Getting started with Virtual Agent Designer

The Virtual Agent Designer is a diagram tool for creating and managing topics, which are blueprints for conversations between a virtual agent and user. You can design topics that help your users resolve common work issues or guide them through self-service tasks.

Virtual Agent conversations are defined in a topic. When building a topic, there are various components (controls) that you can use to build the logic of a conversation, as well as the responses that the user sees.

Virtual Agent can use either generative AI, Natural Language Understanding (NLU), or keywords to match the user's request with the appropriate conversation or topic. You can use generative AI through Now Assist in Virtual Agent to match the user's request with the desired conversation or topic. Now Assist in Virtual Agent uses large language models (LLMs) and generative AI skills to improve deflection rates and reduce the amount of time-consuming work that Natural Language Understanding (NLU) topic discovery requires. With Now Assist in Virtual Agent, you can test and publish your models from within Virtual Agent Designer.

With keyword topic discovery, the topic author associates keywords with the topic. With NLU topic discovery, the topic author associates the topic with an intent within an NLU model. An intent describes what the user wants to achieve. User utterances are matched with intents to determine the most appropriate topic for the user. Associating a topic with a model and intent is called mapping.

If you're using ServiceNow NLU, then Virtual Agent Designer integrates with NLU Workbench so that you can map topics to new or existing models and intents without leaving the interface. In addition, you can also modify utterances, test, train, and publish your models from within Virtual Agent Designer.

Virtual Agent Designer Topics page

When you open Virtual Agent Designer, the Topics landing page lists the objects in your instance. These objects include topics, topic blocks, custom controls, setup topics, and small talk topics. The Topics page lets you access, create, and edit these objects in Virtual Agent Designer.

You can also test and preview active topics to verify that they work as intended. You can also sort and search for topics. When you have many topics, use the sort filters to quickly organize and find your topics. For more information, see Virtual Agent Designer Topics page.

Each topic card identifies the object and provides the following basic information:

• Name: Object name. If the object is a topic block or custom control, the icon for the object type is also displayed.
• Published status: Time (minutes, hours, days, or months) that the item was last published and state. The status also indicates if the object is read-only.

  Source template: Pre-built topics include the word template in the name. You can duplicate these predefined conversation templates and use them.

• Draft state: If you update a published item but have not yet republished it, the Published status is marked as Draft. This lets you quickly identify the items that are still in progress.
• Modified: Time (minutes, hours, days, or months) that the item was last updated.
• Category: Type of group to which the topic or object belongs.

Figure 1. Example topic card with publish status and category

Topic properties

Use the topic Properties tab to identify a Virtual Agent object and how it is used. The properties you can specify depend on the method of topic discovery used in your instance: LLM, NLU, or keywords. For example, if you enable NLU in the General Settings page, the Properties tab includes fields for identifying the NLU model and intent for the topic. Or if you've enabled Now Assist and are working with an LLM topic, the Properties tab includes fields for what you want the topic to do and which assistant(s) to use.

Use the Properties tab to do the following:

• Specify the name and type of object, such as topic, topic block, custom control, and so forth).
• Specify the model type, purpose of the topic, and which assistant(s) can run this topic for Now Assist customers.
• Control who uses the topic and what channels it can run in.
• Associate live agent variables with a topic.
• Add keywords to the topic or map the topic to a ServiceNow NLU model and intent.

For more information, see Topic Properties tab.

Topic flow

When you create or update a topic, topic block, or custom control, you build the conversation flow in the Flow tab. In the default view, the flow looks like a diagram. Use the controls for user inputs, bot responses, and utilities to define the flow. The status of the topic and NLU model (if used) appears in the upper-right corner of the window.

The Table View option in Virtual Agent Designer displays the nodes in your conversation flow as a table, rather than as a diagram. Each node is identified in a corresponding row in the table. You can add, change, or delete nodes using these table rows.

For example, instead of dragging and dropping controls onto the canvas, you can select Add new node to insert a node into the appropriate row in the table. When you focus on a particular row (node), the corresponding property sheet for the node displays.

As you create or update your design, you might find it helpful to switch between the diagram view and the Table View using the Table View option. If your conversation contains many nodes, Table View lets you review all the nodes in your conversation quickly. You can use the Search table option to quickly find a particular node or control.

Use this tab to do the following:

• Design the flow of your topic.
• Define script variables for a topic.
• Use system-derived entities in your topic.
• Add nodeless NLU entities to your topic flow.

For more information, see Topic Flow tab.

NLU model and intent mappings

If you enabled NLU on your instance, the NLU Intent tab is available for your topics in Virtual Agent Designer. Once you've bound the topic to a model and intent on the Properties tab, you can use the NLU Intent tab to do the following:

• Review and edit utterances and associated entities.
• Train, test, and publish your NLU model.

  Test the topic model with user utterances to see if it triggers the appropriate intent and topic. You can also test entity recognition.

Note:

The virtual_agent_admin role includes the nlu_admin role, which enables topic authors to work on ServiceNow models.

For more information about this tab, see Topic NLU Intent tab.

Topic languages

The Languages tab displays the topic's translation status for languages that have been activated on the instance. If you're using NLU, you can also review the language mappings for that topic.

Use the Languages tab to do the following:

• View translation status for activated language plugins.
• View and test the topic in a specific language.
• Edit the topic translations.
• Request topic translations in additional languages.
• View or modify NLU language mappings and entity mapping.

  For more information, see NLU model mapping in Virtual Agent Designer.

For more information about this tab, see Topic Languages tab.

• Designing a Virtual Agent topic
  Walk through the design of an example Virtual Agent topic that enables users to view incidents they submitted. The example highlights various design controls that can be used to build the conversation flow.
• Create a Virtual Agent topic
  Use Virtual Agent Designer to create and modify Virtual Agent topics (conversations). Build your topic to meet a specific objective or goal, such as fulfilling a user's request or helping a user complete a task.
• LLM topic migration
  The topic migration workflow enables you to convert your existing Natural Language Understanding (NLU) and keyword topics into new large language model (LLM) topics.
• Duplicate a Virtual Agent topic
  Create a new topic or topic block by copying an existing Virtual Agent topic or topic block and customize it.
• LLM topic testing
  Preview, test, and debug topics that use large language models (LLMs) in the Virtual Agent Designer chat window.
• Testing NLU/Keyword topics
  Use the chat test window to preview, test, and debug Natural Language Understanding (NLU)/Keyword topics.
• Debug a Virtual Agent topic
  Investigate and resolve unexpected behavior in your custom Virtual Agent topics, topic blocks, and controls.
• Publish a Virtual Agent topic
  Deploy an inactive topic or an updated topic to save it and make it available to users on Virtual Agent clients.
• Delete a Virtual Agent topic
  Delete a Virtual Agent topic that is no longer needed.
• Promote or demote Virtual Agent LLM topics
  Promote topics in Virtual Agent Designer after associating them with a large language model (LLM) assistant. Promoted topics are then suggested to the user by the LLM assistant.
• Reorder promoted Virtual Agent LLM topics
  Arrange large language model (LLM) topics to a desired non-alphabetical order after promoting them for recommendation by the Virtual Agent.