Creating guidance and field recommendation in Recommended Actions

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    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 Creating Guidance and Field Recommendation in Recommended Actions

    This document provides guidance on configuring recommended actions within ServiceNow, focusing on creating guidances and field recommendations. This is essential for enhancing the user experience for agents by providing actionable insights and recommendations directly within their workflows.

    Show full answer Show less

    Key Features

    • Guidance Configuration:
      • Configure inputs and outputs to define the necessary variables for the guidance and the expected results.
      • Set up a preview experience, including hints and detailed messages for agents.
      • Establish a detailed experience that provides comprehensive information when the guidance is accessed.
      • Identify a primary call to action, allowing multiple actions with one being the primary focus.
      • Determine the behavior of the guidance, such as initiating actions with a single click or opening details in a contextual side panel or a subtab.
      • Customize both the preview and detail experiences in the UI Builder to enhance visibility and interaction.
    • Field Recommendations:
      • Suggest values for fields in record forms by selecting relevant inputs and defining instructions for their use.

    Key Outcomes

    By effectively configuring guidance and field recommendations, ServiceNow customers can streamline agent workflows, improve decision-making efficiency, and enhance the overall user experience. This results in a more effective service management process, where agents have the necessary tools and information readily available at their fingertips.

    Create guidances and field recommendations that you can use to configure recommended actions.

    Configuring guidances

    When you create a guidance, you configure several different aspects of that guidance:
    Table 1. Guidance configuration steps
    Feature Description
    Configure inputs and outputs for a guidance.
    • Inputs: The variables or information that the system must perform the guidance.
    • Outputs: the result of the guidance.
    Configure a preview experience for a guidance. A preview on the card that is displayed to the agent can include:
    • A hint that briefly tells the agent what the guidance is about
    • A preview message that describes the guidance in more detail
    • The action that the agent can take
    Configure a detail experience for a guidance. A detailed message that is displayed for guidances that open in the contextual side panel or in a subtab.
    Configure a primary call to action for a guidance.

    A guidance can have multiple actions, with one identified as the primary action and optional secondary actions.
    Configure the behavior of a guidance. Determines how the system executes a primary action after the agent selects the action button on the card.
    • Single click: Initiates and completes the action and moves the card to the History tab in the Recommended Actions panel. This behavior is useful for simple actions such as escalating a case.
    • Open in the contextual side panel: Expands the action and displays information about that action in the Recommended Actions panel. This behavior is useful for actions such as reviewing the content in an article before attaching it to a case.
    • Open in a sub tab: Opens the action in a subtab under the case tab. This behavior is useful for guidances that require the agent to select and submit additional information, such as filling out the fields on a form.
    Customize the preview experience and the detail experience of a guidance Options to customize the following items in the UI Builder:
    • Preview experience: The preview of the recommendation card includes a hint, an icon, a message, and an action button. The preview of the card shows up in the contextual side panel.
    • Detail experience: The detail experience of the guidance includes the drill down actions. It opens in the contextual side panel or in a subtab.

    Configuring field recommendations

    Field recommendation suggests a value for a field in the record form. Creating a field recommendation involves two main steps:
    • Selecting the inputs for the recommendation.
    • Creating the instructions about how to use those inputs.