Combined Virtual Agent release notes for upgrades from Yokohama to Australia

Consolidated page of all release notes for Virtual Agent from Yokohama to Australia.

How to use this page

To help you prepare for your upgrade, we have combined the cross-family Virtual Agent release notes onto one page. Read this summary of the new features, changes, and updated information for your product from Yokohama 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 Virtual Agent to Australia

Before you upgrade to Australia, review these pre- and post-upgrade tasks and complete the tasks as needed.

Release	Release notes
Yokohama	No updates for this release.
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 Virtual Agent.

Release	Release notes
Yokohama	Yokohama Patch 7 Assistant Designer Create and manage LLM-based chat and voice assistants within Assistant Designer, a centralized assistant administrator experience. Assistant Designer is comprised of three main areas: Assistants, Asset library (previously Virtual Agent Designer), and Analytics. Conversational settingsConversational settings Manage the settings for an asset directly from the Asset library page. Yokohama Patch 6 Create a Virtual Agent topic Start the create flow for all supported conversational LLM assets directly from Virtual Agent Designer. Assistants in Virtual Agent Designer The Now Assist Panel - Platform (default) assistant is now available in Virtual Agent Designer. AI Connector utility Select AI agents to handle tasks in the AI Connector utility. For more information on AI agents in Virtual Agent Designer, see Managing AI agents and Using AI agents in Virtual Agent topics. Virtual Agent Designer Table bot response control Slide the new Show links for each record toggle switch to activate links for each record in the output in your Virtual Agent conversation. Virtual Agent server In chatHandshake, set dynamic_step_loader_enabled to true to send stacked Agentic AI messages to server. Set dynamic_step_loader_enabled to false to avoid sending messages. Pre-chat and post-chat surveys are now available for Anthropic Claude on AWS and Google Gemini LLMs. For more information on surveys, see Chat surveys. Yokohama Patch 3 AI Connector Utility Link custom skills to generative AI to add their functionality to LLM conversations. AI agents and agentic workflows in Virtual Agent Designer View AI agents and agentic workflows created in AI Agent Studio in Virtual Agent Designer. Shorten responses option for bot text response For bot text responses, use the Shorten responses toggle in Virtual Agent Designer to turn on the Show more option in the chat on the user side. Yokohama Patch 1 Application scope for topics Select the application scope for topics in Virtual Agent Designer. Yokohama Early Availability Synthesized response in Slack conversations Generate synthesized responses in Slack conversations with Now Assist. Virtual Agent feature support in Microsoft Teams conversations Generate synthesized responses in Microsoft Teams conversations with Now Assist. Custom skills in Virtual Agent Designer View skills created in Now Assist Skill Kit in Virtual Agent Designer. Chat surveys Create chat surveys compatible with LLM-enabled user inputs, aside from the Carousel user input.
Zurich	Zurich Patch 4 Assistant Designer Create and manage LLM-based chat and voice assistants within Assistant Designer, a centralized assistant administrator experience. Assistant Designer is comprised of three main areas: Assistants, Asset library (previously Virtual Agent Designer), and Analytics. Conversational settingsConversational settings Manage the settings for an asset directly from the Asset library page. Zurich Patch 1 Integrating with Google Workspace Integrate Google Workspace chat with the ServiceNow® conversational interface features, including Virtual Agent, Natural Language Understanding (NLU), Notifications, and live agents. AI Connector utility Select AI agents to handle tasks in the AI Connector utility. For more information on AI agents in Virtual Agent Designer, see Managing AI agents and Using AI agents in Virtual Agent topics. Virtual Agent server In chatHandshake, set dynamic_step_loader_enabled to true to send stacked agentic AI messages to the server. Set dynamic_step_loader_enabled to false to avoid sending messages. Pre-chat and post-chat surveys are now available for Anthropic Claude on AWS and Google Gemini large language models (LLMs). For more information on surveys, see Chat surveys. Create a Virtual Agent topic Start the create flow for all supported conversational LLM assets directly from Virtual Agent Designer. Assistants in Virtual Agent Designer The Now Assist Panel - Platform (default) assistant is now available in Virtual Agent Designer. Integrating Now Assist in Virtual Agent with Microsoft Copilot Custom Engine Agent (CEA) is replacing the legacy Microsoft bot framework, allowing Microsoft Copilot to discover Virtual Agent, Now Assist, and use multi-turn conversations.
