Agentic AI in Virtual agent

[SrushtiJ9806485]

Hello folks,

I want to set up Agentic AI for a virtual agent.
Does anyone have any ideas or resources, from basic to advanced? Can you suggest some articles?

[M Iftikhar · Accepted solution]

Hi Srushti!
Here's a practical guide to get started with Agentic AI in ServiceNow's Virtual Agent.

Core Concept:
Agentic AI moves beyond simple Q&A. It enables the VA to perform multi-step tasks by using tools (like API calls, script includes, record operations) based on the user's request.

Key Steps to Set It Up:

1. Activate & Configure: Go to Now Intelligence > Agent Runtime > Configuration. Ensure "Agentic AI" is activated for your Virtual Agent.

2. Define the Agent's Purpose: In the VA workspace, create a clear instruction for your agent. Example: "You are an IT support agent. Your goal is to resolve employee issues efficiently by checking records, automating tasks, and providing clear answers."

3. Add Tools (The Most Important Part): This is what makes the agent "agentic".

   • ServiceNow Actions: Use pre-built actions like "Create Incident", "Update Task", or "Search Knowledge Base".

   • Custom Actions: Create your own actions using Flow Designer or Script Includes for complex tasks (e.g., "Reset user password", "Check software license availability").

   • API Integration: Connect to external systems via REST APIs to fetch or update data.

4. Test Thoroughly: Use the conversation tester in the VA workspace. Test complex, multi-step requests like, "My laptop won't turn on. Create a high-priority incident for me and check if there are any known outages."

Suggested Articles from ServiceNow Docs:

• Start here: "Get started with Agentic AI for Virtual Agent" (Search this exact title on the ServiceNow Developer portal)

• Deep Dive: "Configure tools for Agentic AI"

This approach will transform your VA from answering questions to actively performing tasks.
Hope this helps!

Thanks & Regards,
Muhammad Iftikhar
If my response helped, please mark it helpful & accept the solution so others can benefit as well.

[M Iftikhar · Accepted solution]

Hi Srushti!
Here's a practical guide to get started with Agentic AI in ServiceNow's Virtual Agent.

Core Concept:
Agentic AI moves beyond simple Q&A. It enables the VA to perform multi-step tasks by using tools (like API calls, script includes, record operations) based on the user's request.

Key Steps to Set It Up:

1. Activate & Configure: Go to Now Intelligence > Agent Runtime > Configuration. Ensure "Agentic AI" is activated for your Virtual Agent.

2. Define the Agent's Purpose: In the VA workspace, create a clear instruction for your agent. Example: "You are an IT support agent. Your goal is to resolve employee issues efficiently by checking records, automating tasks, and providing clear answers."

3. Add Tools (The Most Important Part): This is what makes the agent "agentic".

   • ServiceNow Actions: Use pre-built actions like "Create Incident", "Update Task", or "Search Knowledge Base".

   • Custom Actions: Create your own actions using Flow Designer or Script Includes for complex tasks (e.g., "Reset user password", "Check software license availability").

   • API Integration: Connect to external systems via REST APIs to fetch or update data.

4. Test Thoroughly: Use the conversation tester in the VA workspace. Test complex, multi-step requests like, "My laptop won't turn on. Create a high-priority incident for me and check if there are any known outages."

Suggested Articles from ServiceNow Docs:

• Start here: "Get started with Agentic AI for Virtual Agent" (Search this exact title on the ServiceNow Developer portal)

• Deep Dive: "Configure tools for Agentic AI"

This approach will transform your VA from answering questions to actively performing tasks.
Hope this helps!

Thanks & Regards,
Muhammad Iftikhar
If my response helped, please mark it helpful & accept the solution so others can benefit as well.

[kaushal_snow · Accepted solution]

Hi @SrushtiJ9806485 ,

Start by ensuring your instance is on the Yokohama release or later and that the necessary plugins, such as Now Assist AI Agents, Generative AI Controller, and Now Assist for Virtual Agent, are installed and up to date......Navigate to AI Agent Studio via the application navigator to create and configure your AI agent..... here, you can define its purpose, set instructions, and associate it with an agentic workflow...

check these:

https://www.servicenow.com/community/creator-special-interest-group/ai-agents-hands-on-demo-setup-wa...

https://www.servicenow.com/community/now-assist-for-creator-forum/integrating-agentic-ai-with-virtua...

https://www.servicenow.com/community/developer-articles/get-familiar-with-agentic-workflows-amp-ai-a...

If you found my response helpful, please mark it as ‘Accept as Solution’ and ‘Helpful’. This helps other community members find the right answer more easily and supports the community.

[warren_chan]

It's a bit early to have true best practices for this functionality as it still very new. In general, here are the steps that I would suggest:

1. If you are still on NLU VA, migrate to Now Assist in Virtual Agent (NAVA). Get the NAVA working the way you want and ensure you have cleared all adoption hurdles. Victor has a good post here: 

https://www.servicenow.com/community/virtual-agent-nlu-articles/now-assist-in-virtual-agent-migratin...

2. Go to Conversational Assistants > Assistants and step through the wizard for Now Assist in Virtual Agent (default). Make sure that under Conversational skills, AI agents is selected. Confirm display experiences (portals) and AI search sources.

 

3. In parallel, identify the AI agents that you want to incorporate into your NAVA. Since VA is an end-user facing channel, most people will think of deflection as their primary use cases. 

If you are intending to deploy on or with the AI Agents October 2025 release, your chat experiences between Now Assist Panel (NAP) and VA should be the same. However, if you are deploying on an AI Agents release before October 2025, you will likely have some disparity in AI agent orchestration behavior. All this is to say that you should test your AI agents thoroughly between the possible conversational assistants that serve as possible front-ends for your AI agents. If necessary, duplicate any AI agents and make modifications specifically for NAVA invocation.

4. AI Agents will be invoked from NAVA so you should test the discovery/pipeline of how/when each AI Agent is invoked.  Go to Conversational Assistants > Virtual Agent > Designer. Test possible utterances your user base may have. 

5. Return to Virtual Agent Designer and promote any AI Agents in your list as necessary:

 

6. Monitor metrics and dashboards to further fine tune. I believe some of the metrics will reside under VA (Conversational Interfaces > Analytics) and some will reside under AI Agents (AI Agent Studio > Analytics)