Prebuilt Virtual Agent topics, topic blocks, and ServiceNow NLU models
Summarize
Summary of Prebuilt Virtual Agent topics, topic blocks, and ServiceNow NLU models
ServiceNow provides prebuilt Virtual Agent topics, reusable topic blocks, and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) models to support common self-service tasks across various business applications such as Customer Service Management (CSM), HR Service Delivery (HRSD), and IT Service Management (ITSM). These components streamline the creation and deployment of conversational agents by offering ready-made conversations, task-specific blocks, and language models tailored for business-specific intents.
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Key Features
- Prebuilt Virtual Agent Topics: Complete conversation flows designed for common tasks like case creation or FAQ responses, available through specific ServiceNow applications.
- Prebuilt Topic Blocks: Modular, reusable conversation components that perform specific functions within a topic and can be incorporated into other conversation topics for efficiency.
- ServiceNow NLU Models: Business-specific language understanding models that map user intents to Virtual Agent topics, enabling accurate interpretation of user requests.
- Plugin and App Availability: Prebuilt topics, blocks, and NLU models are delivered via plugins or apps for CSM, HRSD, ITSM, and the Virtual Agent platform, which can be installed from the ServiceNow Store.
- Testing and Management: Admins can preview and test prebuilt topics and blocks within Virtual Agent Designer to evaluate their suitability before deployment.
- Customization through Duplication: While prebuilt topics, blocks, and NLU models are read-only, they can be duplicated and modified to tailor conversations and language models to specific organizational needs.
- NLU Workbench Integration: ServiceNow NLU Workbench allows customers to review, duplicate, and extend prebuilt NLU models and intents for customized language understanding.
Practical Use for ServiceNow Customers
ServiceNow customers can leverage these prebuilt components to rapidly deploy conversational agents that address frequent user requests and automate self-service tasks. Installing the appropriate plugins or apps provides immediate access to tested conversation topics and NLU models, reducing development effort. Using Virtual Agent Designer, administrators can preview and selectively reuse these components by duplicating and customizing them to better fit their operational context. Additionally, NLU Workbench empowers customers to extend language models, ensuring precise intent recognition and improved user interaction quality.
Next Steps
- Install the relevant ServiceNow Store apps or plugins for your desired business application (e.g., CSM, HRSD, ITSM).
- Use Virtual Agent Designer to preview and test prebuilt topics and topic blocks before duplicating them for customization.
- Duplicate prebuilt NLU models in NLU Workbench to create tailored language understanding models and import intents as needed.
- Publish customized topics, topic blocks, and NLU models to make them available for use in your Virtual Agent deployments.
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
| 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
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com.glide.cs.chatbot |
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.