Step-by-step setup guide for administrators and implementation teams
Requires Zurich Patch 9 (ZP9)
Overview
This guide walks through the end-to-end configuration of Employee Slate, the AI-native employee experience included in ServiceNow EmployeeWorks. Employee Slate can be deployed using one of two AI assistant tracks: Moveworks (the recommended path for all customers) or Now Assist (for customers who have not yet licensed Moveworks). Steps shared across both tracks are written once and clearly marked.
Prerequisites
The following prerequisites apply to both tracks before any configuration begins.
- Platform version: ServiceNow instance on Zurich Patch 9 (ZP9). This is a hard requirement; Employee Slate will not function on earlier patch levels.
- AI assistant license: Either Moveworks licensed and configured (Track A), or Now Assist licensed and configured (Track B).
- System Administrator privileges: Required to install applications and access the Admin Console.
- Employee Center (Pro) portal (optional): Organizations already running Employee Center will inherit existing configurations for Unified Inbox, Employee Profile, and Org Chart automatically. No migration work is required.
Additional license requirements to be aware of:
AI Insights on Approvals (Unified Inbox) requires Now Assist for Platform to be configured.
AI-powered widget creation (AIUX Widget Creation / Updation) requires Now Assist for Creator.
How to Use This Guide
- Identify your track: Track A (Moveworks) or Track B (Now Assist).
- Go directly to your track section and follow the numbered steps in sequence.
- Steps labeled "Both Tracks" are written once in Track A and referenced in Track B to avoid duplication.
Implementation Steps at a Glance
|
Step |
Track A: Moveworks |
Track B: Now Assist |
|
1 |
Install Employee Slate for Moveworks + Advanced |
Install Employee Slate for Now Assist + Advanced |
|
2 |
Configure Admin Console: Appearance, Moveworks assistant URL, Canvas + widget library, Documentation module, Package/export update set |
Configure Admin Console: Appearance, Canvas + widget library, Documentation module, Package/export update set |
|
3 |
Configure Moveworks conversational assistant (SSO via JWT, new bot, suggested prompts) |
Configure Now Assist conversational assistant (data sources, internal & external search) |
|
4 |
Validate Tasks and Requests configuration for Unified Inbox |
← Same |
|
5 |
Org Chart and Employee Profile configuration |
← Same |
|
6 |
Build Announcements (requires Employee Slate Advanced) |
← Same |
|
7 |
— |
Validate Notifications configuration |
|
|
Widget Configuration: Featured Apps, Holiday Calendar, Communication Banners, Quick Links, Popular Content (Both Tracks — see Widget Configuration Reference section) |
← Same |
Track A: Deploying Employee Slate with Moveworks
Moveworks is the recommended path for all customers. It delivers the richest Employee Slate experience: full conversational AI, enterprise search across 100+ business systems, World Knowledge, and an experience that improves continuously over time.
|
Step 1 |
Download the Applications |
Install the following applications from the ServiceNow Store before proceeding. Navigate to System Applications > All and search for "Employee Slate" to install. Check "Load Demo Data" during installation.
- Employee Slate for Moveworks (sn_ex_emp_hub_mw)
- Employee Slate Advanced (sn_ex_emp_hub_adv) — required for Announcements and App Launcher
Employee Slate Advanced is required for Employee Communications (Announcements) and the App Launcher. Confirm your SKU includes it before proceeding. See the Packaging section at the end of this guide for details.
|
Step 2 |
Configure the Product Configuration Console (Both Tracks) |
All configuration in this step is performed from the Product Configuration console, which organizes setup into discrete modules and tracks progress. You can leave and resume configuration at any time.
2a. Access the Product Configuration Console
- From the platform administrator home page, locate the Employee Slate for Moveworks (or Employee Slate for Now Assist) card and select View product overview.
- The Product Hub opens and lists all plugins associated with your track.
- Optional — Upload Batch: If you are promoting configurations from another environment (e.g., staging to production), use Upload Batch to load a prepared XML update set. Skip this step for a fresh configuration.
- Select Configure to open the Admin Console. The configuration summary lists all available modules and the completion status of each.
Accessing the Employee Slate Product Hub and opening the Admin Console
2b. Configure Appearance (Both Tracks)
- In the Appearance module, set the portal name and URL suffix.
- Upload light mode and dark mode logos, plus a favicon.
- Set the primary, accent, and neutral palette colors.
- Use the preview panel to verify the experience across desktop and mobile, and in both light and dark modes, before saving.
- Save the changes and mark the module as configured to advance your progress in the configuration summary.
