Combined ServiceNow Otto for CMDB release notes for upgrades from Zurich to Australia

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated August 11, 2026
  • 8 minutes to read
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    Summary of Combined ServiceNow Otto for CMDB Release Notes for Upgrades from Zurich to Australia

    This consolidated release notes document guides ServiceNow customers through the upgrade process and feature changes for ServiceNow Otto for CMDB, covering releases from Zurich to Australia. It helps customers understand new features, improvements, and changes, as well as important pre- and post-upgrade tasks to ensure a smooth transition.

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    Important Upgrade Information

    • Installation Changes: The activation process for the ServiceNow Otto for CMDB v2.1 plugin changed starting with Zurich; customers should follow updated configuration instructions.
    • Upgrade Tasks: Customers are advised to review and complete specific pre- and post-upgrade tasks specific to their environment before moving to the Australia release.
    • No Australia-Specific Updates: The Australia release does not introduce new features or changes for ServiceNow Otto for CMDB beyond what was available in Zurich.

    Key Feature Enhancements in Zurich Releases

    • AI-Driven Impact Analysis: The Assess CMDB Impact workflow uses AI to identify upstream services and configuration items (CIs) affected by incidents or changes, providing structured impact assessments.
    • Integration Guidance: Now Assist can recommend the best Service Graph Connectors (SGCs) and data sources based on CI class names to optimize CMDB data ingestion.
    • Business Application Candidate Agent: AI clusters and suggests business applications to link with existing application services, reducing manual work and improving governance.
    • Improved CI Interaction: Users can query CI classes and attributes conversationally across multiple views; searches can span relationships and multiple tables for refined results.
    • CMDB Data Governance Support: The governance workflow provides rich context to help administrators and service owners understand and execute CMDB data quality tasks effectively.
    • Enhanced CI Creation and Deduplication: Natural language workflows help create CIs with compliance checks against Identification and Reconciliation Engine (IRE) rules and support guided deduplication remediation.
    • Diagnosis of Import Failures: Improved verbal interaction helps diagnose and resolve issues with failed Service Graph Connector import sets.
    • Automatic Activation of AI Skills: Certain Now Assist AI skills and agentic workflows are enabled by default for new installations or previously unconfigured features, streamlining initial setup.

    Changes to Usage Measurement and Security

    • AI usage measurement transitioned from a 365-day look-back to a burn-down model, resetting at contract anniversaries to provide clearer usage tracking.
    • A new role, sncmdbadmin, is required for creating configuration items via the agentic workflow, enhancing security and role management.

    Activation and Additional Requirements

    • ServiceNow Otto for CMDB remains an AI Platform feature activated via plugins from the ServiceNow Store.
    • No new browser, localization, or accessibility requirements were introduced in the Australia release.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Leverage AI to improve CMDB accuracy, governance, and efficiency in managing configuration items.
    • Reduce manual effort with agentic workflows for CI creation, deduplication, and impact analysis.
    • Improve data trustworthiness and operational decision-making with richer context and automated recommendations.
    • Streamline upgrade preparation by following updated activation and configuration guidelines.

    Consolidated page of all release notes for ServiceNow Otto for CMDB from Zurich to Australia.

    How to use this page

    To help you prepare for your upgrade, we have combined the cross-family ServiceNow Otto for CMDB 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 ServiceNow Otto for CMDB to Australia

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

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    The installation (activation) process has changed for the ServiceNow Otto for CMDB v2.1 plugin. See Configure for the new instructions.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    New features

    Between your current release family and Australia, new features were introduced for ServiceNow Otto for CMDB.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Changes

