--- sourceDocument: australia Combined Product Files sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/delta-zurich-australia Release : - australia ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - australia Combined Product Files ft:clusterId : - delta3az bundleId : - delta3az --- # Combined AI Search release notes for upgrades from Zurich to Australia # Combined AI Search release notes for upgrades from Zurich to Australia {#ariaid-title1} Release version: Australia Updated October 8, 2026 ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 10 minutes to read Summarize ![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI 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 Combined AI Search Release Notes for Upgrades from Zurich to Australia This consolidated release note provides ServiceNow customers with a comprehensive summary of AI Search enhancements, changes, and important upgrade information spanning from the Zurich release family through to the Australia release. It helps you understand new capabilities, configuration adjustments, and administrative improvements designed to optimize AI Search performance and user experience on your platform. Show full answer Show less ## New Features * **ServiceNow Otto for AI Search:** The conversational AI experience formerly known as Now Assist has been rebranded as ServiceNow Otto for AI Search. This integrated platform supports agentic capabilities, multimodal interactions across web, mobile, and messaging channels, and enables autonomous orchestration for cross-system workflows. Key terminology such as Genius Results and Multi-Content Responses have been updated accordingly. * **Multi-Source Synthesized Responses:** AI Search now synthesizes information from multiple indexed sources to generate comprehensive and contextual search responses. * **Hybrid Search Mode:** Available starting with AI Search 15.0, hybrid search combines traditional keyword search with semantic understanding to improve result relevance and reduce zero-result queries. * **Support for Third-Party Embedding Models:** Integration with custom and third-party embedding models enhances semantic search accuracy via the AI Search RAG application. * **Language Filtering:** External content search results are filtered by the user's session language and configured fallback languages to improve relevance. * **Indexing Enhancements:** Variables within Catalog Item records, including Multiple Choice and Select Box types, are now indexed for searchability. * **EVAM Card Display Properties:** New properties such as customIcon, customIconSize, forceNewTab, and useAttachmentViewer allow administrators to customize search result card appearance and behavior. * **Multimodal Captioning for Attachments (Australia):** Automatically generates descriptive captions for images, tables, charts, and other visual elements within indexed attachments, enabling keyword-based attachment searches. * **AI Search as Source for Ask ServiceNow Otto Suggestions (Australia):** Administrators can configure AI Search as the suggestion source in enhanced chat, enabling improved suggestion features like wildcard searching and term highlighting. ## Changes * **Summary Genius Results:** Now Assist Multi-Content Response Genius Results are supported in global and workspace searches. Enabling these results overrides other Genius Result configurations, focusing answers exclusively on these synthesized responses. * **Virtual Agent Topic Integration:** Citations from Genius Result answers open the relevant Virtual Agent topic within the Now Assist panel, allowing users to continue conversational interactions seamlessly. * **Search Suggestions and Administration:** A granular aisadmin role enables search administrators to manage Search Suggestions tables without granting full admin access. The Search Preview UI has been refreshed to preview query results using keyword or hybrid modes and to display results as EVAM cards or JSON objects with syntax highlighting. * **User Interface Enhancements:** The Coral theme is now the default for portals, web, and mobile experiences with Next Experience or Core UI, offering a modern, brand-neutral look with dark mode options. * **Consumer-Grade Search Experience Improvements:** Both portal and global/workspace search results pages have been redesigned for consistency. Navigation tabs are replaced with source facet buckets that display minimum result counts and open results in new browser tabs. Search terms are no longer highlighted in results. * **Facet Bucket Sorting and Display:** Administrators can sort facet buckets alphabetically instead of by result count and control the visibility of grouped attachment search results with new "Show more" and "Show less" links. ## Activation and Requirements * **Activation:** AI Search is active by default on ServiceNow AI Platform instances for both Zurich and Australia releases. * **Browser Support:** For optimal AI Search performance, use the latest versions of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. Internet Explorer is not supported. * **Localization:** AI Search supports indexing and querying in all languages available on the ServiceNow AI Platform, including language-specific features like stop words and synonyms. ## Key Outcomes for ServiceNow Customers * Enhanced search accuracy and relevance through hybrid search and semantic understanding improve user satisfaction and efficiency. * Expanded AI capabilities with ServiceNow Otto enable richer conversational experiences and cross-channel interactions. * Administrators gain granular control over search suggestions, results display, and thematic customization to tailor the search experience to organizational needs. * Improved indexing and content synthesis support comprehensive information retrieval from diverse data sources, including attachments and catalog variables. * Interface improvements create a consistent, modern, and accessible search experience across portals, global, and workspace searches. Consolidated page of all release notes for AI Search from Zurich to Australia. ## How to use this page To help you prepare for your upgrade, we