Now Assist panel isn't working: find the cause and get to the fix

Claire_Conant · 3 weeks ago

The Now Assist panel relies on plugins, roles, assistant configurations, and deployment channels all being in place. Four distinct failure patterns map to these components, each with its own visible symptom and a specific resolution path. Match your symptom to find your fix.

Which Now Assist dependencies should you verify first?

Before working through the specific scenarios, confirm that these foundational pieces are in place. Most panel failures trace back to one of these being either missing or misconfigured.

The Now Assist in Virtual Agent (default) plugin is installed or activated.
At least one Now Assist product plugin (ITSM, CSM, or HRSD) is installed. Go to System Definition > Plugins and verify.
Users have the now_assist_panel_user role assigned. The admin role alone isn't always sufficient for the panel to render.
The default assistant, Now Assist Panel-Platform (default), is turned on (Go to Conversational Interfaces > Assistant Designer > Assistants) with the Q&A, Topics, and AI Agents skills active.
AI Search is enabled on the instance.
Deployment channel records are present in the instance, telling the platform where to render the panel.

Once you've confirmed these prerequisites, look for the symptom that matches your situation. Each scenario below maps to a distinct visible behavior.

1. The sparkle icon is missing from the header

This is the most common panel failure, and it usually means one or more prerequisites aren't set up right. Confirm these four prerequisites:

User role
Now Assist product plugin
Default assistant configuration
AI Search enablement

If you've already worked through the prerequisites and the icon still doesn't appear, the Now Assist in Virtual Agent plugin may need to be repaired. Go to System Definition > Plugins, find Now Assist in Virtual Agent (default), and run the repair.

See: Now Assist Panel is enabled but the icon does not appear

2. The panel opens but says "Now Assist isn't set up to help you right now"

This message usually means a deployment channel record is missing from your instance. The platform checks for a Unified Navigation record in the [sys_now_assist_deployment_channel] table to determine where to render the panel. If that record doesn't exist, the panel loads but can't reach any skills. That's what produces the "isn't set up" message, even after you've completed the setup steps.

Confirm whether this scenario applies:

In the navigation filter, go to sys_now_assist_deployment_channel.list.
Look for the UX Parent Application: Unified Navigation record.
If it's missing, that's the cause.

See How to resolve the Now Assist panel showing as not configured after setup

3. The panel throws a 500 error or shows "NotFoundException"

A 500 error when you open the panel usually points to the context profile that drives it. That profile has a setting that tells the platform which type of assistant to load, and if that value gets changed during an upgrade, a plugin update, or manual edits, the panel can't resolve what to open and returns the error instead of loading.

To confirm and fix this:

Go to sys_cs_context_profile.list.
Find the Now Assist Panel - Platform (default) record.
Check the Model Type field. If it's set to anything other than Now Assist Panel, change it back and save.
Test in a non-production instance first.

For the full resolution steps, see Now Assist panel returns Internal Server Error 500 when opened from the header.

4. The panel loads but your enabled skills aren't visible

If the panel opens and you can type in it, but the skills you've enabled (like incident summarization or knowledge article generation) don't appear as options, the issue is usually that those skills aren't set to "promoted" in the assistant's topic configuration. The skills are still functional—you can still trigger them by typing the request directly—but they won't appear in the panel skill list until you promote them.

To confirm this is your scenario, open Conversational interfaces > Assistant Designer > Assistants and look at the skill configuration for your default assistant. If your expected skills aren't set to Information Sources > Promoted, that's the cause. The linked article has the steps to enable them.

See: Now Assist panel does not show active skills as tiles.

Where to go from here

If you've matched your symptom to one of these scenarios, the linked knowledge article has the detailed resolution steps. For situations where none of these match, a broader set of diagnostic steps across all Now Assist products is available in the How to troubleshoot Now Assist and AI Agents issues.