--- sourceDocument: Zurich Conversational Interfaces sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/zurich/conversational-interfaces Release : - zurich ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Zurich Conversational Interfaces ft:clusterId : - convint bundleId : - convint workflow : - Platform --- # Explore # Exploring Advanced Work Assignment {#ariaid-title1} * Release version: Zurich * * Updated July 31, 2025 * * ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 4 minutes to read Summarize ![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. ## Summary of Exploring Advanced Work Assignment Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) automates the distribution of work items to agents based on their availability, capacity, and skills. Customers submit service requests through various channels, which create task records that AWA routes to designated work item queues. These queues are defined by specific criteria such as priority and agent groups responsible for handling them. AWA enhances efficiency by ensuring that qualified agents receive assignments directly in their Agent Workspace inbox. Show full answer Show less ## Key Features * **Automated Work Distribution:** AWA eliminates manual workload distribution, allowing agents to focus on their tasks. * **Resource Optimization:** Matches agents' skills with tasks to minimize idle time and improve talent allocation. * **Fair Workload Distribution:** Considers workload, capacity, and availability to ensure balanced task assignments among agents. * **Service Channels:** Supports various customer service channels like chats, cases, and incidents, with customizable capacity and utilization settings. * **Agent Inbox Management:** Configurable inbox layouts and controls for agent presence and work item rejection reasons enhance the agent experience. * **External Routing:** Allows routing of work items to external queues based on service conditions, integrating seamlessly with third-party systems. ## Key Outcomes ServiceNow customers can expect improved efficiency in handling service requests, better resource utilization, and a more balanced workload among agents. By using AWA, organizations can ensure that the right agent handles the right task at the right time, ultimately leading to enhanced customer satisfaction and streamlined operations. The ability to configure assignment rules and monitor agent performance provides valuable insights for ongoing improvements. Use Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) to automatically assign work items to your agents, based on their availability, capacity, and optionally, skills. AWA pushes work to qualified agents using work item queues, routing conditions, and assignment criteria that you define. Agents see their assignments in their Agent Workspace inbox. ## Overview of how AWA works {#awa-overview__section_rzk_njd_nwb} Customers use different channels to request service, for example, chats, cases, or incidents. Requests from customers create task or interaction records that store information about these objects, called work items. AWA automatically routes work items to queues that focus on certain types of support using criteria (such as priority or customer status) that you provide. Queues can be defined based on need or type, for example product or critical cases. You also identify the agent groups responsible for work in the queue. AWA then applies assignment rules that you set and uses agent availability, capacity, skills (if defined), and shifts (if defined) to assign work to the most qualified agent. AWA has enterprise-grade voice resiliency that ensures call delivery to live agents even without existing interaction creation. This critical capability enables contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) providers to meet stringent SLAs directly tied to revenue recognition and billing agreements with their customers. Note: Starting with the Quebec release, legacy Agent Workspace is no longer deployed, enhanced, or supported. For details, see the [Deprecation Process \[KB0867184\]](https://support.servicenow.com/kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KB0867184) article in the Now Support Knowledge Base. ## Workflow {#awa-overview__section_vn1_k3v_4xb} See the following diagram to learn more about the Advanced Work Assignment process flow. Navigate to [Advanced Work AssignmentHome](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/2jyqshLNRVNn~ZoaBN9jOQ "Explore, implement, and maintain ServiceNow Advanced Work Assignment using a home-page experience. Discover AWA, install relevant plugins, and configure settings for AWA through the Advanced Work Assignment home page available to admins.") to start exploring AWA features. ## Benefits {#awa-overview__section_zf2_43v_4xb} Advanced Work Assignment provides the following benefits. {#awa-overview__table_d3b_z3v_4xb__entry__3} | Benefit | Feature | User | |-|-|-| | By automating the assignment of work tasks, AWA eliminates manual efforts involved in distributing workloads. Work items are conveniently pushed to the agent's inbox, so that the agent can focus on doing the work, rather than looking for work. | [Work assignments](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/hSp5ukeWyB1sWiBEgaN4cw "After routing work items to the appropriate queues and corresponding agent groups, Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) pushes work to the most qualified agent using the assignment criteria that you specify. Assignment criteria revolve around the type of assignment rule (most capacity or last assigned) and whether skills are defined.") | awa_admin or admin | | AWA helps organizations make the best use of available resources by matching the right skills and expertise with specific tasks. This leads to reduced idle time and better allocation of talent across the organization. | [Configure agent assignment rules](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/UDYtA34942cXAv4kgh9Wcg "Set the Advanced Work Assignment criteria for assigning work items to agents. Choose the assignment rule that considers the agent with the most capacity or the agent who has gone the longest without work. Establish the settings for the auto-assign handling, reject handling, and skill handling related lists.") | awa_admin or admin | | AWA ensures a fair and balanced distribution of work tasks among resources. It takes into consideration factors like workload, capacity, and availability to avoid overloading certain individuals while underutilizing others. | [Agent Inbox controls](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/aM_gq9st2enx6V2lH6Imzw "Control certain elements of the agent experience in Agent Workspace. Define the agent presence (availability) states and the work item rejection reasons used by agents to decline work assignments in their Agent Workspace inbox.") | awa_admin or admin | [ ] {#awa-overview__table_d3b_z3v_4xb} ## Advanced Work Assignment components {#awa-overview__section_cjx_4jd_nwb} [Service channels](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/YH7patuMCwJ9COK1QfU6Og "Provide customer support by automatically routing incoming work to agents through service channels.") : A means of providing customer service. AWA offers base system channels for chats, cases, incidents, and walk-up centers. For each channel, you can set attributes such as agent capacity and utilization conditions to control the work handled in the channel. [Work items](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/gK8aaS6eBqPPvnjt~pqb6Q "View Advanced Work Assignment work items using the Work Items menu options.") : A single piece of work handled by an agent from start to completion. For example, one chat or one case is an object that is routed and assigned to agents. [Work item queues](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/LWTgf1CviCmFlC9UMwNBZA "In Advanced Work Assignment, queues store a specific type of work item for a service channel.") : A queue stores a specific type of work item for a service channel. AWA admins can create queues that focus on certain types of support within the channel, such as VIP customers or critical cases. AWA routes work items to queues based on specific conditions or requirements that you define, such as customer status, or region. Groups assigned to each queue handle the incoming work items. After work items are placed in a queue, AWA can then assign items to available agents based on assignment rules and agent availability and capacity. [Assignment groups](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/ImCt0Z7cg6x6lfqocFxlGw "Create or manage groups that have associated Advanced Work Assignment queues.") : Agents belong to specific groups organized by the type of work assigned to them. You provide details about an assignment group including the name and description, manager, and group email. You can also set up roles, groups and group members, queues, and agent capacity overrides for agents in an assignment group. [Assignment rule](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/UDYtA34942cXAv4kgh9Wcg "Set the Advanced Work Assignment criteria for assigning work items to agents. Choose the assignment rule that considers the agent with the most capacity or the agent who has gone the longest without work. Establish the settings for the auto-assign handling, reject handling, and skill handling related lists.") : Criteria that determines how work items are pushed to the appropriate agent within a qualified assignment group. [Agent capacity](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/7Z9Ruy9Pz3wZPYr6HOjnVg "View a list of agents in Advanced Work Assignment, their presence status, and capacity for each of the agent's service channels to see which agent can handle a case. This list is filtered across different teams, channels in teams, and channels dashboards.") : The maximum number of work items on a particular service channel that an agent may actively work on at one time. If you want to set a maximum capacity for an agent across all service channels, define the maximum universal capacity for that agent. For information on configuring the maximum universal capacity, see [Configure an agent's maximum universal capacity](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/YiLkVZRCzwCv1sYNOvmn9A "Prevent an agent from being assigned too many work items by configuring the agent's maximum universal capacity. If the agent's maximum universal capacity has been reached, additional work items won’t be assigned