Tasks and requests

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated April 2, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    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 Tasks and requests

    Tasks and requests in ServiceNow provide a unified interface for employees to manage all their tasks, approvals, and active requests in one consolidated view. This replaces the previously fragmented experience across multiple queues and modules, enhancing productivity and simplifying work management.

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    The feature aggregates tasks assigned to the employee and active service requests they submitted, making it easier to track and act on work items from diverse sources.

    Key Features

    • Unified View: Combines tasks, approvals, and requests into a single interface accessible via Employee Slate, streamlining access and management.
    • AI-Powered Enhancements with Now Assist:
      • AI Summaries: Each task card includes an AI-generated summary detailing who is requesting the task, what is needed, and why it matters.
      • AI Prioritization: Tasks are automatically ranked by urgency, due date, business impact, and dependencies to prioritize immediate action items.
      • AI Insights for Approvals: Approval requests are analyzed to highlight conditions met or needing review based on policies and knowledge articles, aiding informed decision-making.
    • Conversational Filters and Chat-Driven Actions: Users can filter tasks and requests by status or type through chat commands, approve or reject requests via chat prompts, and track specific incidents or cases conversationally.
    • Customizable Filters: Administrators can configure To-Do and My Request filters to tailor the displayed task and request items.

    Key Outcomes

    • Increased Efficiency: Employees save time by managing all work items in one place with AI assistive features to prioritize and summarize tasks.
    • Improved Decision-Making: AI Insights for approvals provide contextual checks against policies, helping approvers make better-informed decisions while encouraging verification with authoritative sources.
    • Enhanced User Experience: Conversational interfaces and chat-driven actions empower users to interact naturally with their tasks and requests, making workflows smoother and more intuitive.
    • Scalable AI Usage: AI features have configurable execution limits to balance performance and consumption, with logs and consumption details available for administrative oversight.

    Additional Considerations

    AI capabilities such as summaries, prioritization, and approval insights require Now Assist. Deployments using Moveworks without Now Assist will have access to tasks and requests features but without these AI enhancements.

    Tasks and requests provides a unified interface for managing tasks, approvals, and action items.

    The Tasks and requests (formerly known as Inbox) replaces the fragmented experience of managing work across multiple queues and modules. All tasks, approvals, and active requests assigned to an employee appear in a single consolidated view.

    Tasks and requests contents and configuration

    The tasks and requests section aggregates the following work item types:

    • Tasks assigned to the employee.
    • Active service requests that the employee submitted.

    You can use the filters to view and track the tasks and requests from the following sources:

    • To-Do configurations for task items.
    • My Request Filter configurations for request items.

    Tasks and requests pages

    Employee Slate provides task and request detail pages with all the context that an employee needs. Task and request types natively render with the full AI-native experience with AI Insights for approvals. For other types, the tasks and requests provides a link to Employee Center.

    AI prioritization and summaries

    With Now Assist, each task card in the To-dos tab includes an AI-generated summary. The summary covers the following information:

    • Who is asking
    • What is needed
    • Why it matters

    By default, the To-dos list sorts by AI prioritization. Items that need immediate action appear first. The following details describe how prioritization works:

    • The assistant evaluates urgency, due dates, business impact, and dependencies to rank items.
    • Consumption details are available in the sn_ex_ai_portal_to_do_activities table with scores for each task.
    • The daily execution cap is defined in the smartpriority_daily_assist_consumption_limit system property.
    • Logs are available in the sys_generative_ai_log_list table. Search by the skill name to view the reasoning behind a particular task score.
    Note:
    When you exhaust the daily execution cap, the skill stops running for the rest of the day. The default is 3,000 executions per day. Administrators can increase the consumption limit based on usage.

    AI Insights for approvals

    For approval items, Now Assist analyzes the approval request. It surfaces a checklist of the conditions that apply to the decision. The insights highlight:

    • Conditions that the request meets based on associated knowledge articles and policies such as keyword, body text, short description, or meta description.
    • Conditions that the request doesn't meet or that need review.

    AI-generated insights may not reflect every relevant policy condition. Verify AI-generated insights against authoritative policy sources before making approval decisions.

    Conversational filters and chat-driven actions

    Access all your tasks, approvals, and requests from a unified space Employee Slate. You can view, track, and act on pending tasks, approvals, and open requests across enterprise systems. These systems include HR approvals, IT tasks, learning content, and surveys.

    • Apply a filter by asking the chat to narrow the items, for example by overdue status or by request type.
    • Clear filters by asking the chat to reset the view.
    • Approve or reject an approval from the details page with prompts and chat.
    • Filter tasks by state, for example, select Completed to view all completed tasks.
    • Ask about a specific incident, case, or request to track and take action from chat.

    Conversational filters apply along with the filters that administrators configure.

    Note:
    AI summaries, AI prioritization, AI Insights for approvals, and chat-driven actions require Now Assist. Employee Slate deployments that use Moveworks without Now Assist include the tasks and requests without some AI capabilities.