External Content Q&A Genius Results

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 3 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 External Content Q&A Genius Results

    External Content Q&A Genius Results provides ServiceNow AI Search users with concise, AI-generated answers derived from documents stored in their Microsoft SharePoint Online instance. When a relevant document is found, the content and metadata are sent to the Now LLM Service to generate an actionable answer card that includes a downloadable link to the source document. Users can provide feedback on the answer accuracy to help improve future results.

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    This feature respects user permissions by using individual SharePoint credentials and profiles, ensuring answers are generated only from accessible documents.

    Important: Starting with Now Assist in AI Search 10, this feature is being prepared for deprecation. It is no longer installed on new instances and removed from unused instances but remains supported where currently in use.

    Enabling External Content Q&A Genius Results

    • Ensure the IntegrationHub Enterprise Pack Installer plugin is installed on your ServiceNow instance.
    • Create and configure an OAuth application in Microsoft Azure to authorize connections from the ServiceNow AI Platform instance.
    • Assign the AllSites.FullControl SharePoint delegated permission to the OAuth application and grant admin consent.
    • Define OAuth configuration settings specific to External Content Q&A Genius Results in ServiceNow.
    • Enable the feature in the desired AI Search portals to make it available to users.
    • Users must authenticate with their Microsoft SharePoint Online credentials within the AI Search portal to authorize access.

    Once activated, all users with valid SharePoint credentials searching through the enabled application can receive these AI-generated answers.

    Limitations and Language Support

    • By default, the feature supports only English-language searches.
    • Administrators can enable additional language support by activating the Dynamic Translation feature.
    • Answers are generated solely from documents in SharePoint Online; content from SharePoint sites themselves is not used.

    Interaction with Other Search Features

    • Result improvement rules are not applied to External Content Q&A Genius Results answers because these operate on external SharePoint documents.
    • Stop words are not removed during the generation of answers.
    • Synonyms are not expanded in the search for relevant documents.
    • Typographical error corrections do not apply to these searches.

    Configuration Details

    • SharePoint API Permissions: Adding the AllSites.FullControl delegated permission with admin consent is critical for the OAuth application to access and search SharePoint documents.
    • OAuth Settings: Must be configured to enable secure interaction between ServiceNow and SharePoint Online.
    • Search Scope Restriction: Administrators can define Microsoft Keyword Query Language (KQL) queries to limit which SharePoint Online sites are searched, ensuring relevance and compliance.
    • User Authentication: Users must sign in with Microsoft SharePoint Online to obtain OAuth tokens that permit document retrieval and answer generation during searches.

    External Content Q&A Genius Results display concise, actionable AI-generated answers derived from documents in your Microsoft SharePoint Online instance.

    Important:
    Starting with the Now Assist in AI Search 10 release, the External Content Q&A Genius Results feature is being prepared for future deprecation. This feature is no longer installed on new instances and is removed from instances where it's not in use, but will continue to be supported on instances where it's in use. For details, see the Deprecation Process [KB0867184] article in the Now Support Knowledge Base.

    External Content Q&A Genius Results overview

    The External Content Q&A Genius Result configuration searches for documents relevant to your search using an Integration Hub subflow. If it finds sufficiently relevant documents, it sends them to the Now LLM Service, which generates answers from their content and metadata.

    Each External Content Q&A Genius Result answer card includes a generated answer. For reference, the answer card also includes a link you can select to download the source documents.
    Note:
    Because the External Content Q&A Genius Result answer is automatically generated, it's a good idea to review it for accuracy. You can provide feedback on the answer by selecting the thumbs-up icon if the generated answer is accurate, or the thumbs-down icon if it's not. Your feedback helps ServiceNow improve future versions of this Genius Result configuration.

    When searching for relevant documents, the system uses your Microsoft SharePoint Online credentials and user profile, so your searches generate External Content Q&A Genius Result answers from documents that you can access.

    Enabling External Content Q&A Genius Results

    To make External Content Q&A Genius Results available for use in AI Search applications, administrators first need to perform the following steps:
    1. Verify that the ServiceNow IntegrationHub Enterprise Pack Installer [com.glide.hub.integrations.enterprise] plugin is installed on your instance. If this plugin isn't installed, you can request it. For details on requesting IntegrationHub plugins, see Request an Integration Hub plugin.
    2. Create and configure an OAuth application in the Microsoft Azure portal to verify and authorize connection requests from your ServiceNow AI Platform® instance. To learn about this procedure, see Configure OAuth application in Microsoft Azure.
    3. Add the AllSites.FullControl SharePoint delegated permission (and grant admin consent) to your new OAuth application in the Microsoft Azure portal. For details on this procedure, see Configure SharePoint API permissions for your External Content Q&A Genius Results OAuth 2.0 application.
    4. Define OAuth configuration settings for External Content Q&A Genius Results. For full details on the required OAuth settings, see Configure OAuth settings for External Content Q&A Genius Results.

    Next, search administrators need to enable External Content Q&A Genius Results in one or more AI Search portals. To learn about this procedure, see Enable Now Assist Genius Results in AI Search portals and mobile applications.

    After all these steps are completed, AI Search portal users can authorize External Content Q&A Genius Results for their searches by authenticating with Microsoft SharePoint Online. For details on this authentication procedure, see Sign in to Microsoft SharePoint Online to authorize External Content Q&A Genius Results.
    Note:
    When you activate External Content Q&A Genius Results in a search application, they're available to all users with Microsoft SharePoint Online credentials who search using that application.

    Limitations

    By default, External Content Q&A Genius Results only support English-language searches. Administrators can enable support for other languages by activating Dynamic Translation. To learn more about how content and answers are translated, see Dynamic Translation for Now Assist Q&A Genius Results. For more details on Dynamic Translation, see Dynamic Translation.

    External Content Q&A Genius Results only generate answers from documents found in your Microsoft SharePoint Online instance. They don't generate answers from sites found in your instance.

    Interaction with other search features

    The following table describes the interactions between External Content Q&A Genius Results and other search features.

    Feature Interaction with External Content Q&A Genius Results Genius Results
    Result improvement rules When computing External Content Q&A Genius Result answers, AI Search doesn't apply your result improvement rules because they don't operate on documents from your Microsoft SharePoint Online instance.
    Stop words When computing External Content Q&A Genius Result answers, AI Search doesn't remove stop words from your search.
    Synonyms When computing External Content Q&A Genius Result answers, AI Search doesn't expand synonyms found in your search.
    Typo handling When computing External Content Q&A Genius Result answers, AI Search doesn't correct misspelled search terms.