This article covers commonly asked multilingual questions when using Now Assist and AI Agents products.
How does Now Assist support translation across languages?
Now Assist offers two integrated translation capabilities to provide multilingual experiences for AI-driven workflows:
- Now Assist Native Translation: This feature leverages the multilingual capabilities of the Now LLM Service, Microsoft Azure OpenAI, Anthropic Claude on AWS, and Google Gemini to directly understand and generate content in multiple languages. It delivers high-quality translation for generative AI content such as summaries, resolution notes, and knowledge generation.
- Now Assist Dynamic Translation: Powered by Microsoft Azure AI Service (OEM), this capability provides real-time translation and acts as a fallback when Now Assist Native Translation is not available. It uses Microsoft Azure OEM Azure AI Service for Now Assist translation.
Both capabilities are included with Now Assist entitlements and do not require external configuration or licensing.
Which languages are supported by Now Assist?
Languages are categorized by priority, with different translation methods applied.
- P1 and P2 Languages: Now Assist Native Translation primarily supports these languages using the large language model's (LLM) native multilingual capabilities.
- P1: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese.
- P2: Canadian French, Japanese, Dutch.
Note: Native language support is available for English, French, Canadian French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Italian across the supported models.
However, specific model support varies:
- ServiceNow Large Language Model (Llama 3.3 70B) currently only supports English natively.
- ServiceNow Small Language Model supports all P1 & P2 languages.
- Microsoft Azure OpenAI GPT-4.1/GPT-4.1-mini supports all P1 & P2 languages.
- Google Gemini 2.5 Flash/2.5 Pro currently does not support French Canadian natively.
- Anthropic Claude 3.7 Sonnet currently does not support French Canadian or Dutch natively.
- It is recommended to configure unsupported P1 and P2 languages in Now Assist Dynamic Translation for seamless support.
- P3 Languages (and any unsupported P1/P2 languages per model provider): These are handled by Now Assist Dynamic Translation (via Microsoft Azure AI Service OEM hosted in ServiceNow Compute Hubs).
- P3: Swedish, Finnish, Czech, Hebrew, Hungarian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Thai, Turkish, Arabic, Danish.
What if I need to translate static text such as forms or live Agent Chat outside of Now Assist usage?
For non-generative content on the platform, such as translating platform fields, knowledge articles, or live Agent Chat, you can use:
- Platform Dynamic Translation: This is a separately licensed capability that integrates your own translation provider (e.g., Microsoft Azure, Google, IBM) into the Now Platform. This option requires configuration and a customer-managed translation provider.
- Examples of when to use Platform Dynamic Translation:
- Translating UI Elements: If you need to translate text on portals, forms, static fields, or other user interface components that are not part of a generative AI response.
- Live Agent Chat: For real-time translation of conversations between agents and end-users in live chat sessions.
- Knowledge Articles: To translate existing knowledge articles within the platform for non-generative AI use.
- Email Notifications: To translate email notification templates.
Key Considerations:
- Customer Configuration: You must configure your own translation provider (e.g., Microsoft Azure, Google, IBM) to use this capability.
For more in-depth information on Platform Dynamic Translation, please refer to the product documentation and community articles:
Product documentation – Platform Dynamic Translation
In Platform Language Support Guide
Configure Localization Framework (LF) and Dynamic Translation (DT) on an instance
Need to translate a configurable workspace?