have combined the cross-family AI Search release notes onto one page. Read this summary of the new features, changes, and updated information for your product from Zurich to Australia. Tip: If there were no updates for a release notes section in a certain family release, we included a short note for your reference. For example, if a product did not have any updates in Tokyo, the row says "No updates for this release." ## Important information for upgrading AI Search to Australia Before you upgrade to Australia, review these pre- and post-upgrade tasks and complete the tasks as needed. {#dfrn3-aisearch-summary__entry__2} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | No updates for this release. | | Australia | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## New features Between your current release family and Australia, new features were introduced for AI Search. {#dfrn3-aisearch-summary__entry__8} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | [ServiceNow Otto for AI Search](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=now-assist-ais&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : ServiceNow Otto introduced AI on the platform. As that experience has evolved, there's a new name for the experience. ServiceNow Otto® is the conversational AI platform integrated into ServiceNow workflows. It provides agentic capabilities, supports multimodal interactions across web, mobile, and messaging channels, and enables autonomous orchestration for cross-system workflows. Name changes include but aren't limited to: * Now Assist in AI Search is now ServiceNow Otto for AI Search. * Now Assist Actions is now Actions. * Now Assist Q \& A is now Knowledge base articles. * Now Assist Multi Content Response is now Summary. [Generate multi-content synthesized responses](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=generate-multi-content-synthesized-sources&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : AI Search can now use multi-source synthesis to gather and combine information from any indexed source in your system. [Improve search precision and contextual relevance with hybrid search](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=hybrid-search-ais&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : Beginning with Now Assist in AI Search 15.0, customers with Now Assist in AI Search installed can enable the new hybrid search mode. Hybrid search combines keyword-based search with semantic understanding to deliver more accurate and relevant search results, with fewer zero-result searches. [Improve semantic search with third-party embedding models](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=ais-rag&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : Use custom and third-party embedding models supported by the AI Search RAG application to generate more accurate and relevant semantic search results. [Filter external content search results by language](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=language-filtering-external-content&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : AI Search filters external content search results, displaying only results that contain content in languages relevant for the user's search. These languages include: * The search user's session language * The fallback language for the user's session language (if configured) * The language of the global fallback locale (if configured) [Indexing support for variables in records on Catalog Item and child tables](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=variable-types-ais-index&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : Index searchable content from Multiple Choice and Select Box variables in records on the Catalog Item table and tables that extend it. [New display properties for Search Result EVAM cards](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=search-result-evam-card-opts&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : Search Result EVAM cards include new customIcon, customIconSize, forceNewTab, and useAttachmentViewer properties that you can use to modify display settings and behavior for search results. | | Australia | [ServiceNow Otto for AI Search](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=now-assist-ais&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : ServiceNow Otto introduced AI on the platform. As that experience has evolved, there's a new name for the experience. ServiceNow Otto® is the conversational AI platform integrated into ServiceNow workflows. It provides agentic capabilities, supports multimodal interactions across web, mobile, and messaging channels, and enables autonomous orchestration for cross-system workflows. Name changes include but aren't limited to: * Now Assist in AI Search is now ServiceNow Otto for AI Search. * Now Assist Action Genius Results are now Action Genius Results. * Now Assist Q\&A Genius Results are now Knowledge base article Genius Results. * Now Assist Multi-Content Response Genius Results are now Summary Genius Results. [MCP Server](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=mcp-platform-manager-landing&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : AI Search capabilities are now available through the Model Context Protocol (MCP) Search tool category. [Generate multi-content synthesized responses](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=generate-multi-content-synthesized-sources&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : AI Search can now use multi-source synthesis to gather and combine information from any indexed source in your system. [Multimodal captioning for attachments](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=activate-multimodal-captioning&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Multimodal captioning automatically generates searchable descriptive captions for images, tables, charts, and other visual elements in indexed attachments. Find attachments by searching for keywords from generated captions. [Improve search precision and contextual relevance with hybrid search](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=hybrid-search-ais&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Beginning