaurav Kumar from the Workflow Automation product team walks us through what this means, how to set it up, and where it fits into your broader automation strategy.

What Are Conversational Subflows and Actions?

They’re exactly what they sound like: reusable logic created in Flow Designer (subflows and actions) that can now be surfaced in chat-based experiences. This means that users don’t have to go hunting for the right form or interface—they can just ask the system to “create an outage” or “schedule a meeting,” and it’ll walk them through the inputs conversationally.

How It Works

ServiceNow evaluates existing flows using a compatibility script that checks if the data types used are supported in conversational mode. Over 32 conversational data types are supported today, with more being added in each release.

There are three core steps:

1. Identify Compatible Flows – Using the new UI, admins can see which subflows and actions are technically and contextually compatible.

2. Configure Metadata – Add a skill name, description, input/output mappings, and assign roles/channels.

3. Execute in Conversation – Once enabled, the skill becomes discoverable and executable via the Now Assist panel or other channels.

 

Key Features

• Supervised vs Autonomous Modes: Choose between guided input collection or no prompts at all.

• Skill Chaining: Output from one skill can be used as input in the next.

• Improved Output Display: Includes card views and natural language summaries.

• Channel Integration: Works with Now Assist, Teams, Slack, and others.

• New UI: Built-in admin tools for skill setup and discovery.

 

Demos That Bring It to Life

Gaurav walks through real examples:

• Creating an outage via a chat interface

• Scheduling a meeting using utterance-driven autofill

• Chaining an incident creation to a follow-up problem creation

• Using autonomous mode for quick data lookups

 

When Should You Use It?

Gaurav points out this isn’t a replacement for Virtual Agent topics, but a simpler, faster way to expose existing logic conversationally. For complex, multi-step flows, stick with topics. For simpler flows or quick automation wins, this is a fantastic addition to your toolbox.