External content security for AI Search

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of External Content Security for AI Search

    External content security in AI Search ensures that user and group access permissions for documents from external sources are maintained and enforced. It allows ServiceNow customers to control search result access based on permissions set for externally defined users and groups, enabling a secure and tailored search experience.

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    Requirements

    To implement external content security, follow these two essential steps during the ingestion and indexing of external documents:

    • Specify Access Permissions: Assign access permissions to each external document, which can either allow or deny access globally or to specific users and groups. AI Search retains these permissions during indexing.
    • Define User Mappings: Create mappings that link externally defined user and group aliases to ServiceNow AI Platform users, which AI Search uses to determine access to indexed search results.

    Key Features

    • Maintains external document security permissions throughout the indexing process.
    • Allows for detailed configuration of access permissions for external documents.
    • Supports user mapping to align externally defined users with ServiceNow user accounts, enhancing access control.

    Key Outcomes

    By implementing external content security, ServiceNow customers can expect:

    • Improved control over who can view search results derived from external documents.
    • Enhanced security compliance by preserving externally defined access permissions.
    • Streamlined user experience as relevant search results are securely filtered based on defined access permissions.

    AI Search preserves user and group security access permissions specified for documents indexed from external sources. You can control access to external content search results by mapping these externally defined users and groups to ServiceNow AI Platform® users.

    For an overview of AI Search content security, see Content security in AI Search.

    Requirements

    To use external content security, include the following two steps in your ingestion and indexing process for external documents:

    Step Description
    Specify access permissions on each external document fed for ingestion Access permissions for an external document can allow or deny access to the document globally (for all users), or can include lists of specific externally defined users and groups who are allowed or denied access to the document. AI Search preserves the external document's security access permissions during indexing.
    Additional information:
    Define user mappings in tables linked to external content indexed sources A user mapping specifies externally defined user and group aliases for a ServiceNow AI Platform user. Link these user mappings to indexed sources for external content. AI Search uses an indexed source's user mappings in conjunction with indexed records' access permissions to determine ServiceNow AI Platform user access for search results from the indexed source.
    Additional information:

    Security implementation for search queries

    When a user's search query matches an indexed record created from an external document, AI Search performs these steps:
    1. Examines the user mappings linked to the record's indexed source and retrieves the set of all externally defined users and groups aliased to the current ServiceNow AI Platform user's account.
    2. Compares the mapped set of externally defined user and group aliases with the access permissions on the indexed search result record to see whether the ServiceNow AI Platform user should be allowed to view the search result.