Combined Skills Foundation release notes for upgrades from Yokohama to Zurich

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated August 11, 2026
  • 6 minutes to read
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    Summary of Combined Skills Foundation release notes for upgrades from Yokohama to Zurich

    This consolidated release notes document guides ServiceNow customers through the key updates, new features, changes, removals, and activation information for Skills Foundation when upgrading from the Yokohama release to the Zurich release. It helps you understand what has changed in Skills Foundation functionality, what is deprecated or removed, and the necessary pre- and post-upgrade tasks to ensure a smooth transition.

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    Key Features and Enhancements

    • Skills Import Enhancements (Yokohama): Import skill sets from Workday Employee spoke and external systems using new integration and custom import options. Skills are automatically matched and harmonized with existing skills in the skills library.
    • AI-Powered Skills Search (Zurich): Skills search now uses AI Search instead of machine learning, configurable by skill name, description, or both. For Pro Plus License customers, an advanced AI search with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is available.
    • Skills Workspace Renaming (Zurich): The Skills Intelligence Workspace is renamed to Skills Workspace, maintaining core functionality.
    • Role Group Recommendations: Requires loading your own ontology data to the industry plugin, as default recommendations are not provided.
    • Integration with SAP SuccessFactors (Zurich): New integration options allow importing skills and user skills from SAP SuccessFactors, harmonizing them within ServiceNow to support growth experiences.
    • Career Tab Improvements: Skill recommendations are now derived from both tagged activities and similar user skills, enhancing personalized career development insights.

    Important Changes

    • Multilingual Skill Support: Limited to languages supported by AI Search, fewer than the prior 23 languages.
    • Resume Parsing: Now uses Now Assist for improved parsing accuracy.
    • ITSM Skills: Moved from the CDS plugin back to the seed data plugin.
    • Duplicate Skill Identification: Relies on AI search rather than machine learning models, which may affect duplicate detection quality.

    Removed Features

    • LinkedIn Parsing Capability: Removed due to reliance on deprecated machine learning models.
    • Skills Ontology: No longer provided out-of-the-box; customers must supply and import their own skills data.
    • Legacy Data Science Algorithms: From Talent Development applications have been removed.

    Activation and Requirements

    • Skills Foundation must be installed via the ServiceNow Store for both Yokohama and Zurich releases.
    • To access the Skills Workspace experience, the Skills Workspace plugin (snskillsintws) is required, version 6.1 or higher for Zurich.
    • The Human Resources Scoped App (snhrcore) is required for HR profile and Talent job profile synchronization features in Zurich.
    • For SAP SuccessFactors integration, install the HRSD integration for SAP SuccessFactors (snhrsf) plugin, which depends on the SuccessFactors spoke version 4.6.1-7 or later.
    • Approve any Restricted Caller Access (RCA) messages and manually re-import plugins if prompted during upgrade.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    Upgrading to Zurich enhances your Skills Foundation capabilities by introducing AI-driven skill search and improved integrations with HR systems like SAP SuccessFactors. However, it requires you to manage your own skills ontology data and adjust to the removal of features like LinkedIn parsing. The enhanced import and harmonization capabilities enable better skill data consolidation, while integration with HR apps supports automatic job profile synchronization, improving workforce skill management and talent development.

    Ensure prerequisite plugins are installed and updated before upgrading. Review new limitations such as reduced multilingual support and changes in duplicate skill detection to plan your skill data management strategy accordingly.

    Consolidated page of all release notes for Skills Foundation from Yokohama to Zurich.

    How to use this page

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

    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 Skills Foundation to Zurich

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

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    You cannot download industry skills data as part of the guided setup.