with Now Assist in AI Search 15.0, administrators on instances with Now Assist in AI Search installed can enable the new hybrid search mode. Hybrid search combines keyword-based search with semantic understanding to deliver more accurate and relevant search results, with fewer zero-result searches. [Configure AI Search as the source for Ask ServiceNow Otto suggestions](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=configure-ai-search-source-ask-now-assist-suggestions&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Admins can configure the system to use AI Search as the source for Ask Now Assist suggestions in enhanced chat. Making this change activates suggestion term highlighting in Ask Now Assist and provides improvements such as wildcard searching and lemmatization for suggestions. | [ ] ## Changes Between your current release family and Australia, some changes were made to existing AI Search features. {#dfrn3-aisearch-summary__entry__14} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | [Summary Genius Results](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=now-assist-multi-content-qna-genius-results&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : If you have Now Assist in AI Search installed, Now Assist Multi-Content Response Genius Results are supported in global and workspace search. Activating Now Assist Multi-Content Response Genius Results in global or workspace search profiles overrides all other Genius Result configurations, so that global and workspace searches only display Genius Result answers from Now Assist Multi-Content Response Genius Results. Virtual Agent topic citations from Now Assist Multi-Content Response Genius Result answers in global or workspace search open the selected topic in the Now Assist panel so the user can continue their conversation on that topic. [Search Suggestions](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=search-suggestions-overview&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : Search administrators with the ais_admin granular admin role can access all Search Suggestions tables. Assign search administrators this role to eliminate needless propagation of full admin access. [Gain insights into search behavior with a refreshed and updated Search Preview UI.](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=search-preview-ui-new&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : Preview search query results using settings from a search application configuration or a search profile. Choose between keyword and hybrid search modes. Display search results as individual EVAM cards or as a JSON-format search query response object, with search and syntax highlighting. Review search query behavior and results and specify search query settings with the new Summary, Genius Results, Details, and Profile admin tools. Coral theme : Coral is now the default theme for new portal, web, and mobile experiences with Next Experience or Core UI enabled. This theme provides a fresh look and feel, featuring brand-neutral illustrations to enhance your user experience. A dark theme option is available for web and mobile experiences. [Consumer-grade search experience for search portals](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=viewing-search-results-ais&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : The search results page for search portals has been revised to offer a more intuitive and consistent experience. Navigation tabs have been replaced with source facet buckets. All search results now open in a new browser tab, preserving your search in the existing browser tab. Facet buckets now show minimum search result counts, reflecting results removed by late binding content security. Search terms are no longer highlighted in search results. [Consumer-grade search experience for global search and workspace search](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=using-ais-next-experience-app&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : The search results page for global search and workspace search has been revised to offer a more intuitive and consistent experience. Navigation tabs have been replaced with source facet buckets. All search results now open in a new browser tab, preserving your search in the existing browser tab. Facet buckets now show minimum search result counts, reflecting results removed by late binding content security. A new glide.ui.ais.show_all_facets system property enables you to display facets from all sources when no source is selected. (The default behavior is to hide facets until a source is selected.) Search terms are no longer highlighted in search results. [Sort facet buckets alphabetically](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=create-facet-ais&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : Override the default sorting of facet buckets by their search result counts and display them sorted alphabetically by their labels. [Improved display for grouped attachment search results](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=grouping-attachment-srch-results-ais&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : When grouped with their parent search results, attachment search results now appear in collapsed form to save space. If a parent search result includes more than three grouped attachments, you can use the new Show more and Show less links to control how many attachments are visible. | | Australia | [Summary Genius Results](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=now-assist-multi-content-qna-genius-results&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : If you have Now Assist in AI Search installed, Now Assist Multi-Content Response Genius Results are supported in global and workspace search. Activating Now Assist Multi-Content Response Genius Results in global or workspace search profiles overrides all other Genius Result configurations, so that global and workspace searches only display Genius Result answers from Now Assist Multi-Content Response Genius Results. Virtual Agent topic citations from Now Assist Multi-Content