Combined Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations release notes for upgrades from Yokohama to Zurich

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated August 11, 2026
  • 11 minutes to read
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    Summary of Combined Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations Release Notes for Upgrades from Yokohama to Zurich

    This consolidated release note provides a comprehensive summary of updates, new features, changes, and activation details for Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations as customers upgrade from the Yokohama to Zurich release. It covers enhancements across three core modules: Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO), Supplier Lifecycle Operations (SLO), and Accounts Payable Operations (APO), helping ServiceNow customers understand the practical improvements and how to prepare for the upgrade.

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    New Features

    • Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO)
      • Introduced an AI-powered agentic workflow that streamlines conversational intake by gathering knowledge, clarifying requests, deflecting FAQs, providing product details, and recommending purchase plans.
      • New summarization skills for negotiations, purchase orders, purchase requisitions, and sourcing requests keep fulfillers and requesters informed about status and action items.
      • Virtual Agent chat integration enables employees to self-service tasks such as uploading vendor quotes, which automatically extract supplier and pricing data to pre-fill requisition forms, accelerating request submission.
      • Enhanced AI agents consolidated into three core agents for improved procurement request intake, product recommendation, and inquiry analysis, improving operational efficiency.
      • Long Term Stable (LTS) AI models introduced for regulated industries, supporting governance, monitoring, and compliance.
    • Now Assist for Supplier Lifecycle Operations (SLO)
      • Agentic workflows automate supplier onboarding by validating profile and banking data, duplicate checking, task generation, communication, and approvals to speed up supplier activation.
      • New AI agents dynamically generate onboarding tasks based on configurable knowledge base articles reflecting region and industry requirements.
      • Conversational intake for suppliers allows them to request profile updates, submit cases, and track inquiries via AI-powered chat.
    • Now Assist for Accounts Payable Operations (APO)
      • Generative AI-powered chat interface enables AP fulfillers to submit and track invoice-related requests.
      • Purchase order line mapping feature improves matching accuracy, reducing manual effort in invoice processing.
      • Agentic workflows handle high volumes of invoice inquiries automatically, including processing email attachments and resolving cases.
      • New AI agents autonomously resolve invoice inquiries and recommend business owners for invoices missing owner information.
    • Common Enhancements Across Source-to-Pay Operations
      • Field Extractor skill automates extraction of invoice numbers from inquiry cases to speed up Accounts Payable processing.
      • Supplier summarization panel provides a unified view of supplier-related inquiries and pending actions for specialists and managers.
      • Inquiry classifier skill auto-populates invoice inquiry subcategories based on case descriptions to improve case routing.
      • Support for additional third-party AI model providers including Google Gemini and AWS Claude, alongside existing Now LLM Service and Azure OpenAI models.

    Changes

    • Now Assist usage measurement has transitioned to a 365-day burn-down model resetting at the contract anniversary date for better tracking and management.
    • Several Now Assist skills and AI agents are now enabled by default for new installations and some upgrades, requiring administrators to review and configure role permissions accordingly.
    • The "Help fulfill procurement requests" workflow was renamed to "Conversational intake for sourcing and procurement" to better reflect expanded capabilities.

    Activation and Requirements

    • Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations must be installed or requested via the ServiceNow Store for both Yokohama and Zurich releases.
    • No additional browser, localization, or accessibility changes were introduced between Yokohama and Zurich releases.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Automated and AI-enhanced workflows reduce manual workload, accelerate procurement and supplier onboarding processes, and improve invoice inquiry resolution efficiency.
    • Enhanced conversational AI capabilities enable employees and suppliers to interact naturally for requests and updates, improving user experience and operational responsiveness.
    • Integration of multiple AI providers and advanced summarization and classification skills provide more accurate, accessible, and context-aware assistance.
    • Default activation of key AI skills simplifies deployment but requires attention to role and access configurations to maintain security and compliance.

    Consolidated page of all release notes for Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations from Yokohama to Zurich.

    How to use this page

    To help you prepare for your upgrade, we have combined the cross-family Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations 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 Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations 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 Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama
    Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO)
    Now Assist for SPO includes an agentic workflow that enhances conversational intake capabilities. This AI-powered agent team streamlines user inquiries to sourcing and procurement teams by gathering knowledge, clarifying requests, deflecting common questions, providing product information, and recommending the appropriate purchase plan. For more information, see Use agentic workflows.
    The following new skills are available in Now Assist for SPO:
    • Negotiation summarization for fulfillers: Summarize negotiations to keep fulfillers informed on their current status, progress, and action items.
    • Negotiation event summarization for fulfillers: Summarize negotiation events to keep fulfillers informed on their current status, progress, and action items.
    • Purchase order summarization for requesters: Summarize purchase orders to keep requesters informed about their current status, progress, and action items.
    • Purchase requisition summarization for requesters: Summarize purchase requisitions to keep requesters informed about their current status, progress, and action items.
    • Sourcing request summarization for requesters: Summarize sourcing requests to keep requesters informed about their current status, progress, and action items.
    Now Assist for Supplier Lifecycle Operations (SLO)
    Now Assist for SLO includes an agentic workflow to streamline the supplier onboarding process by automating supplier registration. AI agents automate the supplier onboarding process, including data validation, duplicate checking, task generation, and communication with suppliers, streamlining the entire process for faster time-to-activation. For more information, see [Placeholder link text to key bundle-stpop.agentic-workflows-na-slo].

    The following new skills are available in Now Assist for SLO:

    • Conversational intake for suppliers: Suppliers can request profile updates, submit cases, and track inquiry statuses through a conversational interface powered by AI.
    • Now Assist summarization panel: Case summaries are generated directly within the Now Assist Panel with no need to open individual case records.
    • Multilingual support for summarization: Case details are summarized in the user's preferred language, improving accessibility for global teams.
    Now Assist for Accounts Payable Operations (APO)
    With the Now Assist for APO application, AP fulfillers can leverage generative AI capabilities to chat with live agents, submit a request, and track its status.
    The ServiceNow®Now Assist experience brings generative AI powered purchase order line mapping feature designed to enhance matching accuracy and reducing manual intervention.
    Generate purchase order summarization using Now Assist skills powered by generative AI.
    Use agentic workflows in Accounts Payable Operations to resolve invoice inquiry cases raised by employees and suppliers. These workflows also help track associated invoice records efficiently. With an agentic workflow, you can process a high volume of invoice inquiries that come through email attachments to significantly reduce the workload of human agents.
    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
    Now Assist for FSC Common
    The Field Extractor skill extracts the invoice number and supplier invoice number from the inquiry case that is generated through different channels (emails, virtual agent chats, or web content). The access control lists (ACLs) confirm that only authorized agents can activate or configure the skill.
    The Supplier summarization skill in Source-to-Pay Operations workspace provides unified view of supplier-related inquiries and pending actions. This feature helps specialists and supplier managers to quickly view a concise summary of supplier-related cases, tasks, and exceptions.
    The Inquiry classifier skill auto-populates the subcategory of an invoice inquiry case by analyzing its description and short description in the Accounts Payable Operations.
    Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO) skills in a Virtual Agent chat
    Requesters can leverage contextual generative AI by using Now Assist for SPO in a Virtual Agent chat to complete self-service tasks, such as purchasing products.
    Now Assist for SPO
    Upload quotes from vendors to request a purchase using the Procurement product recommendation AI agent. Now Assist automatically extracts supplier information, item descriptions, quantities, and pricing from uploaded vendor quotes to pre-fill purchase requisition forms, eliminating manual data entry and accelerating request submission.
    Long term stable (LTS) models are part of Now LLM Service and provide longer model stability windows for regulated industries. These models can integrate with tools to provide governance, monitoring, and compliance controls.
    The Help fulfill procurement requests agentic workflow has been renamed to Conversational intake for sourcing and procurement to better reflect its expanded scope and capabilities.
    Employees can initiate sourcing and procurement requests conversationally, with the agent automatically applying organizational policies, routing logic, and pre-filling request details for faster completion.
    To enhance performance and simplify maintenance, the Conversational intake for sourcing and procurement agentic workflow now includes three core AI agents. The Procurement purchasing plan and Procurement sourcing plan AI agents have been consolidated into a single, unified Procurement product recommendation AI agent.
    • Procurement request tracking AI agent: Finds and summarizes request status details to answer employee inquiries.
    • Procurement product recommendation AI agent: Recommends products based on organizational buying criteria, creates purchasing or sourcing plans, and guides employees through the checkout or request process.
    • Procurement inquiry analysis AI agent: Analyzes employee inquiries to determine next steps, routes tasks to the appropriate agent, provides knowledge-based answers, and manages fallback handling for unsupported requests.
    Now Assist for SLO
    Now Assist for SLO includes the Coordinate supplier onboarding agentic workflow to streamline the supplier onboarding process by automating supplier registration. AI agents automate the supplier onboarding process by validating profile data and banking details, checking for duplicate suppliers, task generation, communication with suppliers, and final approvals, streamlining the entire process for faster time-to-activation.

    To make the workflow more dynamic, the Supplier document strategy generator AI agent creates tasks by referring to a KB article which has all the details about the regions and industry related tasks and documents required for onboarding. The KB article is available as a part of demo data, however, the admin can edit and configure this KB article as required.

