Skill inputs and triggers for ServiceNow Otto for IT Service Management (ITSM)
Summarize
Summary of Skill inputs and triggers for ServiceNow Otto for IT Service Management (ITSM)
ServiceNow Otto for IT Service Management (ITSM) provides configurable skill inputs and triggers that determine how and when AI-powered skills are used within ITSM processes. Skills leverage specific data inputs (tables and fields) and triggers (actions or events) to automate and enhance incident, request, change, and catalog task management. Customers can choose AI model providers such as Now LLM Service, Azure OpenAI, Google Gemini, or Anthropic Claude on AWS, managed via AI Control Tower and AI Admin Hub.
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Key Features
- Skill Inputs: Define the data sources (tables and fields) used by each skill to generate outputs, e.g., incident summaries, sentiment analysis, email content recommendations, or resolution notes.
- Triggers: Specify the events or user actions that initiate skill execution, such as chat handoffs, quick actions, task creation, or manual user triggers.
- AI Model Providers: Support for multiple AI models configurable at system and skill levels.
- Customization: Some skills allow input data source customization (e.g., change risk assessment answer generator), while others use fixed data sources.
Skill-Specific Inputs and Triggers
- Incident Sentiment Analysis: Inputs include incident fields like short description, priority, and comments; outputs are sentiment values and trends. Runs on scheduled jobs refreshing sentiment data.
- Suggested Steps Generation: Uses incident short description and filters to cluster similar past incidents to suggest resolution steps.
- Major Incident Email Content Recommendation: Inputs span incident fields and related task SLA and collaboration chat tables to generate email templates with Gen AI variables.
- Chat Summarization: Triggers include Virtual Agent to Live Agent handoff, quick actions, and chat wrap-up; properties control summary display format such as bulleted lists.
- Chat Reply Recommendation: Triggered manually by agents; configurable Now Assist icon properties support refinement and preset actions like shortening or elaborating replies.
- Sidebar Discussion Summarization: Triggered by quick action; supports bulleted list display.
- Incident Summarization: Inputs include incident description, work notes, and email fields; trigger occurs on assignment modal open during save action.
- Incident Assist: Offers topics like finding similar incidents, consulting on-call experts, and retrieving caller assets, based on fixed incident data inputs.
- Resolution Notes Generation: Inputs include incident description and comments; can be user-triggered or automatic; supports refinement actions.
- Incident Activity Response Recommendation: Inputs include incident fields such as priority and work notes; triggers support summarizing or posting responses in work notes or comments.
- Knowledge Article Generation: Inputs from incident fields generate draft knowledge articles for resolved or closed incidents.
- Change Request Summarization: Inputs include changerequest fields like risk, impact, and work notes; supports multiple input template states corresponding to change lifecycle stages.
- Change Request Risk Explanation: Uses changerequest data including risk and blackout plans to generate risk explanations.
- Change Risk Assessment Answer Generator: Triggered via UI dialogs; reads configurable changerequest fields and related AI risk data sources to suggest risk assessment answers.
- Request and Requested Item Summarization and Activity Response Generation: Inputs include relevant request or requested item fields; data sources are fixed and not customizable.
- Catalog Task Summarization and Activity Response Generation: Inputs include fields such as assignment group, priority, and work notes; data sources are fixed.
What Customers Can Expect
By configuring skill inputs and triggers, ServiceNow customers can seamlessly integrate AI-driven capabilities into their ITSM workflows. This enables automated sentiment analysis, incident and request summarization, chat assistance, resolution note generation, risk assessment, and knowledge article drafting. The predefined inputs and triggers ensure consistent data usage and control over when AI skills activate, enhancing productivity and decision-making for IT service teams.
Customers can manage AI providers and control skill preferences centrally while customizing certain aspects of skill data inputs and triggers to best fit their operational needs.
Get a quick overview of the skill inputs and triggers for ServiceNow Otto for IT Service Management (ITSM). By configuring the inputs or triggers for a skill, you can determine how and when a skill is used.
ServiceNow Otto for IT Service Management (ITSM) overview
Depending on the selected skill, you can configure the inputs or triggers. These settings determine how and when a skill is used. An input identifies the data that is used for a skill, such as the table and fields that are used to generate an incident summary. A trigger initiates an action, such as when the system generates a chat summary.
You can use Now LLM Service, Azure OpenAI, Google Gemini or Anthropic Claude on AWS as the AI model provider for all generative AI skills and AI agents. Use the Configuration Controls in AI Control Tower to define which options are available, then set the skill-level preferences in the AI Admin Hub console. For more information, see Large language models on the ServiceNow AI Platform®.
Incident sentiment analysis skill
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Incident [incident] |
| Input fields |
|
| Output | Description |
|---|---|
| Sentiment values |
|
| Sentiment trend |
|
| Sentiment reasoning | Reasons for providing the sentiment value. |
| Scheduled job name | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Sentiment analysis scheduled job (incident) | True | Refreshes sentiments based on the trigger frequency. |
Suggested steps generation skill
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Incident [incident] |
| Input field | Short description The skill uses this field to cluster incidents based on similar incidents closed in the past. |
| Conditions | Filter conditions to generate the suggested steps. Similar incidents closed within the last 6 months are used by default to create the incident clusters. |
Major Incident email content recommendation skill
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Incident [incident] |
| Input fields |
|
| Additional fields |
|
In addition to the tables and fields listed in the table above, the tables and fields listed in the table below are also used as inputs for prompts to generate Major Incident email content recommendation.
| Table | Fields |
|---|---|
| Task SLA [task_sla] |
|
| Incident [incident] |
|
| Collaboration chat [sys_cs_collab_message] | Payload Note: You must manually select the Collaboration chat table as an input data so that this field is used an input for the prompt. For information on choosing input data, see Customize a ServiceNow Otto for IT Service Management (ITSM) skill. |
Chat summarization skill
For the chat summarization skill, select the triggers that determine when a chat summary is generated. You can also select the properties that control how a chat summary is displayed.
The following table lists the triggers that determine when a chat summary is generated and how a chat summary is displayed.
| Trigger | Description |
|---|---|
| Virtual Agent to Live Agent handoff | Chat summary that is generated when the chat handoff is done from Virtual Agent to a live agent. |
| Quick action | Chat summary that is generated when the live agent performs the /summarize quick action. |
| Chat wrap-up | Chat summary that is generated when the live agent ends the chat. The Chat Summary field is updated for the interaction. |
| Short description | Short description field that is updated for the interaction when the live agent ends the chat. |
| Task creation | Short description and Description fields that are auto-populated on the task record when a task is created. |
The following table lists the property for the chat summarization skill.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Bulleted list | If selected, the chat summary is displayed as an unordered list. |
Chat reply recommendation skill
For the chat reply recommendation skill, select the triggers that determine when a chat reply recommendation is generated.
The following table lists the triggers that determine when a chat reply recommendation is generated.
| Trigger | Description |
|---|---|
| User triggered | Chat reply recommendation that is generated when the agent manually triggers the skill. |
The following table lists the fields for the Now Assist icon for the chat reply recommendation skill.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Button Props | Trigger button properties, for example:
|
| Refine Actions | Action options shown when the Refine button is selected, for example:
|
| Recommendation Dialog Props | Recommendation dialog window properties, for example: headerLabel. |
| WWNA Component ID | Component ID that supports the Now Assist icon, for example: agent-chat. |
| Default Preset Action | Default action when the trigger button is selected with no text in the chat window. |
| Table | Table used for the interaction. |
| Timeout Error Message | Error that displays after a timeout. |
| Preset Actions | Action options shown when text is entered in the chat window and the trigger button is selected, for example:
|
Sidebar discussion summarization skill
For the Sidebar discussion summarization skill, select the triggers that determine when a Sidebar discussion summary is generated.
The following table lists the triggers that determine when a Sidebar discussion summary is generated.
| Trigger | Description |
|---|---|
| Quick action | Sidebar discussion summary that is generated when the live agent performs the /summarize quick action. |
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Bulleted list | If selected, the Sidebar discussion summary is displayed as an unordered list. |
Incident summarization skill
The incident summarization skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when an incident summary is generated.
In this release, you can't modify a skill's input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
| Trigger | Description |
|---|---|
| Assign modal | Open assign modal during save action when assignment group or assigned to is changed. |
The following table lists the inputs for the incident summarization skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Incident [incident] |
| Input fields |
|
| Input template states |
|
The following table lists the descriptions for the incident summarization skill.
| Description | Mandatory for input state |
|---|---|
| Issue |
|
| Key Actions Taken |
|
| Resolution |
|
| Affected CIs and Impacted Services |
|
| Service Level Agreement |
|
| Child Incidents |
|
Incident assist skill
The incident assist skill includes the incident topics to be available in the Now Assist panel.
In this release, you can't modify a skill's input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
- Find similar resolved incidents
- Consult on-call experts from support groups
- Retrieve caller's assets
- Retrieve caller's recent incidents
Resolution notes generation skill
The resolution notes generation skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when the resolution notes are generated for an incident.
In this release, you can't modify a skill's input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
| Trigger | Description |
|---|---|
| User triggered |
If selected, user input is required before resolution notes are generated. Otherwise, resolution notes are generated automatically by default when certain conditions are met. |
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Refine Actions | Action options shown when the Refine button is selected, for example:
|
The following table lists the inputs for the resolution notes generation skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Incident [incident] |
| Input fields |
|
Incident activity response recommendation skill
The Incident activity response recommendation skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when a response is generated in the work notes or comments in an activity stream.
In this release, you can't modify a skill's input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
The following table lists the triggers that determine when and how the activity response for an incident are generated.
The following table lists the inputs for the Incident activity response recommendation skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Incident [incident] |
| Input fields |
|
| Trigger actions | The default trigger actions are as follows:
|
Knowledge article generation skill
The knowledge article generation skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when the knowledge article draft is generated for an incident.
In this release, you can't modify a skill's input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
The following table lists the inputs for the knowledge article generation skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Incident [incident] |
| Input fields |
|
| State |
|
Change request summarization skill
The change request summarization skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when a change request summary is generated.
In this release, you can't modify a skill's input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
The following table lists the inputs for the change request summarization skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | change_request |
| Input fields |
|
| Input template states |
|
The following table lists the descriptions for the change request summarization skill.
| Description | Mandatory for input state |
|---|---|
| Objective |
|
| Plan |
|
| Risk |
|
| Affected CIs |
|
| Impacted services |
|
| Close notes | Closed |
| Incidents caused by change | Closed |
Change request risk explanation skill
The change request risk explanation skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when the change risk explanation is generated.
In this release, you can't modify a skill's input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
The following table lists the inputs for the change request risk explanation skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | change_request |
| Input fields |
|
Change risk assessment answer generator skill
The change risk assessment answer generator skill includes the triggers and inputs that identify when and how a suggested answer is generated for a change risk assessment question. For more information, see Generate change risk assessment answers by using ServiceNow Otto for IT Service Management (ITSM).
You can customize this skill's input data sources and the change request fields it reads. For more information, see Customize the change risk assessment answer generator skill.
The following table lists the triggers for the change risk assessment answer generator skill.
| Trigger | Description |
|---|---|
| Generate Answers | Selected in the Generate Risk Assessment Using Otto dialog. Open the dialog by selecting Risk Assessment under Related Links in Core UI, or by selecting Assess Risk in the Risk Evaluation section in Service Operations Workspace for ITSM (version 9.2 or later). |
The following table lists the inputs for the change risk assessment answer generator skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | change_request |
| Input fields | A fixed set of fields from the change request record. To view or change which fields are included, update the sn_itsm_gen_ai.com.snc.asmt_answer_generator.change_request_fields system property. For
more information, see Customize the change risk assessment answer generator skill. |
| Related data sources | Records from the following default AI Risk Data Sources:
|
Request summarization skill
The request summarization skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when a request summary is generated.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Request [sc_request] |
| Input fields |
|
Request activity response generation skill
The request activity response generation skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when the request activity response is generated.
In this release, you can't modify the input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
The following table lists the inputs for the request activity response generation skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Request [sc_request] |
| Input fields |
|
Requested item summarization skill
The requested item summarization skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when a requested item summary is generated.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Requested item [sc_req_item] |
| Input fields |
|
Requested item activity response generation skill
The requested item activity response generation skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when the requested item activity response is generated.
In this release, you can't modify the input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
The following table lists the inputs for the requested item activity response generation skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Requested item [sc_req_item] |
| Input fields |
|
Catalog task summarization skill
The catalog task summarization skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when a catalog task summary is generated.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Catalog task [sc_task] |
| Input fields |
|
Catalog task activity response generation skill
The catalog task activity response generation skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when the catalog task activity response is generated.
In this release, you can't modify the input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
The following table lists the inputs for the catalog task activity response generation skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Catalog task [sc_task] |
| Input fields |
|