Response Genius Result answers in global or workspace search open the selected topic in the Now Assist panel so the user can continue their conversation on that topic. [Search Suggestions](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=search-suggestions-overview&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Search administrators with the ais_admin granular admin role can access all Search Suggestions tables. Assign search administrators this role to eliminate needless propagation of full admin access. [Gain insights into search behavior with a refreshed and updated Search Preview UI.](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=search-preview-ui-new&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Preview search query results using settings from a search application configuration or a search profile. Choose between keyword and hybrid search modes. Display search results as individual EVAM cards or as a JSON-format search query response object, with search and syntax highlighting. Review search query behavior and results and specify search query settings with the new Summary, Genius Results, Details, and Profile admin tools. | [ ] ## Removed Between your current release family and Australia, some AI Search features or functionality were removed. {#dfrn3-aisearch-summary__entry__20} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | No updates for this release. | | Australia | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Deprecations Between your current release family and Australia, some AI Search features or functionality were deprecated. {#dfrn3-aisearch-summary__entry__26} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | No updates for this release. | | Australia | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Activation information Review information on how to activate AI Search. {#dfrn3-aisearch-summary__entry__32} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | Activation information : AI Search is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that is active by default. | | Australia | Activation information : AI Search is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that is active by default. | [ ] ## Additional requirements If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for AI Search we have noted them here. {#dfrn3-aisearch-summary__entry__38} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | No updates for this release. | | Australia | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Browser requirements If any specific browser requirements were introduced or changed for AI Search we have noted them here. {#dfrn3-aisearch-summary__entry__44} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | Browser requirements : For optimal performance, use AI Search in the latest release of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. AI Search doesn't support Internet Explorer. | | Australia | Browser requirements : For optimal performance, use AI Search in the latest release of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. AI Search doesn't support Internet Explorer. | [ ] ## Accessibility information Review details on accessibility information for AI Search, such as specific requirements or compliance levels. {#dfrn3-aisearch-summary__entry__50} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | No updates for this release. | | Australia | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Localization information If there are specific localization considerations for AI Search we have noted them here. {#dfrn3-aisearch-summary__entry__56} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | Localization information : AI Search supports indexing and search in all languages offered by the ServiceNow AI Platform. Search features, such as stop words and synonyms, are available in many supported languages. For details of language support by feature, see [Internationalization support](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=international-language-support-ais&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US). | | Australia | Localization information : AI Search supports indexing and search in all languages offered by the ServiceNow AI Platform. Search features, such as stop words and synonyms, are available in many supported languages. For details of language support by feature, see [Internationalization support](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=international-language-support-ais&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US). | [ ] ## Highlight information If there are specific highlight considerations for AI Search we have noted them here. {#dfrn3-aisearch-summary__entry__62} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | * Index and search text and attachments from ServiceNow AI Platform tables and external document repositories. * Machine learning relevancy intelligently tunes search result relevancy scores based on previous search users' selections. * Semantic vector search and hybrid search modes find results that match the intent and context of your search. * Genius Results highlight the best answers for a search query and provide immediate access to relevant actions. * Content security preserves user access permissions for your searchable content. See [AI Search](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=overview-ais&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) for more information. | | Australia | * Index and search text and attachments from ServiceNow AI Platform tables and external document repositories. * Machine learning relevancy intelligently tunes search result relevancy scores based on previous search users' selections. * Semantic vector search and hybrid search modes find results that match the intent and context of your search. * Genius Results highlight the best answers for a search query and provide immediate access to relevant actions. * Content security preserves user access permissions for your searchable content. See [AI Search](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=overview-ais&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) for more information. | [ ]