Now Assist for Employee Center: An introductory guide

[SmritiGupta]

Now, Assist for Employee Center transforms the employee portal experience by leveraging AI to enable self-service, boost productivity, and provide instant access to information. This guide covers everything you need to know to implement and maximize Now Assist capabilities.

• Overview & Key Benefits

Now Assist for Employee Center is designed to revolutionize how employees interact with your organization's portal. Rather than navigating through link farms or searching multiple knowledge articles, employees can use conversational AI to get immediate, relevant answers and complete tasks efficiently.

 

Core Benefits

How Now Assist elevates Employee Center

1. From search to instant, contextual answers - Instead of returning lists of knowledge articles and catalog items, Now Assist generates a single, precise answer in natural language, summarized from knowledge, requests, and connected enterprise systems, so employees get what they need without digging through multiple results.
2. Enterprise-wide coverage through AI connectors - Now Assist extends Employee Center beyond ServiceNow by reasoning over content in HCM, SharePoint, finance, and other business systems, delivering one unified answer across data that would otherwise remain siloed.
3. Resolution in the same conversation - Now Assist not only provides information but also takes action, such as submitting requests, updating records, and triggering workflows directly in chat, like a true digital assistant. This helps drive higher deflection and faster fulfilment.
4. Prebuilt intelligence, faster time-to-value - With preconfigured generative AI skills and minimal setup, Now Assist understands natural-language questions and common employee needs from day one, eliminating months of admin effort spent manually configuring virtual agent topics.

• Now Assist Self Service: Enhanced chat for Virtual Agent and AI Search

Now Assist Self-Service is designed to bring together the strengths of AI Search, Virtual Agent topics, and Employee Center knowledge articles and catalog requests into a single, intelligent experience that helps employees get answers and take action faster without switching between tools.

• Enhanced portal search experience: When users search from the Now Assist–powered home page search bar, they’re taken to the Now Assist in AI Search experience, which uses large language models to deliver actionable, AI-generated answers grounded in indexed content. The experience understands user intent and surfaces top results from Employee Center, Virtual Agent topics, and global searches across external enterprise applications. It provides four types of Genius Results:

1. Multi-Content Responses - synthesized from knowledge articles, catalog items, Knowledge Graph nodes, chat conversations, and external documents
2. Q&A Genius Results - generated from relevant knowledge articles
3. External Content Q&A - sourced from Microsoft SharePoint Online
4. Actions Genius Results - intelligently selected catalog items and Virtual Agent topics.

Results are presented as actionable cards with source links, enhancing standard search results and helping users resolve issues faster.

• Now Assist for Virtual Agent enhancement with a dynamic window: We have also enhanced the experience of using Now Assist with Virtual Agent to align with enhancements made on the search experience. When a user opens the virtual agent window (note: the floating chat icon is now replaced with a new sparkle floating action button), a new dynamic window experience opens up that includes a panel on top to access and manage new chats, previous conversations, and also connect with live agents in a seamless manner.

1. Standard Chat - If you only need a basic chat experience, you can use standard chat, which simply requires the default chat widget button on your portal with no additional dependencies.
2. Enhanced Chat – For a more robust experience, enhanced chat provides users with a resizable chat window combined with intelligent search capabilities. The window can also be expanded to appear as a full-page modal window for a more immersive conversational experience, or as a pinned window anchored to the side of the screen for multitasking while navigating the portal. However, this requires AI Search to be enabled on your portal first.
3. Enhanced Chat with full-page experience - There's also an enhanced chat with full-page experience option that adds an expanded search interface for users who need more comprehensive search functionality. The key prerequisite for both enhanced options is ensuring your portal has AI Search properly configured, which can be set up through the AI Search Admin Home. It's important to note that once you activate enhanced chat, the system automatically uses a specialized search profile designed for virtual agents, rather than your portal's standard search configuration. As part of the full-page experience, users can access a left-hand panel to manage previous conversations or open new chats and connect with live agents seamlessly.

Users can toggle back to the traditional Now Assist for AI Search experience to get a list view of all content,  along with genius results.

• Core Capabilities

1.   Conversational catalog request

Now Assist transforms how employees request services by enabling Service Catalog submissions through a natural, multi-turn conversational experience. Instead of navigating long forms or searching through catalog pages, employees can simply state what they need in plain language. Now Assist understands the intent, identifies the right catalog item, and guides the user through only the required questions, dynamically pulling them from the item’s variable definitions and validating responses along the way. The system supports slot-filling, recognizes when multiple answers are provided in a single message, allows users to review or change responses, and completes the catalog form automatically in the background for a fast, frictionless experience.

