--- sourceDocument: Australia ServiceNow AI Platform Capabilities sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/servicenow-platform Release : - australia ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Australia ServiceNow AI Platform Capabilities ft:clusterId : - platcap bundleId : - platcap workflow : - Platform --- # Analyzing the impact of a change or incident # Analyzing the impact of a change or incident {#ariaid-title1} Release version: Australia Updated June 29, 2026 ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 3 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 Analyzing the impact of a change or incident TheAssess CMDB impact agentic workflowin ServiceNow helps change managers and incident responders analyze the potential impact of changes or incidents on upstream Configuration Items (CIs) and services by leveraging CMDB dependency topology and semantic reasoning. This workflow moves beyond traditional flat lists by assessing the likelihood and severity of disruptions, enabling more informed and efficient change approval and scheduling decisions. Show full answer Show less It is designed to be invoked directly from the ServiceNow Otto panel or integrated into agentic workflows for change requests and incidents. The workflow must be activated from Agentic Solutions before use and requires the itil role for access. ## Key features * **Semantic impact analysis:** Evaluates impact severity, likelihood, and redundancy rather than just listing related CIs. * **Automated topology traversal:** Performs a three-phase breadth-first search of CMDB relationships to build a topology subgraph for assessment. * **LLM-powered reasoning:** Uses a large language model (LLM) to provide structured impact assessments with confidence levels and explanations for each affected CI. * **Visualization:** Renders results as a topology map highlighting impacted CIs by severity (high, medium, low) and provides detailed reasoning on hover. * **Multiple invocation options:** Can be triggered from change or incident records, focusing on changerequest and incident types, excluding cancelled or unsupported records. ## How it works The workflow executes three main steps: * **Resolve input:** Identifies the CI and extracts context from the change or incident record, including objective, risk, or issue descriptions. It requires exactly one affected CI if no primary CI is set. * **Fetch topology:** Builds a subgraph of related CIs using CMDB relationships for impact propagation analysis. * **LLM assessment:** Sends topology and context to an LLM which returns a structured, confidence-rated impact assessment with plain-language reasoning. ## Important considerations * The quality of impact analysis depends on the accuracy and detail of the change description as well as CMDB relationship data. * AI-generated assessments should always be validated against your organization's change governance policies before approving changes. * The workflow excludes Service Mapping associations and does not filter relationship types---all CMDB relationships are considered. * There is a token limit for LLM input (15,000 tokens), so very large topologies may be truncated or summarized. * The workflow is deactivated by default and requires activation prior to use. ## Benefits for ServiceNow customers * Reduces manual effort and guesswork in tracing CMDB relationships during impact assessments. * Improves accuracy of impact identification by adding semantic reasoning and redundancy awareness. * Supports better decision-making for change approval boards and change managers by providing clear, confidence-rated impact insights. * Enhances collaboration by integrating impact analysis directly into existing ServiceNow workflows and the Otto panel. ## Usage notes Invoke the workflow using a changerequest or incident record that has a clearly defined CI and descriptive context. Avoid using cancelled or unsupported record states. Review the topology visualization and detailed explanations to understand how changes or incidents may propagate across your infrastructure. The Assess CMDB impact agentic workflow identifies the upstream services and CIs that are likely to be affected by an incident or by a proposed change. The workflow reasons about propagation likelihood based on CMDB dependency topology and the nature of the change. The workflow returns a structured list with impact levels and the reasoning. Important: Generative AI might produce inaccurate or incomplete information. Impact analysis output depends on the quality of the change description and CMDB relationship data. Always validate AI-generated impact assessments against your organization's change governance policies before approving a change. The Assess CMDB impact agentic workflow solves a key gap in change management. Today's impact assessment process relies on flat lists of topologically related services with no semantic reasoning about which services will actually be disrupted, or how severely. Change managers must trace CMDB relationships manually and apply institutional knowledge to assess blast radius. Note: The Assess CMDB impact agentic workflow is deactivated by default. Activate it from Agentic