Configuring portal name, logos, colors, and mode preview in the Appearance module
2c. Connect Moveworks AI Assistant (Moveworks only)
- In the Conversational Assistant module, enter the Moveworks AI Assistant instance URL and save.
- The module provides a direct link to the Moveworks Setup experience where you can configure AI Assistant sources and behaviors. For detailed instructions, see Step 3.
Reference: Configure the Moveworks chat bot for Employee Slate
Entering the Moveworks AI Assistant instance URL in the Conversational Assistant module
2d. Configure the Canvas Widget Library (Both Tracks)
The Widget Library controls which widgets employees can add to their personal Canvas. In the Canvas module, select Canvas Editor to configure the default canvas dashboard.
- Toggle widget visibility in the widget library to control what appears in each employee's "available widgets" list.
- Out-of-the-box widgets at launch: My Requests, My Calendar, and Activity Hub. App Launcher requires Employee Slate Advanced.
- Edit or create new widgets from within the library. Administrators with Now Assist for Creator can use AI-powered AIUX Widget Creation for natural language authoring with live preview.
Reference: Configure the default canvas dashboard
Enabling widgets for the canvas layout in Widget Library
2e. Configure Default Canvas Experience (Both Tracks)
- Set the default Canvas subtitle message shown to all employees.
- Define the default widget layout for the Canvas. Employees can personalize from this baseline.
Important: Home page layout is fixed in the May 2026 release.
Organizations cannot add widgets to or change the layout of the home page. Admins configure home page content (branding, quick links, popular content) but not its structure. Employee-level widget personalization is available exclusively through My Canvas.
Setting the default canvas widget arrangement for employees
2f. Review the Documentation Module (Both Tracks)
The Documentation module in the Admin Console provides direct links to the ServiceNow documentation site for all Employee Slate features: home page, inbox, org chart, notifications, and employee profile. Use these links to complete feature-specific configurations that fall outside the Product Configuration console scope.
2g. Package and Export the Update Set (Both Tracks)
Once configuration is complete, select Package and download to export all configuration changes as an XML update set. To promote configurations to another environment (e.g., from staging to production), upload the exported file from the Product Hub page of the target environment using the Upload Batch option.
This export/import flow is the recommended path for multi-environment deployments. Always export from lower environments and import to production — not the reverse.
|
Step 3 |
Configure Moveworks Conversational Assistant |
All Moveworks assistant configuration is performed within Moveworks Setup on your Moveworks instance. Search source configuration, Enterprise Search, and Notifications are also handled here as part of this setup.
3a. Configure SSO via JWT Auth
- In Moveworks Setup, create a JWT Auth connection. Select both connectors: (A) Identity and (B) Trusted Issuer to establish SSO between ServiceNow and Moveworks.
Creating the JWT Auth connection with Identity and Trusted Issuer connectors in Moveworks Setup
3b. Create a New Bot for Employee Slate
- In Moveworks Setup, create a new Bot (ChatVar) and set its surface to unified-frontdoor.
- Do not modify the surface of the existing mwa bot. A dedicated net-new bot is required for Employee Slate.
The unified-frontdoor surface connects the Moveworks conversational assistant to the Employee Slate home page experience. Reusing or modifying the existing mwa bot will break the integration.
Creating a new bot with unified-frontdoor surface in Moveworks Setup
3c. Configure Suggested Prompts
- In Moveworks Setup, configure the Suggested Prompts that appear in the Employee Slate home page search bar.
- Prompts guide employees toward the most common and high-value actions in your organization from the moment they arrive.
Configuring Suggested Prompts on the Employee Slate home page search bar
3d. Configure Assistant Branding (Optional)
- Navigate to Manage Chatbots > Core Configuration to update the Assistant Name.
- Navigate to Organization Details > Assistant Avatar to upload a custom avatar image.
Search, Enterprise Search, and Notifications
Search source configuration (where data with ACLs is mirrored, indexed, and searched to generate summaries), Enterprise Search across connected systems, and Notifications are all configured as part of the Moveworks setup. No additional ServiceNow-side configuration is needed for these capabilities.
|
Step 4 |
Validate Tasks and Requests Configuration (Both Tracks) |
The Unified Inbox inherits all existing Employee Center task and request configurations automatically. For most organizations, no additional setup is required.
- Standard task types (approvals, campaigns, journey lifecycle, learning, and more) are supported out of the box based on your existing Business Unit licenses.
- Standard request types (Service Catalog Requests, Incidents, HR Cases, and more) are also preconfigured with no additional setup needed.
- Custom task types or external system tasks can be added on top of preconfigured defaults by navigating to existing Employee Center To-do configurations.
- Three experience paths are configurable per task type: natively in the Inbox, rendered from Employee Center, or linked out to an external URL.