Australia	Australia Patch 3 Assign search sources For premium chat, catalog items have improved fluidity; however, some of them are no longer conversational. They’ll open in a catalog form instead. This applies to Now Assist in Virtual Agent assistants and Now Assist panel – Platform assistant. Select a display experience If your instance is eligible, you can opt into the premium chat experience. ServiceNow performs a set of readiness checks to see if your instance is eligible for premium chat. Premium chat is a contextual chat experience that appears throughout the platform, adapting its behavior and interface based on where users are and what they're doing. An alert is shown when the instance is eligible for premium chat or when there is a possible delay for premium chat to appear as an option on your instance. When editing the display experience of an existing portal or mobile widget, chat experience options depend on the existing configuration. For channels, select channels from the Add channels drop-down list that integrate with the assistant. For Microsoft Teams, edit the channel to toggle between standard and premium chat. Display assistant on Platform or ServiceNow Studio An alert is shown when the instance is eligible for premium chat or when there is a possible delay for premium chat to appear as an option on your instance. Brand and personalize an assistant Customize an assistant’s tone, response length, and persona in the Personalization section when branding your assistant. By default, personalization is hidden. To enable personalization, set the appropriate values in the sn_nowassist_va.assistant_personalization system property. For more information, see Now Assist in Virtual Agent system properties. Enable additional chat features For Now Assist in Virtual Agent assistants, voice input is available for premium chat. For Now Assist panel – Platform assistant, voice input is available for standard, enhanced, and premium chat. Manage chat experience For premium chat, you can select a topic for fallback options. For premium messages, select the default greeting message, static greeting message, or select a custom topic. The static greeting message allows you to customize message. For premium chat, your premium messages and premium fallbacks are pre-filled with your legacy messages and legacy fallbacks. Edit a chat assistant View All assets to see the assets that are assigned to an assistant. There is no limit to the number of assets that can be promoted. If an active asset is promoted, and later is set to inactive, the asset is not shown in the Discoverable, Visible, and Promoted lists. Now Assist in Virtual Agent system properties Use the sn_nowassist_va.assistant_personalization system property to show or hide chat personalization when branding an assistant. Personalization determines the tone of the assistant, response length, and persona. Now Assist deployment configuration properties Manage the behavior of suggestions that users see when typing in the input box. Australia Patch 2 View assistants If you have the com.snc.ex_ai_portal (Employee Slate) app installed, the default Employee Slate assistant is shown, and Employee Slate is mapped to it by default. The default Employee Slate assistant can be activated, deactivated, edited, and tested. It can’t be deleted. Select a display experience The default Employee Slate assistant comes with premium chat. Premium chat is a contextual chat experience that appears throughout the platform, adapting its behavior and interface based on where users are and what they’re doing. Brand and personalize an assistant For the default Employee Slate assistant, configure premium chat branding. Select and configure the chat header, chat logo, and chat menu items such as a phone number, email, and link. A Channels section is shown for Now Assist in Virtual Agent assistants and the default Employee Slate assistant if a channel is configured in the display experience. Manage chat experience Depending on your configuration, different greeting, closing, and fallback options may appear. Legacy messages (chat messages) and legacy fallbacks (chat fallbacks) are shown when at least one display experience has standard chat or enhanced chat. Premium messages and premium fallbacks are shown when at least one display experience has premium chat. Test a chat assistant Test your chat assistant (standard, enhanced, or premium chat) to simulate an end-to-end conversation before moving your experience into a production environment. Assistant Designer Asset library Use the Test Assistant button to test your LLM assistant in Standard, Enhanced, and Premium Chat, after adding chat experiences in Assistant Designer's Assistants tab. ServiceNow product tiers The ServiceNow AI Platform now brings you a new AI experience with three licensing tiers available: Foundation: AI basics to deliver insights Advanced: AI to boost productivity across relevant use cases Prime: Act autonomously with all AI assets and create your own Depending on your entitlements, you will have access to certain application features, generative AI skills, agentic workflows, and AI agents. Premium chat experience for Now Assist Panel - Platform (default) assistant The Now Assist Panel - Platform (default) assistant now has the premium chat experience configured by default.

