AI Skill Kit release notes

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of AI Skill Kit release notes

    The ServiceNow® AI Skill Kit application empowers AI developers to build custom AI skills and enhance flexibility with Now Assist’s generative AI capabilities. The Yokohama release introduces significant updates and new features that streamline skill deployment, data management, and customization to better align AI skills with specific business needs.

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    Key Features

    • Skill Deployment via UI Builder: Users can now deploy custom AI skills using UI Builder, improving ease and control over skill integration.
    • Data Import and Synthetic Data Creation: Import data from CSV files to create datasets and use AI-assisted ground truth creation to enhance data accuracy. Additionally, a custom data generator allows creation of synthetic datasets, with language selection for generated data.
    • Enhanced Skill Customization: Eligible Now Assist skills can be cloned and modified in the AI Skill Kit to edit prompts or switch AI service providers. This enables tailored formatting and content of large language model (LLM) responses to meet business requirements.
    • Visual Tools Editor with Conditional Execution: A new Tools editor lets users add and manage tools visually, including decision branching to define conditions for tool execution within skills.
    • Usage Measurement Updates: Now Assist usage is shifting from a 365-day look-back to a burn-down model resetting at contract anniversaries, with some skills enabled by default for new and certain upgrading customers.
    • Access Control for AI Agents and Workflows: Administrators can configure ACLs to control who can discover and trigger AI agents and agentic workflows, specifying user behavior and availability settings.
    • UI and Accessibility Enhancements: The add tools function has moved to a dedicated Tool editor tab, and an optional Voice Input setting is available for voice interaction with the Now Assist panel.

    Activation and Requirements

    • AI Skill Kit and Now Assist features require activation of corresponding plugins available from the ServiceNow Store.
    • Multiple Now Assist plugins support various ServiceNow products and operational areas such as ITSM, HRSD, Security, and more.
    • The Next Experience UI Framework must be enabled to use the Now Assist panel.
    • Supported browsers include Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge; Internet Explorer is not supported.
    • Dynamic Translation support is included in this release for localization.

    Upgrade Considerations

    Customers with customized UI actions or components related to Now Assist skills should update their customizations to align with new skill releases to avoid functionality issues. For upgrade challenges, ServiceNow provides knowledge base articles with mitigation guidance.

    Practical Impact for ServiceNow Customers

    This release equips customers with improved tools to create, customize, and deploy AI-driven skills that better fit their business processes. The ability to import and generate data facilitates more accurate AI training and testing. Default enabling of certain skills and refined usage measurement simplifies adoption and management. Enhanced access controls and UI improvements support secure and user-friendly AI experiences across ServiceNow environments.

    The ServiceNow® AI Skill Kit application enables AI developers to create custom skills and to have greater flexibility with Now Assist's generative AI capabilities. AI Skill Kit was enhanced and updated in the Yokohama release.

    AI Skill Kit highlights for the Yokohama release

    Yokohama Patch 11
    • Review changes to Now Assist usage measurement.
    • Some Now Assist skills, agents, and agentic workflows are on by default.
    • Additional role configuration is required for agentic workflows and AI agents included with Now Assist applications.
    Yokohama Patch 6
    • Use UI Builder to deploy custom skills.
    • Import data into AI Skill Kit with a CSV file.
    • Use AI to create ground truth for your data.
    • Use a custom data generator to create synthetic datasets.
    • Users can create synthetic data in AI Data Kit.
    • Generated synthetic data can be saved as a dataset.
    • Add and manage tools of a custom skill, visually in the new Tools editor, including conditional execution of tools.
    • Customize ServiceNow skills with new prompts or providers in Now Assist Skill Kit to suit your specific business needs.

    See AI Skill Kit for more information.

    Important:
    AI Skill Kit is available in the ServiceNow Store. For details, see the "Activation information" section of these release notes.

    Important information for upgrading AI Skill Kit to Yokohama

    If you customized UI actions or other items that are associated with Now Assist skills, ensure that your customized code is updated with the new skill releases. Otherwise, certain functions may not work as expected.

    If you run into issues when you're upgrading a Now Assist product, see KB1637452: Issues and mitigation for Now Assist (Generative AI) Applications and Plugin updates. You may need to log in to view the article.

    New in the Yokohama release

    Yokohama Patch 6
    New skill deployment option
    Deploy skills using UI Builder.
    Choose a language for data generation
    When you create synthetic data, you can select what language you want to receive the data in.
    AI-assisted ground truth
    Use AI to assist creating ground truth for your data.
    Import data with a CSV file
    Import data from a CSV file to create a dataset.
    Create a custom data generator
    Create and use a custom data generator to create synthetic data.
    Customize ServiceNow skills in Now Assist Skill Kit to tailor skills to meet your specific business requirements.
    Eligible skills provided in ServiceNow Now Assist applications can be cloned in Now Assist Skill Kit so that you can edit the prompt or change the AI service provider. Editing the prompt enables you to arrange the formatting and content of the large language model (LLM) response. After the skill is edited, activate the edited skill in the AI Admin Hub console to enable it.
    Add and manage tools visually in the new Tools editor, including decision branching, to execute different tools for your skill.
    Adding decision branches between tools enables you to define the conditions that must be met for a tool to run. If no conditions are met, the default branch's step is executed.

    UI changes

    Now Assist Skill Kit add tools function moved to Tool editor tab.
    The ability to add and edit tools for Now Assist Skill Kit previously appeared on the Prompt editor tab. It now appears on the Tool editor tab.

    Changed in this release

    Yokohama Patch 11
    Changes to Now Assist usage measurement
    Starting with Yokohama Patch 5, Now Assist usage measurement is transitioning from a 365-day look-back model to a 365-day burn-down model, with usage resetting at the contract anniversary date. For more information, refer to KB KB2704710: Now Assist Usage - Overview & New Measurement Logic.
    Some Now Assist skills are turned on by default
    The new default behavior works as follows:
    • New customers: When you install a Now Assist product, designated skills are turned on automatically.
    • Existing customers who are upgrading (starting with Yokohama Patch 11): Any previously unconfigured skill is turned on automatically (the skill was never configured and turned on, then turned off again). Previously configured skills that were turned on, then off, remain inactive.
    Configure ACLs for AI agents and agentic workflows
    Configure the access control lists for who can discover and trigger AI agents and agentic workflows in their guided setups in AI Agent Studio. You can determine whether an AI agent or agentic workflow behaves as a dynamic user or as an AI user. You can also specify if an AI agent or agentic workflow can be available to all authenticated users or publicly available.

    Activation information

    Now Assist features are available with activation of any Now Assist plugin from the ServiceNow Store. The following plugins are available:

    Additional requirements

    The Next Experience UI Framework must be enabled to use the Now Assist panel.

    Browser requirements

    Now Assist supports various browsers, including Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. Now Assist isn’t supported in Microsoft Internet Explorer.

    Accessibility information

    Admins can enable an optional Voice Input setting for the Now Assist panel that enables users to interact with the panel using their voice or in voice assist mode.

    Localization information

    Now Assist supports Dynamic Translation for Yokohama.