AI Insights on Approvals
The AI Insights panel (which shows which approval criteria are met, unmet, or missing) requires Now Assist for Platform to be configured on the instance.
Reference documentation: Configuring Employee Center To-Dos | Employee Center Requests Configuration | Unified Inbox Product Documentation
|
Step 5 |
Configure Org Chart and Employee Profile (Both Tracks) |
Employee Profile and Org Chart automatically reuse existing Employee Center configurations. Organizations migrating from Employee Center do not need to rebuild anything from scratch.
For organizations that have not yet deployed the Employee Center (Pro) portal:
- Opt in to the Employee Profile feature to enable the new employee details and design.
- Create an active employee definition and generate employee profiles.
- Configure UI elements for the Employee Profile and Org Chart per your organizational preferences.
With Moveworks: Employees can search for people conversationally and receive interactive profile cards directly in chat. Clicking any card opens the full Org Chart in split view alongside the conversation.
Reference documentation: Employee Profile | Org Chart | Employee Center Academy: Unified Employee Profile
|
Step 6 |
Set Up Communication Banners (Both Tracks) |
Content Managers and Admins can create and publish targeted announcements directly from within Employee Slate. Requires Employee Slate Advanced. The role required is sn_cd.content_manager.
- Navigate to Profile Options and select Communications.
- Create a new announcement banner from the Content Library.
- Edit the banner content, image, and publishing plan. Set an image focal point, configure audience targeting and scheduling window.
- Check the live preview and click Publish when ready.
Audience targeting for announcements derives from existing Knowledge Base and Catalog user criteria. No separate audience configuration is required.
With Now Assist: Content Managers can also initiate announcement creation conversationally from any KB article or catalog item using a natural language prompt. Additionally, announcements can be pushed to employees via supported chat channels such as MS Teams, extending reach beyond the Employee Slate portal.
Reference documentation: Employee Communications
Creating an announcement banner and setting audience, schedule, and publishing details
Accessing Employee Slate after setup is completeNavigate to: https://<instance-name>.service-now.com/aiux/employeeslate/home (The URL may change depending on what has been configured in Branding and Theming under Admin Console) User Experience Analytics (UXA) is enabled automatically from the moment Employee Slate goes live. No additional setup is needed. |
Track B: Deploying Employee Slate with Now Assist
Employee Slate powered by Now Assist delivers the core experience including conversation-first home page, personalized canvas, unified inbox, org chart, and employee profiles. Enterprise Search with Moveworks, World Knowledge, and Moveworks conversational notifications are not available on this track.
|
Step 1 |
Download the Applications |
Install the following applications from the ServiceNow Store before proceeding. Navigate to System Applications > All and search for "Employee Slate" to install. Check "Load Demo Data" during installation.
- Employee Slate for Now Assist (sn_ex_emp_hub_na)
- Employee Slate Advanced (sn_ex_emp_hub_adv) — required for Announcements and App Launcher
|
Step 2 |
Configure the Product Configuration Console (Both Tracks) |
Follow all sub-steps from Step 2 in Track A (2a, 2b Appearance, 2d–2g), with one exception: skip sub-step 2c (Connect Moveworks AI Assistant) — that step is Moveworks-only. The Now Assist assistant connection is configured in Step 3 of this track.
|
Step 3 |
Configure Now Assist Conversational Assistant |
All Now Assist assistant configuration is performed within the Employee Slate Admin Console. Access it via the Employee Slate Product Hub in Impact Admin.
3a. Configure Conversational Assistant
- Select Now Assist assistant setup in the Admin Console to open the Assistant Designer.
- Configure your assistant's appearance and behavior: customize responses, review display experiences, define information sources, and migrate NLU topics to LLM-based topics.
- Set a chat header and logo for your conversational assistant branding.
Configuring Suggested Prompts for Now Assist
Suggested Prompts on the Employee Slate home page are surfaced based on Promoted Assets from Now Assist. Admins configure these by promoting agents in Assistant Designer. This is different from the Moveworks track, where suggested prompts are configured directly in Moveworks Setup.
Configuring the conversational assistant in Assistant Designer
3b. Configure Internal Data Sources
AI Search Sources determine which data AI Search can index. The out-of-the-box configuration includes ESC Portal Knowledge Base and Employee Slate Catalogs by default.
- Add new sources by configuring tables and conditions, or reuse existing sources from the dropdown.
- Manage existing Search Profiles to group sources, define relevance, and control who can search what.
Adding and managing internal AI Search data sources and search profiles
3c. Configure External Data Sources
- Configure an External Content Connector by creating a connector record and authenticating to the external system (e.g., SharePoint, Confluence).
