SANTA CLARA, Calif. — May 9, 2018 – ServiceNow (NYSE:
NOW) today announced new conversational bot technology dubbed “Virtual
Agent,” designed to improve customer and employee experiences by
getting work completed quickly through more natural interactions and
real‑time automated resolution. Unlike other bots, ServiceNow’s
Virtual Agent can manage employee or customer requests from start to
finish, leveraging ServiceNow’s industry‑leading Now
Platform™ to resolve conversational requests automatically, such
as resetting a password.
“Our Virtual Agent enables a powerful conversation model built
natively in the Now Platform,” said CJ Desai, chief product officer,
ServiceNow. “This enables our customers to develop a wide range of
intelligent service conversations, from a quick question to an entire
business action through the messaging platform of their choice.”
An Intelligent Virtual Agent in Action
ServiceNow’s Virtual Agent provides personalized responses in
context. For example, when an employee asks for a new phone, the chat
knows what cell phone plan and carrier the employee already has,
speeding the task and creating a personalized service experience.
Virtual Agent also enables companies to respond faster with instant,
interactive conversations that can scale even during peak periods. It
frees up staff to do higher value work. ServiceNow estimates that 15%
to 20% of routine interactions can be handled by Virtual Agent.
With self‑service interactions, customers and employees engage in
familiar places ‑‑ via Microsoft Teams, Slack or ServiceNow chat
clients. Virtual Agent gather inquiries, requests and conversations
within a messaging format.
With the acquisition of Parlo,
ServiceNow intends to inject more natural language understanding (NLU)
into its virtual agents in the next year. NLU addresses a challenging
area for AI: understanding the nuances of human language. With Parlo,
customers using virtual agents will train their bots to understand
technical and jargon‑laden content, which is critical to make every
day work interactions simple, accessible and natural for everyone.
Streamline IT, HR and Customer Service Requests with Out‑of‑the‑Box Conversations
In its pre‑built offerings, ServiceNow’s Virtual Agent delivers
common service conversations:
-
IT: Improve employee experience with common help desk
requests such as automating password resets, creating an incident,
processing approvals and checking outages.
-
HR: Make it easier for employees to get answers or submit
requests such as a leave of absence, research pay discrepancies,
check status and update their profile.
-
Customer Service: Increase customer satisfaction and improve
agent efficiency when customers can create cases for products or
orders and check product status through virtual agents.
Design Custom Virtual Agents Easily
It’s easy to instantly create basic service conversations that
resolve issues in large volumes so agents can focus on their most
important work. Customers can design their own virtual agent
conversations with drag‑and‑drop ease and little‑to‑no development
time. Organizations can easily plug in their preferred messaging
service. That includes web, mobile and adapters for popular messaging
apps such as Microsoft Teams and Slack that are delivered
out‑of‑the‑box with the Now Platform.
Virtual Agent will be available in ServiceNow’s next product release
this year.
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Forward‑Looking Statements
This press release contains forward‑looking statements about the
expectations, beliefs, plans, and intentions relating to ServiceNow’s
acquisition of Parlo and ServiceNow’s future product releases. These
statements reflect the current beliefs of ServiceNow and are based on
current information available to the company as of the date hereof.
ServiceNow does not assume any obligation to update the
forward‑looking statements provided to reflect events that occur or
circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made. The
forward‑looking statements in this press release are subject to
various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and
results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in
such forward‑looking statements. These risks and uncertainties
include, without limitation, the ability to assimilate or integrate
Parlo technology into our platform; the inability to retain key
employees; and the ability to develop and gain customer acceptance of
new products and services. The information in this press release on
new offerings, features, or functionality is intended to outline our
general product direction and should not be relied upon in making a
purchasing decision.
About ServiceNow
ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) makes work, work better for people. Our
cloud‑based platform and solutions deliver digital experiences that
help people do their best work. For more information, visit: www.servicenow.com
© 2018 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the
ServiceNow logo, Now, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or
registered trademarks of ServiceNow, Inc., in the United States and/or
other countries. Other company names, product names, and logos may be
trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
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