    Between your current release family and Australia, some changes were made to existing ServiceNow Otto for CMDB features.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    Zurich Patch 12
    Now Assist > ServiceNow Otto announcement
    Now Assist 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.
    Zurich Patch 11
    Analyzing the impact of a change or incident
    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.
    Determine which SGC to use
    Sometimes you're not sure which integration to use to capture CI data. When you provide Now Assist with the name of a particular CI class, it can recommend the data sources or Service Graph Connectors and ingestion sources that can best populate CMDB data.
    Business application candidate agent
    The Business application candidate agent discovers and suggests business applications to associate with existing application services in the CMDB, reducing manual mapping effort and improving data governance. The agent uses AI clustering and feedback loops to propose business application candidates for your review.
    Zurich Patch 7
    View CI details on CI forms
    The skill answers your questions on CI classes and attributes to help you work in CI forms, dashboards, home pages, and other views on the workspace. You can submit similar queries on the Explore CI view.
    CMDB searches can include relationships
    Search queries can depend on relationships between CIs and can span multiple tables. For example, you might ask: "Search for servers that depend on databases - only Linux servers running Redhat".
    Zurich Patch 5
    Changes to Now Assist usage measurement
    Starting with Australia Early Access, AI usage measurement is transitioning from a 365-day look-back model to a 365-day burn-down model, with usage resetting at the contract anniversary date. For more information, refer to KB KB2704710: AI Usage - Overview & New Measurement Logic.
    Zurich Patch 4
    Some generative AI skills, AI agents, and agentic workflows are turned on by default
    The skills are automatically available to appropriate role users for the application, such as ITIL roles on incident forms or change forms. This change simply activates the skill and does not touch the roles that may be needed to use the skill. The new default behavior works as follows:
    • New customers: When you install an AI product, designated skills and agentic workflows are turned on automatically.
    • Existing customers who are upgrading (starting with Australia Early Access): Any previously unconfigured skill, agent, or agentic workflow is turned on automatically (the AI asset was never configured and turned on, then turned off again). Previously configured skills and agentic workflows that were turned on, then off, remain inactive.
    New role required for the Create configuration item agentic workflow
    The sn_cmdb_admin role is now required to use the Create configuration item agentic workflow (was sn_cmdb_editor).
    Create a CI
    Verbal interaction with this feature has improved. Occasionally, you might need to create a CI manually. To help you, the CI creator agentic workflow accepts your natural language request and verifies that it understands which class the new CI should belong to. The workflow then checks Identification and Reconciliation engine (IRE) rules to determine the required attributes for the CI and requests that information. After you provide sufficient data, the workflow helps to ensure that the proposed CI includes the attributes that you requested, complies with IRE rules, and is not a duplicate. The workflow then creates the CI.
    Advice on CMDB governance
    To help users understand the value of each step in the process, responses now include richer context. The CMDB Governance agentic workflow supports administrators and service owners by improving CMDB data governance. Before starting in on each governance task, the workflow presents the reasons for the task to help you better understand the importance and benefits of the activity. The objective is to ensure that CMDB data is accurate and complete so that users can trust the data.
    Search the CMDB
    Verbal interaction with this feature has improved. Users can now select the CI inline when multiple CIs are returned as matches. A summary of the CI now appears in the conversation. The CMDB search agentic workflow enables you to search for CIs by specifying any of several attributes of the CI of interest. The workflow accepts your natural language request, verifies your search goal, and then generates a keyword search, a single-table search with dot walks, or a multi-table search, depending on the information that you provided. The workflow can infer CI relationship data to generate an appropriate query.
    Summarize CI data
    Verbal interaction with this feature has improved. You can now view a concise summary of the key CI data by selecting the CI on a CI form, in a workspace page, or on any list view. The summary can include discovery data, ownership, and key related items such as open incidents, alerts, problems, upcoming change requests, and security vulnerabilities. Additionally, the summary lists the service instances that the CI is part of.
    [Placeholder link text to key now-assist-cmdb-mng-dupe-cis-skill]
    Resolve de-duplication tasks with support from the Now Assist Manage duplicate CIs skill. CMDB administrators follow step-by-step guidance to perform remediation, and can preview remediation results before applying a template.
    Diagnose failed SGC import sets
    Verbal interaction with this feature has improved. You can now diagnose a failed import set that is associated with a Service Graph Connector to get a summary of the errors and recommendations for resolving the issues.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Removed

    Between your current release family and Australia, some ServiceNow Otto for CMDB features or functionality were removed.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Deprecations

    Between your current release family and Australia, some ServiceNow Otto for CMDB features or functionality were deprecated.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Activation information

    Review information on how to activate ServiceNow Otto for CMDB.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    ServiceNow Otto for CMDB is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that is available with activation of plugins that you get from the ServiceNow Store. For details, see Configure.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Additional requirements

    If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for ServiceNow Otto for CMDB we have noted them here.

    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 ServiceNow Otto for CMDB we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Accessibility information

    Review details on accessibility information for ServiceNow Otto for CMDB, such as specific requirements or compliance levels.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Localization information

    If there are specific localization considerations for ServiceNow Otto for CMDB we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Highlight information

    If there are specific highlight considerations for ServiceNow Otto for CMDB we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    Zurich Patch 11
    • AI identifies the upstream services and CIs that are likely to be affected by an incident or by a proposed change.
    • AI recommends the data sources or Service Graph Connectors and ingestion sources that can best populate CMDB data.
    • AI discovers and suggests business applications to associate with existing application services in the CMDB, reducing manual mapping effort and improving data governance.
    Zurich Patch 7
    • Get AI-powered answers your questions on CI classes and attributes to help you work in CI forms, dashboards, home pages, and other views on the workspace.
    • Search queries can now span multiple tables and relationships between CIs.
    Zurich Patch 5
    • Review changes to Now Assist usage measurement
    Zurich Patch 4
    • Some Now Assist skills and agentic workflows are now turned on by default.
    • Agentic workflows and AI agents included with Now Assist applications now require additional security configuration.
    • Reduce the debugging time and effort when you resolve issues with Service Graph Connector import sets.
    • Find and resolve de-duplication tasks.
    • Speed the process of manually creating CIs.
    • Methodically work through the process of improving CMDB data governance.
    • Search for CIs by specifying any of several attributes of the CI of interest.
    • View a concise summary of the key CI data on a CI form in a workspace page or on any list view.

    Zurich Patch 3

    Zurich Patch 2

    Zurich Patch 1

    See ServiceNow Otto for Configuration Management Database (CMDB) for more information.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.