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09-07-2022 05:51 PM
We already have question-answer pairs (10,000 +), can we import the question-answer pairs into ServiceNow, train the Virtual Agent, so employee can get answers via the chat with Virtual Agent?
Solved! Go to Solution.

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09-09-2022 12:55 PM
Yes. There are some chatbots out there that actually work this way, being Q&A-centric, but ServiceNow's VA is topic-centric and isn't necessarily best at working with Q&A, though it's gotten better.
There's 2 primary ways to do this, which you can combine if you'd like. They both start with using the ootb FAQ Knowledge Template. I've never done it, but KB articles are just records, so I'm sure you could import your Q&A data into the kb_template_faq table. (Note: you probably want to ensure State = Published because I'm not sure about bulk publishing articles).
#1 option is to do nothing (except use the AI Search Fallback). Ensure your AI Search is configured to search the Knowledge Base(s) with your FAQs and by default, if you don't have a topic that matches the user's search term, it'll include relevant articles in their fallback search results.
Now, you could use regular KB articles which will show at least a snippet of the article body in the results, but the benefit of using the FAQ template is that there's an ootb Genius Result config, so if the user's query triggered an FAQ as a Genius Result, that result will not only be visually enhanced, but it'll also show more text from the Answer - possibly the entire answer (presuming there's a text limit), which is the ideal VA experience.
#2, explained by Anubhav previously, is to use the ootb FAQ Conversation Builder topic block, designed to show FAQ articles entirely in-line in VA chats - similar to Genius Results I think - so users don't need to click a link to open the article separately.
This one isn't super straightforward because you still need to create at least one topic that uses this topic block.
So if you want, you could create one general "FAQs" topic, but that could be a little awkward from the user experience.
For a better user experience, you may want to consider creating multiple topics that use this topic to organize into some higher level categories, so if for example, if somebody types in "HR question", it could trigger the HR Support topic which searches HR FAQs but if they type in "printer issue", it could trigger the Hardware Support topic which search hardware FAQs.
Finally, if you don't plan on creating topics at all and want your chatbot to rely exclusively on FAQs, you could also try plugging in that topic block into your Greetings topic so users don't need to awkwardly try to trigger your one (or multiple) FAQ topic(s).
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09-07-2022 09:47 PM
Hi Yunbo,
We have OOB Topic Block 'FAQ Conversation Builder' which you can use to search FAQs. All FAQs are stored in a table FAQs [kb_template_faq] from where FAQs are searched on Virtual Agent.
Please mark this as correct answer if it resolved, or mark this helpful if this help you to reach towards solution.
Thanks
Anubhav Ritolia
ServiceNow Rising Star 2023
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09-08-2022 11:19 PM
Hi Yunbo,
Please mark this answer correct if this resolved your issue/query.
Thanks
Anubhav Ritolia
ServiceNow Rising Star 2023

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09-09-2022 12:55 PM
Yes. There are some chatbots out there that actually work this way, being Q&A-centric, but ServiceNow's VA is topic-centric and isn't necessarily best at working with Q&A, though it's gotten better.
There's 2 primary ways to do this, which you can combine if you'd like. They both start with using the ootb FAQ Knowledge Template. I've never done it, but KB articles are just records, so I'm sure you could import your Q&A data into the kb_template_faq table. (Note: you probably want to ensure State = Published because I'm not sure about bulk publishing articles).
#1 option is to do nothing (except use the AI Search Fallback). Ensure your AI Search is configured to search the Knowledge Base(s) with your FAQs and by default, if you don't have a topic that matches the user's search term, it'll include relevant articles in their fallback search results.
Now, you could use regular KB articles which will show at least a snippet of the article body in the results, but the benefit of using the FAQ template is that there's an ootb Genius Result config, so if the user's query triggered an FAQ as a Genius Result, that result will not only be visually enhanced, but it'll also show more text from the Answer - possibly the entire answer (presuming there's a text limit), which is the ideal VA experience.
#2, explained by Anubhav previously, is to use the ootb FAQ Conversation Builder topic block, designed to show FAQ articles entirely in-line in VA chats - similar to Genius Results I think - so users don't need to click a link to open the article separately.
This one isn't super straightforward because you still need to create at least one topic that uses this topic block.
So if you want, you could create one general "FAQs" topic, but that could be a little awkward from the user experience.
For a better user experience, you may want to consider creating multiple topics that use this topic to organize into some higher level categories, so if for example, if somebody types in "HR question", it could trigger the HR Support topic which searches HR FAQs but if they type in "printer issue", it could trigger the Hardware Support topic which search hardware FAQs.
Finally, if you don't plan on creating topics at all and want your chatbot to rely exclusively on FAQs, you could also try plugging in that topic block into your Greetings topic so users don't need to awkwardly try to trigger your one (or multiple) FAQ topic(s).