Can you provide a comparison of the different translation options?
|
Feature |
Now Assist Native Translation |
Now Assist Dynamic Translation |
Platform Dynamic Translation |
|
Use Case |
Used across all Now Assist Skills and AI Agents for understanding and generarting content in multiple languages. |
Used across all Now Assist skills and AI Agents for real-time translation when Now Assist Native Translation is not available. |
Used for non-generarive AI congent such as forms, portals, static fields, and live Agent Chat. |
|
Language Scope |
Supports P1 and P2 languages only. |
Supports P1 and P2 languages as a fallback, and P3 languages. |
Supports all platform-supported languages. |
|
Provider Setup |
No configuration required, toggle on and select language in Now Assist Admin console, leverages multilingual capabilities of Now LLM Service, Microsoft Azure OpenAI, Anthropic Claude on AWS, and Google Gemini. |
No configuration required, toggle on and select language in Now Assist Admin console, powered by Microsoft Azure AI Service (OEM). |
Requires integration of your own translation provider (Microsoft Azure, Google, IBM). |
|
Entitlement |
Included in Now Assist, no additional entitlements, providers, or assists required. |
Included in Now Assist, no additional entitlements, providers, or assists required. |
Requires a separate customer-managed translation provider. |
What does an end-to-end multilingual workflow in Now Assist look like?
We recommend layering all translation types for organizations aiming to provide seamless language support across self-service, AI skills, and live agent support.
Here's an example:
The requester starts in your portal(s):
- A requestor uses Now Assist Virtual Agent to ask a question in Spanish.
- Now Assist Native Translation or Now Assist Dynamic Translation (depending on language and skill support) processes the request and generates a synthesized response in Spanish. For Virtual Agent, Now Assist can synthesize responses using integrated model providers.
- Scenario: Cross-lingual Q&A with Now Assist If the user asks a question in Spanish, for example, "¿Por qué el servidor MID no se inicia después de la instalación?", the system will:
- Detect the language: The system first detects the user's language based on their language & region settings or the content of the query itself.
- Retrieve relevant content: It then attempts to retrieve the most relevant content using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) in the user's language (Spanish).
- Language Fallback: If relevant Spanish Knowledge Base articles are not found, the system will apply language fallback, searching for content in other configured fallback languages, such as English.
- Dynamic Translation for Content: If English knowledge articles are retrieved, Now Assist Dynamic Translation will translate these English articles to English (internally for the LLM).
- LLM Generation: The Now LLM then generates an answer in English.
- Translate Response: Finally, Now Assist Dynamic Translation translates the generated English answer back into the user's preferred language (Spanish) for display.
Figure 1: Now Assist Q&A Portal Search
Escalating to a live agent:
- The requestor escalates to a live agent. At this point, Platform Dynamic Translation translates the conversation between the agent and requestor. This requires prior setup of a translation provider by the admin.
- The agent uses the Chat Summarization skill. If the language is supported by Now Assist Native Translation and configured, it is processed via the assigned model provider. If not, it falls back to Now Assist Dynamic Translation if the language has been configured.
Recommendation for a seamless workflow: For this workflow to function seamlessly, customers should:
- Install the appropriate language packs for each translation target language.
- Enable both Now Assist Native and Dynamic Translation in the Now Assist Admin Console.
- Select all relevant P1, P2, and P3 languages needed by their users.
- Enable Platform Dynamic Translation in their instance if they wish to translate live Agent Chat or other static UI elements.
- Bring and configure their own translation provider (e.g., Azure, Google, IBM) for Platform Dynamic Translation.
This configuration ensures uninterrupted language coverage across Virtual Agent, live agent handoffs, static content, and Now Assist generative workflows.
Relevant Documentation for End-to-End Workflow Configuration
To configure the various components that comprise the end-to-end multilingual workflow, customers should refer to the following official product documentation:
- Language pack installation: Fundamental to all multilingual capabilities, ensuring the necessary language resources are available on your instance.
- What to configure: Install the required language packs for all languages you intend to support across any of the translation types.
- Where to find information: This is typically found in general ServiceNow platform administration documentation, often under "System Localization" or "Language Support."
- General multilingual service configuration for Now Assist: This is the foundational step for enabling translation capabilities within Now Assist applications.
- What to configure: Enable Now Assist Native Translation and Now Assist Dynamic Translation, and select the languages you wish to support for each. It is recommended to configure languages for both Native and Now Assist Dynamic Translation (NADT) so that NADT can act as an automatic fallback.
- Where to find information:
- Multilingual service for Now Assist applications: This section within the Now Assist Admin console is where you manage these settings directly for both Now Assist Native and Dynamic Translation.
- Translation for Now Assist product documentation: This product documentation covers the setup and management of both Native and Dynamic Translation for Now Assist applications.
- Now Assist Virtual Agent multilingual configuration: This ensures your Virtual Agent can communicate and generate responses in multiple languages.
- What to configure: Enable Dynamic Translation for languages within Virtual Agent settings. This allows the Virtual Agent to leverage Now Assist's translation capabilities for user interactions and synthesized responses.
- Where to find information:
- Configuring Now Assist in Virtual Agent and Now Assist panel assistants: This documentation provides details on integrating and configuring Now Assist features within Virtual Agent.
- Enable Dynamic Translation for languages in Virtual Agent: This specific task guide walks you through enabling Dynamic Translation for your Virtual Agent.
- AI Search and Now Assist Q&A Multilingual Configuration This is crucial for cross-lingual search capabilities and translated Q&A responses.
- Where to find information:
- Dynamic Translation for Now Assist Q&A Genius Results: This documentation explains how Dynamic Translation supports Q&A responses, especially in cross-lingual scenarios, and query-time cache settings.
- Dynamic Translation for Now Assist Actions Genius Results: The documentation explains how Dynamic Translation supports search experiences for Catalog Items and Virtual Agent topics.
- Translation for Now Assist product documentation: This document also covers aspects of how translation works with Now Assist skills, including Q&A.
- Platform Dynamic Translation Configuration (for Live Agent Chat and Static UI) This enables translation for non-generative content and live interactions.
- What to configure: Integrate your chosen third-party translation provider (e.g., Microsoft Azure, Google) with the ServiceNow platform and configure it for use in areas like Agent Chat and static UI fields.
- Where to find information:
- Configuring Dynamic Translation: This is the main documentation for setting up Platform Dynamic Translation across your instance.
- Configuring Dynamic Translation for Agent Chat: This guide specifically details how to enable translation for live chat conversations.
By consulting these specific documentation resources, customers can effectively configure the various components that contribute to a seamless end-to-end multilingual workflow in ServiceNow.
How does multilingual support work with AI Search and Now Assist for Search?
AI Search with Now Assist supports multilingual interactions:
- Hybrid Search and Cross-lingual Search: This allows users to receive Now Assist responses in their preferred language, even if the content originates in a different language. This leverages in-house Dynamic Translation, meaning no additional setup or costs involved, and translations stay within ServiceNow Data Centers. Hybrid search supports 25 languages.
- Language Fallbacks: AI Search respects global and language fallback configurations. For instance, if a Spanish user queries in Spanish, and Spanish KB articles are not found, AI Search can look for relevant English KB articles (if English is set as a fallback) and translate them using Dynamic Translation for the Now Assist response.
How do I configure multilingual services for Now Assist?
- Install Language Packs: Install the necessary language packs based on your needs.
- Enable Now Assist Native Translation:
- Navigate to the Now Assist Admin Console, specifically under Multilingual service > Native Translation.
- Toggle "Native Translation" ON.
- Click "Edit" and select the installed P1 and P2 languages you want to use with Native Translation.
- Enable Now Assist Dynamic Translation:
- Navigate to the Now Assist Admin Console, specifically under Multilingual service > Dynamic Translation.
- Toggle "Dynamic Translation" ON.
- Click "Edit" and select all relevant P1, P2, and P3 languages you want to use with Dynamic Translation. This ensures fallback support for skills not using Native translation, and coverage for languages only supported by Dynamic Translation.
Hello @Ashley Snyde, I'm just curious if there is a guide to enable Native Dynamic Translation. It seems the SN document is not updated yet, but I heard Xanadu patch 3 can dynamically transition using native AI not MS OEM.
LINK: Translation for Now Assist
Note: We are already working on the Xanadu Patch 3 version.
