This is a common behavior with Now Assist / AI Search genius results in ServiceNow. The links rendered inside the AI-generated answer panel aren't standard HTML anchor tags (<a href="...">). Instead, they're typically wired up with JavaScript click handlers (like onclick or framework-level event bindings) that programmatically navigate within the same tab/frame.
Because there's no real href attribute on those elements, the browser has nothing to resolve when you Ctrl+Click — it doesn't know what URL to open in a new tab.
Why it happens: The genius result component renders its citation/reference links using client-side routing or window.location assignments rather than native <a> tags with proper href values. This is by design in the Now Experience / Service Portal shell where navigation is often SPA-style (single-page app).
What you can do:
You could look at the specific component rendering those links — likely tied to the AI Search result formatter or a Now Experience component — and check whether the link elements have an href attribute at all. If they don't, you'd need to customize the component to render proper anchor tags with the target URL in href so the browser can handle Ctrl+Click and right-click → "Open in new tab" natively.
If this is in Service Portal, inspect the widget responsible for rendering the genius results and ensure links are output as <a href="/nav_to.do?uri=..." target="_blank"> or at minimum have a valid href. If it's in Next Experience (Workspace/UIB), the fix would be in the corresponding Now Experience component's rendering logic.
