Prebuilt Virtual Agent topics, topic blocks, and ServiceNow NLU models

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated February 1, 2024
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Prebuilt Virtual Agent topics, topic blocks, and ServiceNow NLU models

    Prebuilt Virtual Agent topics, reusable topic blocks, and ServiceNow NLU models enhance the capabilities of the Virtual Agent platform across various applications, such as Customer Service Management (CSM), HR Service Delivery (HRSD), and IT Service Management (ITSM). These pre-defined conversations facilitate self-service tasks, enabling users to efficiently create or update cases and access frequently asked questions.

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    Key Features

    • Prebuilt Topics: Defined conversations for common self-service tasks in various business areas.
    • Reusable Topic Blocks: Components that function like subflows, performing specific tasks within conversations.
    • NLU Models: Tailored language understanding models that map intents to conversation topics, enhancing the Virtual Agent's ability to process user requests.
    • Preview and Test: Administrators can preview and test topics and topic blocks using Virtual Agent Designer to ensure functionality before deployment.
    • Duplication and Modification: Prebuilt topics and blocks are read-only but can be duplicated for customization and deployment.

    Key Outcomes

    By utilizing prebuilt topics and NLU models, ServiceNow customers can streamline user interactions and improve customer service efficiency. After testing and modifying topics, they can be published for use in Virtual Agent conversations, ensuring a robust and responsive self-service experience.

    Prebuilt Virtual Agent conversations (topics), reusable topic blocks, and ServiceNow NLU models are available for the Virtual Agent platform and various business applications, such as Customer Service Management, HR Service Delivery, IT Service Management, and more.

    These pre-defined conversations help users with common self-service tasks in each business area, such as creating or updating cases or providing answers to frequently asked questions. Prebuilt topic blocks are reusable components (similar to subflows) that perform a specific function or task and can be added to a conversation topic. Prebuilt NLU models define the business-specific language understanding needed for Virtual Agent to understand and process user requests. Each NLU intent in a model maps to a single Virtual Agent conversation topic.

    Summaries of prebuilt topics and topic blocks

    For more information on the Virtual Agent prebuilt topics and topic blocks provided by various ServiceNow applications, refer to the documentation for those applications. For example, the CSM, HRSD, and ITSM applications provide information on their prebuilt topics in the following sections:
    Predefined topics and topic blocks Activated by
    Customer Service Virtual Agent conversations com.sn_csm.virtualagent
    Human Resources Virtual Agent conversations

    Request the HR Service Delivery Virtual Agent Conversations from the ServiceNow Store.

    Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

    ITSM Virtual Agent Conversations

    Request ITSM Virtual Agent and the ITSM NLU Model for Virtual Agent Conversations from the ServiceNow Store.

    Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

    Virtual Agent Platform topics and topic blocks
    com.glide.cs.chatbot
    Note:
    The plugins for the CSM, HR Service Delivery, and ITSM predefined conversations also install their prebuilt ServiceNow NLU models and topic blocks. The Glide Virtual Agent plugin installs the prebuilt NLU model for setup topics, as well as platform topic blocks.
    After installing the plugins or apps, you can preview (test) the topics and topic blocks using Virtual Agent Designer. You can review the intents, utterances, and entities in the prebuilt NLU models using ServiceNow NLU Workbench or within Virtual Agent Designer if your NLU-enabled topics are associated with intents in ServiceNow NLU models.

    Working with prebuilt topics and topic blocks in Virtual Agent Designer

    • Previewing topics and topic blocks – After you install the plugins for prebuilt topics, admins or Virtual Agent admins can access the prebuilt topics and topic blocks in the Topics page. Select the topic and in the Flow tab, select Test. Review the conversation as it runs in the test window to determine the topics and topic blocks that you want to use.
    • Using prebuilt topics and topic blocks – Although prebuilt topics and topic blocks are read only and can't be changed, you can reuse them by duplicating and modifying them as needed. After you test a duplicated topic and are ready to deploy it to your Virtual Agent clients, publish the topic. Similarly, after testing a duplicated topic block, publish it to make it available for use in conversation (calling) topics.

    For details on creating, testing (previewing), duplicating, and publishing a topic, see Getting started with Virtual Agent Designer. For details on working with topic blocks, see Maximizing code reuse with topic blocks.

    Working with prebuilt ServiceNow NLU models in ServiceNow NLU Workbench

    • Reviewing a prebuilt NLU model – After you install the plugins for predefined topics, you can view the prebuilt models in NLU Workbench. The prebuilt NLU models for ServiceNow applications define the intents, entities, and utterances used for the predefined topics. These models are also trained and published. You can also review the utterances for a prebuilt model in Virtual Agent Designer. However to copy a prebuilt model, you use NLU Workbench.
    • Duplicating prebuilt NLU models – Although prebuilt NLU models are read only and can't be edited, you can Duplicate an NLU model prebuilt NLU models to create your own NLU models and Import an NLU intent from prebuilt models or other NLU models that you create in NLU Workbench.

    For details on creating, training, and publishing ServiceNow NLU models, see Natural Language Understanding.