AI Search readiness for Now Assist on the ServiceNow AI Platform
Summarize
Summary of AI Search readiness for Now Assist on the ServiceNow AI Platform
Now Assist in AI Search leverages the ServiceNow AI Search infrastructure to deliver relevant and secure enterprise content retrieval, including knowledge articles, records, and documentation. It ensures users only receive responses based on content they are authorized to access. AI Search admin tools enable fine-tuning of relevancy to optimize result quality, while AI-generated answers include citations to boost trust and reduce misinformation by grounding responses in actual organizational content.
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Activating Now Assist in AI Search before broader deployment maximizes its effectiveness. It supports actionable Q&A through Genius Results cards across multiple ServiceNow interfaces such as global search, Service Portal, Employee Center, and Virtual Agent.
Key setup steps for ServiceNow customers
- Verify AI Search activation: Confirm AI Search is active in your instance via AI Search Status. If inactive, request activation to enable the feature.
- Configure search sources: Define which data sources AI Search will query, controlling access to searchable content within your enterprise.
- Include external content: Set up search sources for external data to broaden Now Assist’s answer scope beyond ServiceNow native content.
- Enable AI Search on portals: Activate AI Search results visibility on ServiceNow portals where users interact.
- Install Now Assist in AI Search: Use the Now Assist Admin console to install the product and integrate it with AI Search.
- Enable Genius Results: Configure Now Assist Q&A Genius Result types on AI Search portals to present synthesized, LLM-generated answers in a clear Q&A format across various content types.
- Verify widget customizations: Check that any custom AI Search widgets correctly display Q&A results, as customizations may be bypassed during upgrades.
Important considerations
- AI Search respects ServiceNow security models ensuring compliance with user access permissions.
- Citations in AI-generated answers increase user confidence and minimize hallucinations by referencing verified content.
- Disparities between AI Search and other Now Assist search features are expected due to differences in underlying technologies and configurations.
- Consult the Now Assist in AI Search FAQ and related community resources for additional guidance and troubleshooting.
Now Assist in AI Search is built directly on the robust foundation of ServiceNow® AI Search. AI Search provides the underlying infrastructure that enables Now Assist to retrieve and rank enterprise content—such as knowledge articles, records, and documentation—based on relevance and access permissions.
Because AI Search adheres to ServiceNow security models, responses are always grounded in content the user is authorized to access. Additionally, AI Search admin tools give you control over relevancy tuning, allowing you to refine how content is surfaced and ensure that Now Assist delivers the most useful and trustworthy results.
Every AI-generated answer includes citations and references, allowing users to see exactly where the information came from. This not only boosts confidence in the accuracy of responses, but also reduces the risk of hallucination by grounding outputs in your organization’s actual content.
To maximize its impact, Now Assist in AI Search should be activated before Now Assist is more broadly implemented. Once enabled, it powers actionable Q&A through Genius Results cards in global search, Service Portal, Employee Center, and Virtual Agent.
High-level checklist
- 1. Verify AI Search status
- Make sure AI Search is active on your instance. To check status, navigate to . If AI Search is not active, select the Request AI Search button to initiate activation.
- 2. Review search sources
- Configure search sources to determine what data will be searched by user queries.
- 3. Configure search sources for external content
- Allows Now Assist Q&A search to include external content.
- 4. Enable AI Search on one or more portals
- Display AI Search results in the portals on your instance.
- 5. Install Now Assist in AI Search
- Install a Now Assist product in the Now Assist Admin console.
- 6. Enable Now Assist Q&A Genius Results in AI Search portals
- Specify the Now Assist Genius Result types you want to make available in each of your AI Search portals. Now Assist Multi-Content Response Genius Results use an LLM to generate search and chat responses that synthesize information from knowledge articles, Service Catalog items, and other available content types. Answers are presented in Q&A format.
- 7. Verify AI Search widget customizations
- Customized AI Search widgets may not correctly show Q&A search results even when configured for Now Assist, since customizations get skipped during upgrades.
The ServiceNow AI Platform® offers a variety of search tools, which may return different answers for the same or similar searches. This disparity in results is expected. For more information, see Search result disparities between AI Search and Now Assist search features.