Configuring AI search in Recommended Actions

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Configuring AI search in Recommended Actions

    This guide explains how ServiceNow administrators can configure AI search within the Recommended Actions feature to help agents quickly find relevant resources. By enabling and customizing AI search, agents gain access to intelligent search results integrated directly into their workspace, enhancing productivity and response accuracy.

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    Key Features

    • Enable AI Search Tab: Administrators must use UI Builder to deselect the "Hide Search" button, making the AI search tab visible in the workspace's contextual side panel.
    • Create Context and Search Application Configuration: Define a context for which agents will receive recommendations, such as records from the Case table. Select a search application configuration that uses AI search as the engine, including search sources and Genius Result configurations.
    • Map AI Search Results with Guidance Inputs: Link AI search results to appropriate guidance inputs in Recommended Actions to display actionable recommendations. This mapping can be done automatically for search configuration applications.
    • Configure Genius Results: In the search profile, link Genius Result configurations to deliver top actionable search results. Configurations include:
      • Catalog item: Top results from Catalog Item records.
      • People: Top results from User records.
      • Q&A: Results extracted from Knowledge Base articles and related tables, showing topic and answer snippets.
      • Now Assist Q&A: AI-generated answer snippets extracted by Now LLM from knowledge articles, including links to source articles. Requires Now Assist in the AI Search application.
    • Customize Recommended Actions UI Builder Component: Modify UI elements such as titles, tab order, and visibility of Recommended Actions and Search tabs to fit organizational needs. Advanced customizations include adjusting result counts per page and adding Genius Results or search sources.

    Key Outcomes

    By following these steps, ServiceNow customers can empower agents with AI-driven, context-sensitive search capabilities embedded directly in their workspace. This configuration improves agents' ability to quickly locate relevant knowledge, catalog items, and user information, leading to faster incident resolution and better service delivery.

    As an admin, configure AI search in Recommended Actions to enable agents to perform an AI search to find relevant resources.

    You can configure AI search in Recommended Actions by performing these procedures.
    Table 1. Steps to configure AI search
    Step Action
    Enable the AI search tab in UI builder Deselect the Hide Search button in UI Builder to display the AI search tab in the contextual side panel of your workspace.
    Create a context and select a search application configuration
    • Create a context so that agents can see recommendations for records from a specific table, such as the Case table.
    • Select a search application configuration to specify AI search as the search engine. This configuration includes search sources and genius result configurations.
    Map AI search results with guidance inputs in Recommended Actions

    Map AI search results with guidance inputs to enable the AI search results to be displayed with appropriate actions.

    Automatically map AI search results with guidance inputs

    Automatically create AI search results for a search configuration application in Recommended Actions.

    Configuring genius results

    In the search profile of your selected search application configuration, link the following Genius Result configurations to display actionable top results. For more information, see Link a Genius Result configuration to a search profile.

    Genius Result configuration Description
    Catalog item Displays top search results from the Catalog Item [sc_cat_item] table. Each answer card shows a single CI record.
    People Displays top search results from the User [sys_user] table. Each answer card shows a single user record.
    Q&A Displays top search results extracted from HTML fields of records on the Knowledge [kb_knowledge] table and tables that extend it. Each answer card shows a topic snippet and an answer snippet extracted from a single knowledge article.
    Now Assist Q&A Displays the top search results extracted from the HTML fields of the records on the Knowledge [kb_knowledge] table and the tables that extend it. Each answer card shows an answer snippet extracted by Now LLM from a knowledge article. For reference, the answer card also includes a link the user can select to view the source knowledge article.
    Note:
    Now Assist in the AI Search application (com.ais_assist) is required to link the Now Assist Q&A Genius Result configuration to your search profile. For more information, see ServiceNow Otto for AI Search.

    Customizing Recommended Actions UIB component for AI search

    Customize the Recommended Actions UIB component to align with your organization's requirements:
    • Modify titles for the main heading, Recommended Actions tab, and Search tab.
    • Modify the order of the Recommended Actions and Search tabs.
    • Hide or show Recommended Actions and Search tabs.
    For more information, see Recommended Actions UIB setup.

    Explore advanced customization options, such as adjusting the number of results to view on a page, identifying genius results to add to the search profile, and configuring search sources. For more information, see Configuring AI Search.