Virtual agent is prioritising PDF attachments and not KB article for generating answers
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5 hours ago
Hello,
We are facing issue in VA where in some cases it is giving preference to pdf attachments with in the KB Articles and bringing GenAI answer from attachments and not considering article content at all. We want it to consider both and give the answer accordingly. Is there any way?
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5 hours ago
Hey @Riya25
What you are seeing can happen depending on how Knowledge sources are indexed and retrieved by Generative AI Search / Virtual Agent.
A few things to check:
Knowledge Indexing Configuration
If PDF attachments are being indexed as separate searchable content, the retrieval process may rank the attachment content higher than the KB article body.
Review your AI Search / Generative AI indexing configuration and confirm how attachments are being indexed.
Search Result Ranking
Generative AI answers are generated from the content retrieved by the search engine.
If the PDF contains more keyword matches than the article text, the PDF may be selected as the primary grounding source, causing the article body to be ignored.
Knowledge Article Content Quality
Ensure the important information is present directly in the KB article body and not only in the attachment.
Generative AI generally performs better when the article itself contains the authoritative content rather than relying heavily on attached documents.
Attachment Indexing Behavior
Depending on your release and AI Search configuration, you may be able to control whether attachments are indexed or adjust their relevance.
Check whether attachment indexing can be disabled or weighted differently in your search profile.
Generative AI Grounding Sources
Review the grounding configuration used by Virtual Agent.
Verify whether both KB article content and attachment content are included as retrieval sources and whether there are any ranking rules prioritizing attachments.
If you are using Generative AI Search/Now Assist, there is currently no out-of-the-box setting that explicitly tells the model to "always combine article body and attachment content." The behavior is typically driven by retrieval and ranking, so the solution usually involves adjusting indexing, search profiles, or attachment relevance rather than changing the prompt alone.
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If this response helps, please mark it as Accept as Solution and Helpful.
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Regards
Vaishali Singh
Servicenow Developer
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaishali-singh-2273361bb
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5 hours ago
Hello Vaishali,
Thank you for the reply.
1. PDF Attachments are part of KB Articles, there is single indexed source of KB with advanced configuration set for indexing attachments.
2. The content is present in both Article as well as attachment, just that in attachment it is present in detailed way.
3. when you say 'Check whether attachment weighted differently in your search profile', can you explain how this can be done, I know about disabling the attachment from indexing.