    New features

    Between your current release family and Zurich, new features were introduced for Skills Foundation.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama
    Skills import
    Import skill sets from the Workday Employee spoke using the existing import flow in the Skills Workspace. The imported sets of skills can either be the full list of skills from a given input or a subset.
    Import skills data from the external systems with the new Integration option in the Skills import.
    Automatically identify skills that are similar to the existing skills in the library (cmn_skills) and display them in the Existing matches section.
    Import skills from any external source and harmonize them with the new Custom import option.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Changes

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some changes were made to existing Skills Foundation features.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich
    Skills Intelligence
    Skills search is powered by AI Search capability instead of machine learning models. You can configure the skill search to be indexed based on the skill name or description or both. For Pro Plus License (i.e. LLM Integration) customers, AI search with RAG configuration is provided to power skill search.
    Multilingual skill support is limited to the languages supported by AI Search, which is fewer than the previously supported 23 languages.
    Resume parsing is done using Now Assist.
    ITSM skills previously stored in the CDS plugin were moved back to the seed data plugin.
    Skills Intelligence Workspace
    The application name Skills Intelligence Workspace has been changed to Skills Workspace.
    Role group skill recommendations will not be readily available unless you load your own ontology data to the industry plugin.
    In Skill Harmonization, duplicate skills identification relies on AI search instead of ML models, which will have some quality impact in identifying duplicates.
    In Skills Import, two new integration options are added for SAP SuccessFactors and skills and user skills imported go through harmonization pipeline.
    Career tab in Employee Center
    In the Career tab, the recommended skills source is now derived both from skills that are tagged to activities that employees has been pursuing and from similar user skills.

    Removed

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some Skills Foundation features or functionality were removed.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich
    • The LinkedIn Parsing capability is not supported because it is based on ML models.
    • The skills ontology, which contained skill structure with categories and definition, is no longer provided. Supply your own skills data and import it into the Skills Foundation application.
    • Legacy Data Science algorithms from Talent Development applications.

    Deprecations

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some Skills Foundation features or functionality were deprecated.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Activation information

    Review information on how to activate Skills Foundation.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    Install Skills Foundation by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

    Zurich

    Install Skills Foundation by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

    Additional requirements

    If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for Skills Foundation we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    The Skills Workspace plugin (sn_skills_int_ws) must be installed to access the workspace experience.

    Zurich

    • The Human Resources Scoped App (sn_hr_core) plugin on Australia family release must be installed for HR profile and Talent job profile synchronization.

      Note:
      For earlier releases, you might encounter Restricted Caller Access (RCA) approval messages requesting for an update in the access request. Approve the message and re-import the plugin manually.
    • The Skills foundation (sn_skills_int) v 10.0 for the skills foundation features.
    • The Skills Workspace plugin (sn_skills_int_ws) v 6.1 must be installed to access the workspace experience.
    • HRSD integration for SAP SuccessFactors (sn_hr_sf) Plugin which depends on SuccessFactors (sn_successfactors) spoke v 4.6.1-7 to fetch skills and user skills data.

    Browser requirements

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

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Accessibility information

    Review details on accessibility information for Skills Foundation, such as specific requirements or compliance levels.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Localization information

    If there are specific localization considerations for Skills Foundation we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Highlight information

    If there are specific highlight considerations for Skills Foundation we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama
    • Skill Harmonization lets you import and combines skills from the external learning management system (LMS) to have one source for skills.
    • Integrating Workday Learning skills and Workday Employee skills into the current import flow and relate them to the respective employees in the ServiceNow system.
    • Support for dynamic skills import requests from Credly (OOTB source) and other external sources. The skills are verified with the skills library (exact or mapped match), and new skills are added to the queue for processing. The harmonized skills are then linked back to the source using metadata.

    See Skills Intelligence for more information.

    Zurich
    • The Skills Intelligence application name has been changed to Skills Foundation.
    • The skills ontology, which contained skill structure with categories and definition, is no longer provided. Supply your own skills data and import it into the Skills Foundation application.
    • Efficient skill search mechanism is provided by replacing machine learning models with AI search and AI search with RAG configuration for Pro Plus License (i.e. LLM Integration) customers.
    • Automatic HR job profile and Talent job profile synchronization when a new employee joins the organization, or​ an existing employee changes position. You must have Human Resources Scoped App (sn_hr_core) installed for this feature to work.
    • Integration between SAP SuccessFactors and ServiceNow enables customers to import skills and user skills into ServiceNow, unlocking Growth Experiences features and driving higher adoption​. The integration feature will only work for the customers who are using Job Profile Builder and will not work for those who are using Talent Intelligence Hub.

    See Skills Intelligence for more information.