Solutions before use, as described in [AI Agent Studio overview](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=ai-agent-studio&version=australia&pubname=australia-intelligent-experiences&ft:locale=en-US). ## Key benefits {#na-cmdb-awf-impact-analysis-using__section_key_benefits} The workflow provides the following benefits: * Reduces manual CMDB relationship tracing and guesswork for change approval decisions. * Provides semantic reasoning about impact severity and likelihood, not just topological relationships. * Surfaces redundancy awareness. For example, recognizing that a 3-node web tier can absorb the loss of one node. * Helps Change managers and CAB members make informed approval and scheduling decisions before meetings. * Is invoked directly from the ServiceNow Otto panel or as part of agentic workflows. ## Required role {#na-cmdb-awf-impact-analysis-using__section_required_role} Access to invoke the workflow requires the `itil` role to read CMDB CI and relationship data, and to view change records. ## Workflow steps {#na-cmdb-awf-impact-analysis-using__section_how_it_works} The workflow executes three sequential steps: Step 1: Resolve input : Resolves the CI and a context description from a change record (change request or incident). The description is extracted from the NowAssist task summary (Objective and Risk sections for change requests; Issue section for incidents). If the summary is unavailable, the workflow uses the record's `short_description` or `description` field. If the change record has no CI set, the workflow resolves the CI from the record's affected CI list. This fallback requires exactly one affected CI. If the affected CI list is empty or contains more than one CI, the workflow returns an error instead of running the analysis. Step 2: Fetch topology : The workflow performs a three-phase breadth-first search (BFS) traversal of the CMDB relationship graph to build a topology subgraph: Step 3: LLM assessment : The workflow sends the topology graph and change context to an LLM for impact analysis. The LLM returns a structured assessment with impact level, impact type, confidence, and reasoning for each affected CI. Important: LLM reasoning accuracy depends on the richness and clarity of the change description. Short or vague descriptions produce lower-quality impact assessments. ## Invocation mode {#na-cmdb-awf-impact-analysis-using__section_invocation_modes} Invoke the workflow with a change or incident record. The workflow reads the change's associated CI and extracts the change description from the record. Supported types: change_request and incident. Other record types or cancelled changes (change_request state 4, incident state 8) are rejected. See [CMDB impact analysis agentic workflow details](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/Pjxt~OX6IUcjQv_VdaLqQg "Reference information for the Assess CMDB impact agentic workflow, including input modes, output schema, supported record types, workflow tools, and constraints.") for detailed API specifications and error handling. ## Output format {#na-cmdb-awf-impact-analysis-using__section_output_format} The workflow returns a structured list of impacted items. Each item includes: * CI name and class: Display name and CMDB class (for example, cmdb_ci_linux_server) * Impact level: High, Medium, Low, or None * Impact type: Availability, Performance, Data Integrity, Functional, Security, Operational, or None * Confidence: Confidence in the assessment: High, Medium, or Low * Reason: Plain-language explanation including redundancy assessment and propagation reasoning The workflow renders the result as a topology visualization. The root CI is highlighted in purple. Upstream CIs are colored by impact level: red for high impact, orange for medium impact, and gray for CIs with no impact. Pointing to a highlighted CI shows its class, status, and the impact reasoning for that CI. Figure 1. Impact analysis topology visualization ## Constraints and limitations {#na-cmdb-awf-impact-analysis-using__section_constraints_limitations} * Maximum LLM input tokens: 15,000 tokens. Large topologies may require truncation or summarization * Service Mapping not integrated: Service association relationships (svc_ci_assoc) aren't included. * No relationship type exclusion: All relationship types are traversed. Relationship filtering is not supported. This workflow considers only the semantics of the Assess CMDB impact agentic workflow topology (actual and probabilistic relationships). * **[Analyze change and incident impact](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/Dyc98mcRRI2WGA6erpNEMg)** Use the Assess CMDB impact agentic workflow to identify upstream services and CIs likely to be affected by a proposed change. Invoke the workflow in the ServiceNow Otto panel with a change record to receive a prioritized impact assessment with severity levels and reasoning. **Related reference** * [CMDB impact analysis agentic workflow details](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/Pjxt~OX6IUcjQv_VdaLqQg "Reference information for the Assess CMDB impact agentic workflow, including input modes, output schema, supported record types, workflow tools, and constraints.")