Creating guidance and field recommendation in Recommended Actions

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Creating guidance and field recommendation in Recommended Actions

    This guidance helps ServiceNow customers configure recommended actions within the Recommended Actions panel to assist agents in efficiently handling cases. It explains how to create and customize guidances and field recommendations, enabling agents to receive actionable suggestions and field value recommendations directly in their workflow.

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    Configuring Guidances

    Guidances are configurable recommendations that provide agents with information and actions to resolve cases. When creating a guidance, you need to:

    • Configure inputs and outputs: Define variables or information required by the guidance and the expected results.
    • Customize the preview experience: Set up a card displayed to agents in the contextual side panel, including a hint, detailed message, and action button.
    • Customize the detail experience: Define detailed messages and drill-down actions available when the guidance expands in the side panel or a subtab.
    • Set a primary call to action: Choose one main action (with optional secondary actions) that agents can perform directly from the guidance.
    • Determine guidance behavior on action execution: Options include:
      • Single click: Complete the action immediately and move the card to History (ideal for simple actions like case escalation).
      • Open in the contextual side panel: Show expanded information or content preview (useful for reviewing articles before attaching to a case).
      • Open in a subtab: Allow agents to interact with forms or submit additional data related to the action.

    Configuring Field Recommendations

    Field recommendations suggest values for specific fields in record forms to accelerate data entry and improve accuracy. Creating a field recommendation involves:

    • Selecting appropriate input variables that influence the recommendation.
    • Creating instructions that define how those inputs determine the suggested field values.

    Practical Benefits

    By leveraging guidances and field recommendations, ServiceNow customers can streamline agent workflows, reduce handling time, and improve consistency in case resolution. Agents receive contextual, actionable suggestions directly within their workspace, enhancing productivity and decision-making.

    Create guidances and field recommendations that you can use to configure recommended actions.

    Configuring guidances

    When you create a guidance, you configure several different aspects of that guidance:
    Table 1. Guidance configuration steps
    Feature Description
    Configure inputs and outputs for a guidance.
    • Inputs: The variables or information that the system must perform the guidance.
    • Outputs: the result of the guidance.
    Configure a preview experience for a guidance. A preview on the card that is displayed to the agent can include:
    • A hint that briefly tells the agent what the guidance is about
    • A preview message that describes the guidance in more detail
    • The action that the agent can take
    Configure a detail experience for a guidance. A detailed message that is displayed for guidances that open in the contextual side panel or in a subtab.
    Configure a primary call to action for a guidance.

    A guidance can have multiple actions, with one identified as the primary action and optional secondary actions.
    Configure the behavior of a guidance. Determines how the system executes a primary action after the agent selects the action button on the card.
    • Single click: Initiates and completes the action and moves the card to the History tab in the Recommended Actions panel. This behavior is useful for simple actions such as escalating a case.
    • Open in the contextual side panel: Expands the action and displays information about that action in the Recommended Actions panel. This behavior is useful for actions such as reviewing the content in an article before attaching it to a case.
    • Open in a sub tab: Opens the action in a subtab under the case tab. This behavior is useful for guidances that require the agent to select and submit additional information, such as filling out the fields on a form.
    Customize the preview experience and the detail experience of a guidance Options to customize the following items in the UI Builder:
    • Preview experience: The preview of the recommendation card includes a hint, an icon, a message, and an action button. The preview of the card shows up in the contextual side panel.
    • Detail experience: The detail experience of the guidance includes the drill down actions. It opens in the contextual side panel or in a subtab.

    Configuring field recommendations

    Field recommendation suggests a value for a field in the record form. Creating a field recommendation involves two main steps:
    • Selecting the inputs for the recommendation.
    • Creating the instructions about how to use those inputs.