question Subcategories in results AI Search in ServiceNow AI Platform forum

Subcategories in results AI Search

Jonathan Demeul — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 14:15:53 GMT

I'm facing a peculiar issue since moving to AI Search in my company. We have a couple of categories and subcategories available in the Knowledge base. We want to present the new AI search arcticles in the modern view but I realized it's only showing the lowest tier of categories in the right hand side. How can we show nested categories in that view (even if it means coding?)

We love the new view and functionality of AI Search but I had hoped I would at least have the same granularity in search filters as before

Re: Subcategories in results AI Search

miftikhar20 — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 10:57:22 GMT

Hi @Jonathan Demeul,

Fortunately, ServiceNow has addressed this. You can now enable a hierarchical view for knowledge base categories directly within the facet configuration. The kb_category facet supports a hierarchy, which can be enabled through a widget instance option. This means you can achieve the desired nested category display without custom coding.

If you find that this option doesn't fully meet your needs, further customization is possible through cloning and modifying the facet widgets. However, the built-in hierarchical support should be the first thing you explore.

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

Re: Subcategories in results AI Search

Marina Leksina — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 14:04:05 GMT

Hello Muhammad, I am facing the same issue as the OG of this thread. Could you please walk me through the steps on how to find this hierarchy and on which widget instance I can find it? I looked everywhere and was not able to find it to enable it.

Thanks in advance!

Marina