Activating Virtual Agent and getting started

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Activating Virtual Agent and Getting Started

    ServiceNow's Virtual Agent enables you to enhance your portals with conversational AI to support ITSM and other business functions. Using the Conversational Interfaces console, you can quickly activate, configure, and deploy Virtual Agent, including pre-built conversations and ServiceNow Otto skills if licensed. Virtual Agent Lite is available for those without a full license, providing a streamlined entry point.

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    Getting Started

    • Activate Virtual Agent: Admin users can enable the Glide Virtual Agent plugin, which also activates required dependencies automatically.
    • Install Plugins: Predefined conversation sets for business applications, NLU tools, and analytics dashboards can be installed to extend functionality.
    • Add Virtual Agent to Portals: Integrate the chat entry into your web portal menus to make Virtual Agent accessible to users. Additional portals can be configured later.
    • Branding and Customization: Customize the Virtual Agent’s appearance by modifying colors, logos, and icons to match your company branding. ServiceNow Otto configurations also support look and feel customization.
    • Topic Recommendations: Use the Topic Recommendations app to find and implement prebuilt Virtual Agent topics tailored to your instance.

    Expanding Capabilities

    As you become more familiar with Virtual Agent, you can enhance its capabilities through:

    • Configuring Now Assist within Virtual Agent
    • Setting up advanced chat experiences
    • Creating custom Virtual Agent topics
    • Modifying system messages for Virtual Agent and Agent Chat
    • Enabling AI Search and implementing Natural Language Understanding (NLU)
    • Integrating Virtual Agent with live agents
    • Using language detection and dynamic machine translation for localization

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    Activating and configuring Virtual Agent allows you to rapidly deploy conversational AI that improves user self-service and support efficiency. The prebuilt conversations and topic recommendations accelerate time to value, while branding options ensure a consistent user experience. Leveraging extensions such as ServiceNow Otto and AI Search further enhance Virtual Agent’s intelligence and responsiveness, supporting your digital transformation goals.

    Using the Conversational Interfaces console, you can quickly add Virtual Agent to a portal, configure branding, personalize the greeting, and begin to use pre-built ITSM Virtual Agent conversations.

    If you have a license for a ServiceNow Otto product, you can also quickly deploy ServiceNow Otto skills in Virtual Agent in a matter of minutes. For details, see Configuring assistants overview.

    Before you begin

    If you have a license for Virtual Agent, the following sections will help you get started and create conversations for your organization quickly.

    If you do not have a license for Virtual Agent, you can try Virtual Agent Lite, which comes preinstalled. For information about getting started with Virtual Agent Lite, see Quick start for Virtual Agent Lite.

    Get started with Virtual Agent

    1. Activate Virtual Agent

      You can activate the Glide Virtual Agent plugin (com.glide.cs.chatbot) if you have the admin role. This plugin automatically activates other necessary plugins if they are not already active.

    2. Install Virtual Agent plugins

      Install predefined conversations for your business applications, NLU tools, and the Conversational Analytics dashboard.

    3. Add your bot to a portal

      Add a chat entry to the menu of your web portal. You can add Virtual Agent to additional portals later.

      For conversations based on generative AI large language models (LLMs), you can quickly set up ServiceNow Otto in Virtual Agent and add it to a portal. For information about adding ServiceNow Otto in Virtual Agent to a portal, see Configuring assistants overview.

    4. Set up your Virtual Agent bot's branding.

      Change the way Virtual Agent looks to the end user. You can change the colors, add your company logo, and change the icon that represents your bot.

      If you're using ServiceNow Otto in Virtual Agent, you can customize the look and feel during the configuration process. For more information, see Configuring assistants overview.

    5. Get recommended topics for your instance

      Use the Topic Recommendations app to identify prebuilt Virtual Agent topics that can be quickly implemented in your organization.

    Explore further

    As you work with Virtual Agent, you can expand its capabilities by implementing other features. For example, you can do the following: