Platform Approval assistance AI agent

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated October 21, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Platform Approval assistance AI agent

    The Platform Approval assistance AI agent streamlines the approval process by enabling ServiceNow users to view and manage their pending approvals directly through Now Assist in Virtual Agent, without navigating to specific approval pages. Users with appropriate roles can request lists of pending approvals, view details, and approve or reject requests or tickets through conversational interactions. The AI agent provides context-aware responses and follow-up questions to simplify the approval experience.

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    Key Features

    • Role-based access: Requires roles such as approveruser and snrequestapproverread to access approval data. Additional roles (e.g., snchangeread, itil) may be added to enable reading specific record types.
    • Integration with knowledge base: Administrators can configure display fields and knowledge base search fields to generate a Gen AI checklist that assists decision-making using policies and KB articles related to approval tickets.
    • Role masking and security controls: AI agent access is controlled through role masking and security controls, ensuring only authorized users can interact with approval data.
    • Data source: The AI agent retrieves approval requests from the Approvals [sysapprovalapprover] table, showing records assigned to the user for approval.
    • Multi-channel access: Users can interact with the AI agent in Virtual Agent, the Now Assist panel, or Microsoft Teams using natural language queries.

    Prerequisites and Setup

    • Installation of Now Assist Agent for Requester (version 3 or higher) is required, which comes bundled with Now Assist for Platform or other Now Assist applications such as Now Assist for ITSM.
    • Administrators must configure cross-scope privileges for the Now Assist Agents for Requester plugin to allow access to records within scoped applications.
    • Configuration of the Approval assistance AI agent is done via AI Agent Studio under the AI Agents tab.
    • Administrators need approvaladmin and admin roles to set up and configure the AI agent and its integration with knowledge base articles.

    Using the Approval assistance AI agent

    • Users can issue natural language commands such as "Show me my pending approvals" or "Give me details about my approval request" to retrieve approval information.
    • The AI agent allows users to approve or reject requests directly. If rejecting, users must provide a comment explaining the reason.
    • The AI agent supports filtering approvals by categories such as priority or request type (e.g., time off requests).

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    This AI agent simplifies and accelerates the approval workflow by removing the need to manually navigate through multiple pages and records. It enhances productivity by enabling conversational approval management with context-aware guidance and integration with organizational knowledge bases. The solution is secure and customizable, aligning approvals with business policies and user roles.

    The Approval assistance AI agent is an AI agent that enables you to see your list of pending approvals, as well as see the details about your pending approvals. You can then approve or reject requests and tickets from Now Assist in Virtual Agent.

    Approval assistance AI agent overview

    Roles required: approver_user, sn_request_approver_read

    Note:
    Add the necessary roles to enable reading of other tables whose records go through the approval process. For example, you can add the sn_change_read role to read Change Request records.

    The benefit of using the Approval assistance AI agent is that you don't need to navigate to a specific page to approve your tickets. You can ask the AI agent about your pending approval requests and then tell the AI agent to approve or reject those approvals. The AI agent will ask follow-up questions and offer context-aware responses to simplify your experience.

    Ask you administrator to configure the display fields and the knowledge base (KB) search fields to generate a Gen AI checklist to assist the Approval assistance AI agent in making targeted decisions. The checklist uses KB articles and policies to assist the Approval assistance AI agent in decision making. The checklist fetches information from knowledge base articles about specific requester approval tickets. An approval_admin and admin role are required to configure the Approval assistance AI agent. For more information, see Configure Service Portal Approval Configuration record.
    Note:
    Provide cross-scope privileges to the Now Assist Agents for Requester plugin for tables whose records are restricted within the scope of an application. For more information, see Define cross-scope access to an application resource.

    Prerequisites and setup

    To access this AI agent, you must have Now Assist Agent for Requester (version 3 of the standard plugin) installed on your instance, which is installed with Now Assist for Platform. You can get Now Assist for Platform when you install any other Now Assist application, such as Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM).

    The Approval assistance AI agent displays data from the Approvals [sysapproval_approver] table. If the user has been assigned to approve a request, the approval record is shown.

    Role masking

    Required role:

    AI agents use role masking to determine which users can access them. Ones installed with Now Assist applications have specific roles that come included with the application. If you select Users with specific roles for user access, you must configure the security controls to include these roles. For the instructions to change the security controls, see Define security controls for an AI agent.

    In the data access settings, you must also add the necessary roles to enable reading of the tables for the records you want to evaluate for readiness. For example, you can add the itil role to the AI agent's list of approved roles so that it can access Incident records.

    Accessing the Approval assistance AI agent

    To access the AI agent:
    1. Navigate to All > AI Agent Studio > Create and manage.
    2. Go to the AI Agents tab.
    3. Select Approval assistance AI agent.

    Sample utterances

    After the agent has been activated in AI Agent Studio, enter phrases such as the following or similar queries to run the AI Agent in Virtual Agent, the Now Assist panel, or Microsoft Teams.

    • Can you give me a list of pending approvals?
    • What are the pending approvals for time off requests?
    • Show me a list of pending approval requests by priority.
    • Give me details about my approval request?

    Performing approval action on an approval record

    The Approval assistance AI agent shows approval requests that require an action on your part. After the approval information is provided by the agent, select Approve or Reject for a specific approval record, or type Approve or Reject. If you reject an approval request, then add a comment about the rejection reason.
    Figure 1. Approve or reject an approval record
    Now Assist Approve or Reject options for an Approval.