    The following AI agents in the Coordinate supplier onboarding agentic workflow perform the supplier onboarding tasks:
    • Supplier data steward AI agent: Validates supplier data and checks for duplicate records, creates an invitation case for the supplier contact and assigns the necessary supplier tasks. Also, if required, communicates to the supplier about missing information that must be updated.
    • Supplier data validator AI agent: Validates supplier-provided profile information and banking details (like account name, account ID, and bank name) in real time.
    • Supplier approval AI agent: Manages approval or rejection of the supplier onboarding.
    • Supplier document strategy generator AI agent: Generates a plan to create tasks after referring to the dedicated KB article which includes all the details about the tasks required for onboarding based on the region and industry.
    For more information, see [Placeholder link text to key bundle-stpop.agentic-workflows-na-slo].
    Now Assist for APO
    The Now Assist for APO includes Inquiry resolution provider agent and Recommend invoice owner which resolves invoice inquiries autonomously and recommends business owner for invoices (Non-PO, Non-PO type credit memo).
    • The Inquiry resolution provider AI agent processes high volumes of repetitive invoice inquiries through various channels (web, email, virtual agent, mobile and manual entry) to significantly reduce the workload of human agents.
    • The Recommend invoice owner AI agent identifies the missing business owner through semantic matching or by creating tasks. The Recommend invoice owner agent triggers when a Missing or invalid business owner exception is raised. For more information on the AI agents, see Using AI agents in Now Assist for Accounts Payable Operations
    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.

    Changes

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some changes were made to existing Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations features.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama
    Yokohama Patch 11
    Changes to Now Assist usage measurement
    Starting with Yokohama Patch 5, Now Assist 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: Now Assist Usage - Overview & New Measurement Logic.
    Some Now Assist skills are turned on by default
    The new default behavior works as follows:
    • New customers: When you install a Now Assist product, designated skills are turned on automatically.
    • Existing customers who are upgrading (starting with Yokohama Patch 11): Any previously unconfigured skill is turned on automatically (the skill was never configured and turned on, then turned off again). Previously configured skills that were turned on, then off, remain inactive.

    Zurich
    Zurich Patch 5
    Changes to Now Assist usage measurement
    Zurich Patch 4

    Removed

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations 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 Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations 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 Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    Install Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations by requesting it from ServiceNow Store.

    Zurich

    Install Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations by requesting it from ServiceNow Store.

    Additional requirements

    If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations 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 Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations 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 Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations, 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 Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations 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 Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama
    Yokohama Patch 11
    • Review changes to Now Assist usage measurement.
    • Some Now Assist skills, agents, and agentic workflows are on by default.
    • Additional role configuration is required for agentic workflows and AI agents included with Now Assist applications.
    Previous Patch releases
    • Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO) supports enhanced AI search and the Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) framework to recommend suppliers and products through semantic search and contextual filters, enhancing recommendations with criteria like preferred suppliers and previous purchases.
    • Now Assist for Supplier Lifecycle Operations (SLO) supports a conversational intake that helps suppliers to view and update supply information through a conversational flow.
    • Now Assist for Accounts Payable Operations (APO) supports a conversational intake to complete self-service tasks, such as submit a request or track a request status.

    Zurich
    Zurich Patch 5
    • Review changes to Now Assist usage measurement.
    Zurich Patch 4
    • Some Now Assist skills are now turned on by default.
    • Additional role configuration is required for agentic workflows and AI agents included with Now Assist applications.
    Previous Patch releases
    • Some Now Assist skills are now turned on by default.
    • Create purchase requisitions faster by uploading vendor quote files directly through Now Assist's AI-powered chat interface in the Employee Center.
    • Use the improved AI search in Shopping Hub, powered by the Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) framework, to get more accurate and relevant results.
    • The Help fulfill procurement requests agentic workflow has been renamed to Conversational intake for sourcing and procurement to better reflect its expanded scope and capabilities.
    • Use enhanced AI agents for the Conversational intake for sourcing and procurement agentic workflow in Now Assist for SPO to improve usability and operational efficiency.
    • Use enhanced AI agents for the Coordinate supplier onboarding agentic workflow in Now Assist for SLO to automate the registration of external suppliers and companies and streamlines the onboarding process.
    • Use the Field extractor skill to automate the extraction of invoice number or supplier invoice number from the inquiry case generated through various channels (emails, virtual agent chats, or web content). Automating the extraction of invoice and supplier numbers enhances Accounts Payable agents' efficiency, leading to faster and more accurate resolutions.
    • The Enhanced Inquiry resolution provider AI agent uses more data sources to suggest resolution to supplier inquiries.
    See Now Assist for more information.