Changes

Between your current release family and Australia, some changes were made to existing Virtual Agent features.

Release	Release notes
Yokohama	Yokohama Patch 6 Test assistant options The Test button in the Virtual Agent Designer canvas directly opens up the chat widget. Dynamic Translation calls For Now Assist, if native translation is enabled, a Dynamic Translation call is only made if an unsupported language for native translation is used. Table bot response control Use the new Show links for each record toggle switch to activate links for each record in the output in your Virtual Agent conversation.
Zurich	Zurich Patch 1 Table bot response control Use the new Show links for each record toggle switch to activate links for each record in the output in your Virtual Agent conversation. Test assistant options The Test button in the Virtual Agent Designer canvas directly opens up the chat widget.
Australia	No updates for this release.

Removed

Between your current release family and Australia, some Virtual Agent features or functionality were removed.

Release	Release notes
Yokohama	No updates for this release.
Zurich	No updates for this release.
Australia	No updates for this release.

Deprecations

Between your current release family and Australia, some Virtual Agent features or functionality were deprecated.

Release	Release notes
Yokohama	Support for Now Assist in Conversational IVR was removed.
Zurich	Starting with the Zurich release, Sensitive Data Handler and Sensitive Data Masking capability are being prepared for future deprecation. They will be hidden and no longer available for installation but will continue to be supported. For details, see the Deprecation Process [KB0867184] article in the Now Support knowledge base. Install the Data Privacy application as a replacement. For more information, see Data Privacy. Starting with the Zurich release, Microsoft LUIS is no longer deployed, enhanced, or supported. For details, see the Deprecation Process [KB0867184] article in the Now Support knowledge base.
Australia	No updates for this release.

Activation information

Review information on how to activate Virtual Agent.

Release	Release notes
Yokohama	Virtual Agent is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that is available with activation of the Glide Virtual Agent plugin (com.glide.cs.chatbot), which requires a separate subscription. For details, see Activate Virtual Agent. Note: The Glide Virtual Agent plugin initially installs the Topic Recommendations and Conversational Analytics applications. Subsequent updates to these apps must be installed from the ServiceNow Store. ServiceNow® Virtual Agent Lite is a subset of the Virtual Agent platform that is available to ServiceNow® IT Service Management (ITSM) customers. It doesn't require activation and works with ITSM Virtual Agent Lite conversations, which are also available to ITSM customers.
Zurich	Virtual Agent is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that is active by default.
Australia	Virtual Agent is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that is active by default.

Additional requirements

If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for Virtual Agent we have noted them here.

Release	Release notes
Yokohama	No updates for this release.
Zurich	No updates for this release.
Australia	No updates for this release.

Browser requirements

If any specific browser requirements were introduced or changed for Virtual Agent we have noted them here.

Release	Release notes
Yokohama	Virtual Agent supports various browsers, including Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. For more information, see Browser support.
Zurich	No updates for this release.
Australia	No updates for this release.

Accessibility information

Review details on accessibility information for Virtual Agent, such as specific requirements or compliance levels.

Release	Release notes
Yokohama	No updates for this release.
Zurich	Dark theme The new Coral theme includes a dark theme option for web and mobile experiences. This option is commonly used to alleviate eye strain and improve readability.
Australia	No updates for this release.

Localization information

If there are specific localization considerations for Virtual Agent we have noted them here.

Release	Release notes
Yokohama	The ServiceNow® Localization Framework is integrated in Virtual Agent.
Zurich	No updates for this release.
Australia	No updates for this release.

Highlight information

If there are specific highlight considerations for Virtual Agent we have noted them here.

Release	Release notes
Yokohama	Yokohama Patch 7 Create and manage LLM-based chat and voice assistants within Assistant Designer, a centralized assistant administrator experience. Yokohama Patch 6 Start the create flow for all supported conversational assets directly from Virtual Agent Designer. Enhance the user experience with Slack response message streaming capability. Yokohama Patch 3 View people information in the synthesized response along with people citation when you search a person in Microsoft Teams chat. AI agent support for Virtual Agent. View AI agents and agentic workflows in Virtual Agent Designer. Select AI agents to handle tasks in the AI Connector utility. See AI Connector utility, Managing AI agents, and Using AI agents in Virtual Agent topics for more information. Yokohama Patch 1 Enhance the user experience with Microsoft Teams response message streaming capability. Yokohama Early Availability Enhance the overall voice-based chat experience in Conversational IVR with Now Assist. Generate synthesized responses in Slack conversations with Now Assist. Generate synthesized responses in Microsoft Teams conversations with Now Assist. View custom skills in Virtual Agent Designer. See Virtual Agent for more information.
Zurich	Zurich Patch 4 Create and manage LLM-based chat and voice assistants within Assistant Designer, a centralized assistant administrator experience. Virtual Agent Designer home pageAssistant Designer Asset library: View an updated UI for Virtual Agent Designer topics in the new Assistant Designer Asset library page. Navigate between Assistants, Asset library, and Analytics tabs in the Assistant Designer UI. Disconnect an LLM Assistant from a given asset with the Actions on Row icon in the Asset library. See descriptions of each LLM asset type when selecting Create asset in the Asset library. Read a tooltip that appears when you edit an LLM assistant under the Assistans tab and try to promote more than 6 topics associated with an LLM assistant. Zurich Patch 1 Google Workspace chat now works with the ServiceNow® conversational interface features, including Virtual Agent, Natural Language Understanding (NLU), Notifications, and live agents. Start the create flow for all supported conversational assets directly from Virtual Agent Designer. See Virtual Agent for more information.
Australia	No updates for this release.