For example, an employee can type “I need a new laptop for a developer role.” Now Assist interprets the intent, selects the appropriate laptop request, and conversationally asks for details such as location, delivery preference, and pre-configured software required. As the employee responds, the AI captures and confirms each value, handles corrections if needed, and submits the fully populated request without exposing a traditional multi-page form.

2.   Synthesized response via Now Assist Virtual Agent

Now Assist’s synthesized response capability gives employees a single, clear answer by combining relevant information from supported sources such as knowledge, catalog items, and internal Q&A. Instead of clicking into multiple articles or viewing separate search results, employees receive one cohesive response that explains what they need to know in a straightforward way.

When information comes from multiple places, Now Assist also annotates the sources so employees can verify accuracy whenever they choose. The system understands the query's context and uses the Knowledge Graph, which connects related information behind the scenes, to deliver a response that feels complete and aligned with the employee’s intent. For example, when someone types “tuition reimbursement,” Now Assist can immediately outline the end-to-end process, eligibility criteria, and any required steps in one synthesized answer.

3.   Conversational topics for Tasks and Approvals

Now Assist enhances the conversational experience with two pre-built conversational LLM topics for Tasks and Approvals, enabling employees to view and take action on their work directly through chat using natural language. Instead of navigating to the task page and scanning long lists of pending items, users can access, complete, and manage their tasks and approvals seamlessly within a single conversational interface.

With Conversational Task Completion, employees can view and complete pending tasks in Now Assist based on their to-do configuration. Supported task types include HR tasks such as marking work complete, uploading documents, completing checklists, and taking surveys supported in chat, as well as submitting Service Catalog items, including record producers, and acting on HR case acceptance tasks. With Conversational Approvals, employees can approve or reject all major approval types, including REQ, RITM, CHG, HR approvals, and more, directly within the conversation. Users can also quickly locate what they need by filtering tasks and approvals using natural language prompts, such as by due date or case ID, for faster and more efficient action.

4.   Task summarization

Now Assist introduces Task Summaries for Approvals, giving approvers a clear, structured view of each request directly within the task page. Approval requests often arrive with limited context, making it difficult to quickly understand what is being requested, why it matters, and what actions have already taken place. With Task Summarization, Now Assist automatically generates a concise, contextual summary that highlights key details, prior activity, and the purpose of the request, enabling approvers to make faster, more confident decisions without leaving the task view or switching between records.

From the My Tasks page in Employee Center, approvers can open HR case approvals, Request (REQ) approvals, and Requested Item (RITM) approvals and view a summary either automatically on open or generated on demand, based on configuration. Summaries are displayed directly within the task and include only the information the approver is authorized to see. Organizations can enable and manage these ready-to-use summarization skills through the Now Assist Admin Console, where admins can control which approval types are supported, customize prompts, choose automatic or manual generation, and manage access, all without changing existing task configurations.

Refer to Now Assist for Employee Experience product docs for additional details.

5.   Intelligent search powered by External Content Connectors

External Content Connectors extend the reach of Now Assist by securely bringing knowledge from outside the ServiceNow platform into the Virtual Agent experience. These connectors crawl and index content from enterprise repositories such as SharePoint, Confluence, Box, OneDrive, Google Drive, Jira, Zendesk, Slack, Amazon S3, and even public websites, while keeping the original documents in their source systems and honouring existing permissions and security policies. Once configured, this external content becomes part of AI Search and is automatically available to Now Assist Virtual Agent, allowing it to draw from both ServiceNow data and third-party systems when answering questions.

As a result, when an employee asks a question in Virtual Agent, Now Assist can retrieve and synthesize information from across internal knowledge bases and external repositories in a single, conversational response. This eliminates the need to search multiple tools, improves the accuracy and completeness of answers, and unlocks knowledge that is often siloed across the organization. With simple setup, centralized administration, and no data duplication, External Content Connectors make Now Assist Virtual Agent a more powerful, context-aware interface that delivers faster, more relevant answers by leveraging enterprise-wide and web-based content through one unified search and conversational experience.

6.   Omnichannel support

Now Assist delivers a true omnichannel experience by bringing the same LLM-powered Virtual Agent to the places employees already work, ensuring consistent, contextual assistance across the Portal, Now Mobile, Microsoft Teams, and Browser Extension. In the Portal, users interact with a rich, dynamic conversational window that supports multi-turn dialogue, guided requests, and AI Search in a branded, immersive web experience. On Now Mobile, the same assistant is available through a native, mobile-optimized interface, enabling employees to ask questions, complete tasks, and access knowledge on the go with full conversational continuity.

Within Microsoft Teams, Now Assist embeds directly into daily collaboration, allowing employees to get answers, submit requests, manage approvals, and connect to live agents without leaving their workspace, while benefiting from the same intelligence and context as in the portal. The Browser Extension further extends this reach by allowing users to invoke Now Assist from any intranet or SaaS application, delivering contextual help without switching tabs or applications. Together, these channels provide a unified, seamless experience where conversations, context, and capabilities remain consistent, making Now Assist a truly omnipresent, always-available digital assistant across the flow of work.

7.   Responsible AI via Now Assist Guardian

Now Assist embeds responsible AI principles across the lifecycle, including privacy, safety, and oversight, so teams can adopt AI with confidence. At the core is Now Assist Guardian, a built-in protection layer that monitors every prompt and response in real time to ensure outputs are safe, accurate, and aligned to user intent. Guardian automatically detects and blocks offensive or toxic language, prevents prompt-injection attempts that try to override system instructions, and identifies sensitive topics such as workplace issues or personal data, redirecting users to the right channels, like HR or a live agent, when human intervention is more appropriate. For example, if a user asks the AI to generate harmful content or attempts to manipulate it into exposing confidential information, Guardian intervenes, applies policy-based controls, and either masks, rewrites, or stops the response, ensuring a secure and trustworthy experience for both agents and end users.

For organizations that require centralized governance, AI Control Tower provides a single control plane to define policies, manage approvals, and monitor AI usage and risk across the enterprise.

• How to get access and configure?

License & family release compatibility - The Now Assist Self-Service is available for all Employee Center customers with Now Assist license, with Yokohama Patch 3 family release or above.

Plugins required – This capability requires Now Assist license and is available by downloading the 'Now Assist in Virtual Agent Configurations' plugin and Now Assist for Employee Experience plugin (version 2.0.3). 

Technical details – To enable the enhanced chat feature in Now Assist Self-Service, please upgrade the 'Now Assist in Virtual Agent Configurations' plugin.

1. Navigate to Conversational Interfaces > Assistants.
2. Configure your Now Assist in Virtual Agent assistant.
3. In the options menu (three dots), select 'Enhanced Chat' as the display experience, as illustrated in the screenshot.
4. Admins can enable Now Assist skills directly from the Now Assist Admin Console by navigating to Now Assist Admin > Skills and selecting Now Assist Skills for Employee Center 

Refer to Enhanced chat in Employee Center product documentation for additional details.

 

• Leading best practices and resources

Best Practices for Implementing Now Assist

• Start with strong knowledge foundations: Keep knowledge articles accurate and up to date so Now Assist can deliver reliable answers, and retire outdated content to prevent incorrect guidance.
• Deliver role-based answers: Use user criteria within knowledge articles to tailor responses, ensuring different audiences receive the most relevant information for the same question.
• Prioritize high-impact catalog use cases: Use the Conversational Catalog Overview Dashboard to identify which catalog items are already conversational and what is required to enable others, helping teams focus on high-volume requests and achieve quick wins.
• Leverage AI to create and improve knowledge: Use Now Assist to generate content such as resolution notes for complex incidents, accelerating knowledge capture and reuse.
• Tune AI Search for relevance: Optimize AI Search so Now Assist consistently surfaces the most accurate and contextually relevant information across all interactions.

For detailed recommendations around Now Assist best practices and additional resources, refer to this article.

 

• ServiceNow AI Agents: Turning intelligence into execution

While this article focuses on the generative capabilities and skills of Now Assist in Employee Center, a critical area to explore further is ServiceNow AI Agents, which extend Now Assist from generating answers to executing actions on behalf of your employees. These are autonomous digital workers built on the Now Platform that go beyond answering questions to actively planning, reasoning, and taking action across workflows. Unlike traditional chatbots or simple automation, AI Agents can understand an outcome, determine the steps required to achieve it, and execute those steps across systems and processes with built-in intelligence and governance.

Imagine a manager opening an approval task for a new laptop request. Instead of searching through multiple policy documents to check eligibility, budget rules, and role-based entitlements, they simply click “Review with Now Assist.” The Approval Assistance AI Agent steps in, automatically reviewing the request against relevant knowledge-base policies, assembling a clear, structured checklist, and highlighting what meets policy, what does not, and what information may be missing. The manager can see, in one guided view, whether the request is compliant and complete, and then confidently approve or reject it directly in the conversation. By turning policy interpretation into an interactive, AI-driven review, the agent removes guesswork, reduces risk, and helps managers make faster, more consistent decisions without ever leaving the flow of work.

We have 100+ agentic workflows available across domains such as IT, HR, Customer Service, and more. For additional details and examples, refer to this documentation.