Enabling AI Search in Issue Auto Resolution

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Enabling AI Search in Issue Auto Resolution

    This feature allows ServiceNow customers to enable AI Search as a fallback mechanism within Issue Auto Resolution (IAR) when no matching intents are found for an incident. This ensures that users still receive relevant recommendations and support even if the system cannot directly match the incident to a predefined intent.

    Show full answer Show less

    Configuration

    To activate AI Search fallback in Issue Auto Resolution:

    • Open the Auto-Resolution Configuration record.
    • Navigate to the AI Search tab.
    • Select the "Apply AI Search" checkbox to enable fallback functionality.

    The following default AI Search settings are applied during fallback:

    • EVAM definition: Set to "Virtual Agent Search" by default.
    • Search application: Defaults to the Service Portal Search Application.
    • AI Search display topic: Uses the predefined "IAR - AI Search" topic.
    • Search results portal: Defaults to the Service Portal.

    Intent to Topic Mappings

    ITSM Virtual Agent supports specific intent-to-topic mappings to aid fallback search results. Some examples include:

    • RepositoryAccess mapped to Repository Access (Template)
    • Emailissues mapped to Email Issues (Template)
    • RSAToken mapped to RSA Token (Template)
    • LocalAdminAccess mapped to Local Admin Access (Template)
    • CollaborationSoftwareIssues mapped to Collaboration Applications (Template)

    Customer Experience and Recommendations

    When incidents are created via Email or Self-service channels that trigger IAR, customers receive three types of recommendations: Knowledge Base (KB) articles, Catalog items, and Virtual Agent (VA) Topics.

    If a matching VA topic is found, only the VA topic recommendation is shown in email notifications (e.g., "VA Topic: Printer Issues (Template)"). If no matched topic exists, KB and Catalog recommendations are provided.

    Clicking "View recommendations" in the email directs users to the incident's Recommendations tab on the Service Portal, where they can review KB articles, mark recommendations as helpful, and resolve the incident.

    Note: If a catalog item is selected from the Recommendations tab and requested, an email notification is sent and the related incident is automatically closed after 24 hours.

    You can enable AI Search as a fallback mechanism in Issue Auto Resolution when there are no matching intents found for the incident.

    Applying AI Search for Issue Auto Resolution Configuration

    When there are no intent matches found for Issue Auto Resolution, AI Search can be applied for the fallback capability. To use AI Search as fallback:
    • Open the Auto-Resolution Configuration record.
    • Navigate to the AI Search tab.
    • Select the Apply AI Search check box to enable fallback.
    You can see the following AI Search settings from the IAR configuration record which will be used when there are no intent matches for the topic.
    • EVAM definition: The entity view action mapper definition is set to Virtual Agent Search by default.
    • Search application: The default application for AI Search fallback is set to Service Portal default Search Application.
    • AI Search display topic: The AI Search display topic that is provided by default is the IAR - AI Search topic.
    • Search results portal: The default portal for AI Search fallback is set to the Service Portal.
    To support AI Search fallback, ITSM Virtual Agent provides the following intent to topic mappings.
    Table 1. Intent to Topic Maps
    Auto-resolution intent Matched topic
    RepositoryAccess Repository Access (Template)
    Emailissues Email Issues (Template)
    RSAToken RSA Token (Template)
    LocalAdminAccess Local Admin Access (Template)
    CollaborationSoftwareIssues Collaboration Applications (Template)

    Whenever you try to create an incident using Email or Self-service as the channel that triggers IAR, you will receive the relevant recommendations.

    There are three types for recommendations, KBs, Catalogs, and VA Topics. For example, if you create an incident and check for its email notifications, you will be shown various recommendations (including KBs and Catalogs) for the incident resolution from Issue Auto Resolution.IAR triggered email notification with KB and Catalog recommendations.

    In case there is a matched VA topic from the intent to topic mapping, in that case, you will not receive the KB and Catalog recommendations, but the VA topic name, such as "VA Topic: Printer Issues (Template)" in the email notification.IAR triggered email notification with VA topic recommendation.

    Once you click View recommendations from your email notification, you will be directed to the Service Portal incident which now has a Recommendations tab from where you can read the KB and mark the recommendation as helpful and resolve it.
    Note:
    In case the recommendations have a catalog item as the recommended option and you create the catalog request from the Recommendations tab, an email notification is triggered and the incident gets auto-closed in 24 hours.IAR triggered email notification for incident requested.