to the agent."). Messaging Interactions in an On Hold state aren't calculated as part of an agent's capacity. [Agent availability](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/7Z9Ruy9Pz3wZPYr6HOjnVg "View a list of agents in Advanced Work Assignment, their presence status, and capacity for each of the agent's service channels to see which agent can handle a case. This list is filtered across different teams, channels in teams, and channels dashboards.") : States that indicate agent presence and whether the agent is available for work or is busy or offline. AWA uses the agent availability state to determine if an agent is able to receive work. [Inbox layout](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/dW0t23PI3Em1oGW_Yup8vg "Create or change the card layout for inbox items for a given service channel. Card layouts are displayed in the agent inbox view of Agent Workspace.") : A configuration tied to a service channel that defines which fields of a record representing a work item are shown in agent inboxes. A layout defines what the agent sees in Agent Workspace. ## Reassigning messaging conversations {#awa-overview__section_wbk_qjd_nwb} If you want messaging conversations to be automatically reassigned if the current Assigned To agent on the conversation isn't available, set the glide.messaging.reassign.enabled system property to true. The system property only affects messaging conversations and the Assigned To agent is considered not available if the AWA Inbox status isn't set to "Available." * **[Advanced Work Assignment home page](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/2jyqshLNRVNn~ZoaBN9jOQ)** Explore, implement, and maintain ServiceNow® Advanced Work Assignment using a home-page experience. Discover AWA, install relevant plugins, and configure settings for AWA through the Advanced Work Assignment home page available to admins. * **[Service channels](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/YH7patuMCwJ9COK1QfU6Og)** Provide customer support by automatically routing incoming work to agents through service channels. * **[Service channel capacity and utilization](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/iYLHESynZhTG5FlQdGaS9w)** In Advanced Work Assignment, capacity is the number of work items automatically assigned to agents supporting a service channel. Utilization is the condition that identifies the work item states supported in the channel. * **[Conversational SMS service channel](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/_Ff_dKQQMUhUYyi_v3nS1w)** Using the Conversational SMS service channel app on the ServiceNow Store, workspace agents can provide support for long-running SMS conversations and conversations that use multiple service channels. * **[Work items](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/gK8aaS6eBqPPvnjt~pqb6Q)** View Advanced Work Assignment work items using the Work Items menu options. * **[Work assignments](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/hSp5ukeWyB1sWiBEgaN4cw)** After routing work items to the appropriate queues and corresponding agent groups, Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) pushes work to the most qualified agent using the assignment criteria that you specify. Assignment criteria revolve around the type of assignment rule (most capacity or last assigned) and whether skills are defined. * **[External routing overview](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/hxfPx20PqwUYMPBhb2yKxg)** External Routing involves routing to external queue based on the service channel and queue conditions, and then the assignment is completed by the third-party system. * **[Inbox layout](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/Wabas6BM0NKgCDfY0NaH1w)** The inbox layout determines the information shown on work item cards displayed in an agent's inbox. * **[Agent Inbox controls](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/aM_gq9st2enx6V2lH6Imzw)** Control certain elements of the agent experience in Agent Workspace. Define the agent presence (availability) states and the work item rejection reasons used by agents to decline work assignments in their Agent Workspace inbox. * **[Advanced Work Assignment Inbox Sentiment display](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/tu5iYuvIwxx~UObXR9gCuw)** Surface the sentiment in AWA Inbox for agents to get the visibility of requester sentiment ( if available) during live agent handoff or agent transfer for all channels. * **[Wrap up overview](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/fBYC47VJyZ0FAAy3zrAb5A)** When agents close an interaction, the wrap up feature enables them to enter closing details and wrap up codes for future reference. * **[Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/ywJW4Nw7pogJi5y_cx78bA)** Configure Advanced Work Assignment properties using the Management menu options. * **[AWA group queue priorities](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/hnWPaAjoMwY~~dvjv1klmw)** Use the group queue priority feature to set a queue or work item preference for a given group of agents. For a given group or agent with limited capacity, this feature controls which queues should be preferred if matching work items are found in both. *[\>]: and then