Configuring AI Search

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Configuring AI Search

    Configuring AI Search in ServiceNow enables customers to implement powerful, customizable search experiences across various ServiceNow AI Platform® applications. This configuration involves setting up roles, indexed sources, search sources, search profiles, and search application configurations to tailor search behavior and content visibility. AI Search supports searching both internal ServiceNow tables and external content repositories, enhancing content discoverability for users.

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    Key Features

    • Role Assignment: Assign specialized roles such as aisadmin, aishighsecurityadmin, and searchapplicationadmin to manage AI Search settings, content indexing, security, and application configurations.
    • Indexed Sources: Define and configure which ServiceNow tables or external document sets are indexed to include searchable text and string fields. Pre-configured sources include Catalog Item, Knowledge, and User tables.
    • Search Sources: Apply filters on indexed sources to create targeted search sources accessible within search experiences, with default configurations provided.
    • Search Profiles: Create and publish profiles to control search behavior including synonyms, stop words, typo handling, Genius Results, and result improvement rules. Profiles link search sources to distinct search experiences across applications.
    • Search Application Configurations: Configure settings for AI Search usage in specific ServiceNow applications like Service Portal, Virtual Agent, and Now Mobile, selecting appropriate search profiles and UX options.
    • Custom Search Matcher: Optionally configure exact-match global searches to restrict results to specific table fields, useful for formatted search terms like incident numbers or phone numbers.
    • Additional Functionalities:
      • Activate fuzzy numeric search to improve search flexibility on number fields.
      • Enable the Platform Multimodal Service plugin to generate searchable captions for images and visual elements in attachments.
      • Configure EVAM display settings to customize search result cards across portal and non-portal applications.
    • Domain Separation: Although domain separation is unsupported on AI Search application tables, user queries respect domain restrictions from indexed records, maintaining data access controls.
    • External Content Indexing: With the External Content for AI Search plugin subscription, index and search documents and metadata from external repositories and remote tables.
    • Guided Setup: Use the AI Search guided setup interface to streamline configuration tasks and ensure best practices.

    Practical Outcomes for ServiceNow Customers

    By following the configuration stages, ServiceNow customers can create tailored, efficient search experiences that improve content discoverability and user satisfaction across their platforms. Role-based access control ensures proper governance, while indexed and search sources allow precise content selection. Search profiles and application configurations enable fine-tuned control over search behavior and presentation, adapting to diverse use cases such as portals, mobile, and virtual agents. Integration with external content extends search capabilities beyond the ServiceNow platform, broadening information access. The availability of guided setup and pre-configured defaults accelerates deployment and reduces complexity.

    Plan and configure your AI Search implementation.

    AI Search configuration overview

    Configuration stage Description
    Assign roles to AI Search administrators and users Assign the ais_admin role to users who need to create, read, update, and delete content indexing and search settings for AI Search.

    Assign the ais_high_security_admin elevated privilege role to users who need to access High Security settings for AI Search.

    Assign the search_application_admin to users who need to create, read, update, and delete search application configurations.
    Define indexed sources Create and configure an indexed source for each ServiceNow AI Platform® table that has content you want to make searchable. Index source tables to add their searchable content to the AI Search index.

    The base system includes pre-configured indexed sources for the Catalog Item, Knowledge, and User tables.
    Define search sources Apply filter conditions to indexed sources to define search sources that users can access in your search experiences.

    The base system includes pre-configured search sources that reference the default indexed sources.
    Define search profiles Create and publish a search profile for each distinct search experience that you want to offer in search applications. Specify the data that users can search by linking search sources to the search profile. Control search behavior by configuring synonyms, stop words, typo handling settings, Genius Results, and result improvement rules.

    The base system includes pre-configured search profiles for use with Service Portal, Now Mobile, and the AI Search Assist Service Portal widget.
    Define search application configurations Create a configuration for each ServiceNow AI Platform application that supports AI Search. Select a search profile for the application to use. Configure application-specific search settings.

    The base system includes pre-configured search application configurations for Service Portal, Virtual Agent, and the AI Search Assist Service Portal widget.
    Enable and configure AI Search in ServiceNow AI Platform applications Specify AI Search as the search engine in supported ServiceNow AI Platform applications. Select a search application configuration for each application to use and configure available search UX settings.
    Create a custom search matcher for global search Optionally configure exact-match global searches that only match results from a specified column (field) on a particular ServiceNow AI Platform table.

    Using guided setup to implement AI Search

    Guided setup provides a sequence of tasks that help you configure AI Search on your ServiceNow instance. To open AI Search guided setup, navigate to All > AI Search > Guided Setup.

    For more information about using the guided setup interface, see Using guided setup.