Combined Journey designer release notes for upgrades from Yokohama to Zurich

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated August 11, 2026
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of Combined Journey Designer Release Notes for Upgrades from Yokohama to Zurich

    This document consolidates the release notes for ServiceNow's Journey Designer, covering upgrades from the Yokohama release through to Zurich. It helps ServiceNow customers understand new features, changes, deprecations, and upgrade preparation tasks relevant to Journey Designer across these releases.

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    Important Upgrade Information

    • Pre- and post-upgrade tasks: Review and complete any required steps before and after upgrading to Zurich to ensure a smooth transition.
    • Installation: Journey Designer must be requested and installed from the ServiceNow Store for both Yokohama and Zurich versions.

    New Features in Zurich

    • Agentic Workflow for Onboarding Ramp-Up Plan: Use the "Generate onboarding ramp-up plan" AI workflow to create personalized onboarding plans that accelerate new employees' skill development and knowledge acquisition.
    • New AI Model Providers: Integration of Google Gemini and AWS Claude AI models for Now Assist skills and AI agents, in addition to existing Now LLM Service and Azure OpenAI options.
    • Journey Overview Page Configuration: Administrators can configure this page to hide or show the Task Templates and "Create a Journey for Your Team" widgets, enhancing customization and user experience.
    • Pre-Hire Onboarding Experience: Supports a smooth transition for applicants moving from pre-hire onboarding to full-time employee status.

    Enhancements and Usability Improvements

    • Cancel Journey Accelerator Journeys: Users can now cancel these journeys directly from the portal, improving control and flexibility.
    • Performance: Improved synchronization between the "Opened for" and "Journey Owner" fields for higher efficiency.

    Deprecations

    • Learning Posts and Listening Posts: These capabilities have been fully integrated into Journey Designer. Customers should refer to the respective release notes for detailed information.

    Key Enhancements from Yokohama Patch 3 (Highlight Information)

    • User Experience: Journey users can track progress more effectively with real-time state views, improved progress bars, and refined task filtering.
    • Manager Capabilities: Managers can request journey status, view summaries that highlight blockers and necessary next steps, and draft custom journeys with AI assistance from Now Assist using career-related prompts.
    • Notifications and Messaging: Banner messages on overdue journeys provide persona-tailored explanations to clarify reasons for delays.
    • Task Visibility: Updates to the "All Tasks" filter and progress bar tooltip improve transparency around task counts and visibility constraints.
    • Lifecycle Event Flow Migration: Several HR-related lifecycle event flows have been migrated to new flow formats for improved processing.

    Browser, Accessibility, and Localization

    There are no changes or new requirements related to browser compatibility, accessibility compliance, or localization between Yokohama and Zurich releases.

    What This Means for ServiceNow Customers

    Upgrading to Zurich provides enhanced onboarding automation, AI-powered journey creation, and greater configurability of the user interface. Managers gain improved tools to monitor and support employee journeys, while users benefit from clearer progress tracking and notifications. Deprecations consolidate related functionality within Journey Designer, simplifying the overall experience. Following the outlined upgrade tasks ensures a seamless adoption of these enhancements.

    Consolidated page of all release notes for Journey designer from Yokohama to Zurich.

    How to use this page

    To help you prepare for your upgrade, we have combined the cross-family Journey designer 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 Journey designer 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

    		 No updates for this release.

    New features

    Between your current release family and Zurich, new features were introduced for Journey designer.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich
    Zurich Patch 1
    Generate onboarding ramp-up agentic workflow
    Use the Generate onboarding ramp-up plan agentic workflow to establish an efficient process for generating onboarding plans that are personalized for each new employee joining your organization.
    Table 1. Agentic workflows
    Agentic workflow name Description
    Generate onboarding ramp-up plan AI agents work together to generate personalized plans that are designed to ramp up the knowledge and skills of new employees who are beginning to embark on their onboarding journey.
    New third-party AI model provider options available for all Now Assist applications
    Google Gemini and AWS Claude are available for Now Assist skills and AI agents in addition to Now LLM Service and Azure OpenAI.
    Zurich Early Availability
    Configure the journey overview page
    As an admin, you can now configure the journey overview page and hide the Task Templates and Create a Journey for Your Team widgets.

    Changes

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

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Removed

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some Journey designer features or functionality were removed.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Deprecations

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some Journey designer features or functionality were deprecated.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    Activation information

    Review information on how to activate Journey designer.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    Install Journey designer 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 Journey designer by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store.

    Additional requirements

    If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for Journey designer we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Browser requirements

    If any specific browser requirements were introduced or changed for Journey designer 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 Journey designer, 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 Journey designer 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 Journey designer we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama
    Yokohama Patch 3
    • As a journey user, track your journey more effectively—view real-time journey states, follow your progress with an improved progress bar, and easily filter your journeys to find exactly what you need.
    • As a manager, request the status of an employee’s journey to quickly understand progress and take timely, informed action.
    • Managers can instantly summarize the information that appears on the Journey detail page to acquire an overview of an employee's journey. The summary that is generated also reflects the blockers that are impeding the journey's progress and the steps required to resume the journey's progress.
    • View banner messages on the Journey detail page when your journey status is marked as ‘Overdue’ due to others’ pending tasks. The messages are tailored based on personas and help you understand the reason of the overdue task.
    • Use the updated ‘All Tasks’ filter, which now matches the overall task count shown in the progress bar. Read the revised tooltip on the Progress Bar that states, ‘Completed tasks include skipped tasks.’ Check the information icon on the ‘All Tasks’ filter to understand that ‘Some of the total tasks may not be visible to you in this Journey,’ ensuring clarity on task visibility.
    • As a manager, managing the journey of reportees using Journey designer you can draft a journey with custom plans and tasks with help from Now Assist. Provide an AI prompt so that Now Assist can help you build a journey that matches your career goals and aspirations.
    • The following Lifecycle Events flows have been migrated to flows.
      • HR Activity Set Trigger Check
      • Lifecycle Event Notification
      • Lifecycle Event Case Approval
      • HR Activity Set Launcher
      • HR Activity Launcher
      • Account Notification
      • Add LE activity user to Pulse Survey

    See Journey designer for more information.

    Zurich
    • Usability enhancements:
      • Use the option to cancel Journey Accelerator journeys from the portal.
      • See higher performance in sync between the Opened for and Journey Owner fields.
      • Configure the Journey overview page using the widgets option to hide or show Task Templates and Create a Journey for Your Team widgets.
    • The pre-hire onboarding experience enables a seamless journey for an applicant transitioning from an onboarding pre-hire to a full-time employee.

    See Journey Designer for more information.