Reference documentation: External Content Connectors
Configuring an external content connector to index third-party systems
|
Step 4 |
Validate Tasks and Requests Configuration (Both Tracks) |
Refer to Step 4 in Track A. Configuration is identical across both tracks.
|
Step 5 |
Configure Org Chart and Employee Profile (Both Tracks) |
Refer to Step 5 in Track A. Configuration is identical across both tracks.
|
Step 6 |
Set Up Communication Banners (Both Tracks) |
Refer to Step 6 in Track A. Configuration is identical across both tracks.
|
Step 7 |
Validate Notifications Configuration (Now Assist only) |
Employee Slate for Now Assist includes 14 out-of-the-box notification use cases covering common HR, IT, and service request events. These are enabled by default with no additional setup required.
- Notifications are surfaced in a dedicated panel within the Slate navigation, with grouping logic to reduce notification fatigue.
- A bulk "mark all as read" action lets employees quickly clear the tray.
- Admins can extend notifications using Employee Center Notifications configuration to add additional use cases.
Reviewing and managing the 14 preconfigured notification scenarios
Widget Configuration Reference (Both Tracks)
Widget configuration is independent of the Admin Console setup in Step 2 and can be completed at any point after the core installation is done. The steps below apply to both tracks. Widgets fall into two categories: Homepage widgets (displayed directly on the Employee Slate home page for all users) and Canvas widgets (added by employees to their personal canvas).
Homepage Widgets
|
Widget |
Holiday Calendar (Homepage) |
The Holiday Calendar widget displays upcoming holidays relevant to each employee based on their location. Holidays are configured centrally by admins and filtered per user using the country code on the user's profile record.
- Navigate to Employee Center > Holiday Calendar.
- Create a new holiday record for each upcoming holiday. Set the date, name, and Country.
- In the Country / Region field, select the applicable country or region. Employees will only see holidays whose country/region matches the country code field on their user profile.
Country/region matching is driven by the country code on the user record. If employees are not seeing expected holidays, verify that their user profiles have the correct country code populated.
Adding a holiday record and selecting the country/region for targeted visibility
|
Widget |
Communication Banners (Homepage) |
Communication Banners are admin-authored announcements displayed on the Employee Slate home page. Configuration is covered in detail in Step 6: Set Up Communication Banners of both tracks. Role required: sn_cd.content_manager.
In brief: navigate to Profile > Communications within Employee Slate (visible to content managers only), create a banner from the Content Library, configure audience targeting and scheduling, and publish.
For Now Assist: announcements can also be pushed to supported chat channels such as MS Teams from the same Communications interface. See Step 6 for full details.
Creating and publishing a communication banner from the Employee Slate Communications panel
Canvas Widgets
|
Widget |
Featured Apps (Canvas) |
The Featured Apps widget surfaces pre-configured web applications on an employee's personal canvas, providing one-click access to commonly used tools. Requires Employee Slate Advanced. Role required: System Administrator.
- Navigate to Employee Center > Web Applications.
- Create or open a web application record. For each application, configure the SSO connection following the guidance in the App Launcher product documentation.
- Set the User Criteria to control which audiences see the app. Use Available For and Not Available For fields to define inclusion and exclusion rules at the audience level.
- Check the Featured Apps checkbox on the web application record. This is what causes the app to appear in the Featured Apps widget on an employee's canvas. Applications without this checkbox will still appear in the full App Launcher but not in the Featured Apps widget.
SSO configuration varies by application. Refer to the App Launcher product documentation for step-by-step instructions for each supported app type. User Criteria matching follows the same logic as Employee Center portal audience targeting.
Configuring a web application record and enabling the Featured Apps checkbox in Employee Center
Appendix
Packaging Reference
Employee Slate is bundled into existing ServiceNow SKUs:
- ServiceNow EmployeeWorks: Includes Employee Slate Advanced and Employee Slate for Moveworks.
- HRSD AI Packages: Includes Employee Slate Advanced and both Employee Slate for Moveworks and Now Assist.
- All other BU AI Packages: Includes Employee Slate Foundation with both Moveworks and Now Assist paths.
- Pro Plus and Enterprise Plus: Include Employee Slate for Now Assist. Speak to your account team for full packaging details.
Localization and Accessibility
- Languages at launch: French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, and Italian. Additional translations planned for H2 2026.
- Moveworks assistant: Supports over 100 languages.
- Accessibility: Employee Slate has been designed for accessibility. AI-generated widgets (created via AIUX Widget Creation) automatically comply with WCAG 2.2 AA standards. Refer to the Employee Slate Accessibility Compliance Report for full product-level accessibility details.
Related Documentation
