Now Assist in Virtual Agent readiness on the ServiceNow AI Platform

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Now Assist in Virtual Agent readiness on the ServiceNow AI Platform

    Now Assist enhances ServiceNow’s Virtual Agent by integrating AI-driven capabilities that understand natural language and guide users through complex tasks efficiently. It eliminates the need for rigid keyword matching or extensive manual configuration by leveraging large language models (LLMs). This results in higher-quality conversations, quicker deployment, and AI-assisted self-service solutions.

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    Key Features

    • AI Asset Discovery: Automatically identifies and matches user intents to Virtual Agent topics and AI assets such as generative AI skills, agentic workflows, and subflows, reducing manual setup.
    • Simplified Deployment: LLM-powered topics accelerate rollout and improve conversation quality, minimizing manual tuning efforts.
    • AI Search Genius Results: Provides users with curated, actionable responses through Genius cards containing summarized knowledge and direct action options.
    • Conversational Catalog Ordering: Enables users to request Service Catalog items via natural conversations, with Virtual Agent asking clarifying questions to confirm intent. (Note: Catalog items must be marked as conversational to function.)
    • Multi-turn Q&A: Supports seamless follow-up questions to refine queries and improve answer accuracy.

    Implementation Checklist

    1. Install Now Assist in Virtual Agent: Install via the Conversational Interfaces admin console after setting up a related Now Assist product (e.g., for ITSM). Configure an LLM assistant and assign it to portals to enable topic discoverability.
    2. Review Virtual Agent Topics: Use Conversational Analytics and Automation Discovery reports to identify high-volume user intents and self-solve opportunities.
    3. Review Knowledge Base: Identify knowledge articles that support top intents to simplify topic management and enhance self-service capabilities.
    4. Migrate NLU Topics to LLM: Utilize the Virtual Agent topic migration tool to convert legacy NLU topics to LLM, preserving existing investments with minimal effort.
    5. Review Service Catalog Items: Identify catalog items suitable for self-service through LLM topics to reduce redundancy and avoid unnecessary topic creation.
    6. Leverage Pre-Built LLM Topics: Start with LLM versions of existing ITSM Virtual Agent topics provided by Now Assist to reduce development time.

    Best Practices and Tips

    • Optimize topic descriptions during migration to ensure clear alignment with user intent and expected outcomes.
    • Customize assistant branding and chat experience (Standard or Enhanced chat) during guided setup to align with your organizational style.
    • Integrate with Microsoft Teams to extend Virtual Agent capabilities within collaboration environments.

    Additional Resources

    ServiceNow provides further guidance and community resources on conversational catalogs, Microsoft Copilot integration, and enhanced chat experiences to maximize the value of Now Assist in Virtual Agent deployments.

    Now Assist enhances Virtual Agent with AI-driven capabilities that understand natural language, guide users through complex tasks, and deliver high-confidence answers without relying on rigid keyword matching or manual configurations.

    Now Assist in Virtual Agent provides the following features:
    • AI asset discovery

      Say goodbye to time-consuming keyword or NLU configurations. Now Assist uses LLMs to automatically discover and match user intents to Virtual Agent topics and other AI assets, including generative AI skills, AI agents and agentic workflows, and subflows and actions.

    • Simplified deployment

      Using LLM-powered Virtual Agent topics, teams can accelerate rollout and improve conversation quality. This means less effort spent on manual tuning and more time delivering value.

    • AI Search Genius Results

      Users receive curated, actionable responses via Genius cards, which contain summarized knowledge with direct actions such as Request this item.

    • Conversational catalog ordering

      Users can request Service Catalog items using natural conversation. Virtual Agent asks clarifying questions and confirms the user's intent before completing the request.

      Note:
      Service Catalog items must be marked as conversational to work with Virtual Agent. For details, see Catalog item conversational details page overview.
    • Multi-turn Q&A

      Follow-up questions are handled seamlessly, allowing users to refine their queries and get better answers.

    Setting up Now Assist in Virtual Agent requires customizing or creating a new LLM assistant. You can assign an assistant to one or more portals. If LLM Virtual Agent topics aren't associated with an LLM assistant, they aren't discoverable.

    High-level checklist

    1. Install Now Assist in Virtual Agent
    You can install it from the Conversational Interfaces admin console once you have installed a Now Assist product such as Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM).
    To set up Now Assist in Virtual Agent, you configure an assistant.
    See: Configuring assistants overview
    2. Review your Virtual Agent topic inventory
    Review your topics and identify high-volume user intents. You can use the Conversational Analytics dashboard and Automation Discovery reports.
    Why? This helps you identify the top self-solve opportunities in Virtual Agent.
    Review your knowledge base
    Identify KB articles that can self-serve any of the top intents you identified.
    Why? This simplifies topic management and enables self-service.
    See: Knowledge Base readiness for Now Assist on the ServiceNow AI Platform
    4. Migrate NLU topics to LLM
    Use the topic migration tool in Virtual Agent to convert NLU topics to LLM.
    Why? Leverage existing Virtual Agent topics with minimal effort.
    See: Migrating NLU/keyword Virtual Agent topics to LLM topics
    5. Review Service Catalog items
    Identify self-serve catalog items that can be replaced with existing LLM topics.
    Why? To avoid redundancy and eliminate the need to create new Virtual Agent topics.
    See: Service Catalog readiness for Now Assist on the ServiceNow AI Platform
    Review LLM Virtual Agent topics that come with Now Assist
    Use these LLM topics as a starting point for Virtual Agent topic creation.
    Why? New LLM versions of older NLU Virtual Agent topics reduce rework.
    See: ITSM Virtual Agent pre-built LLM topics

    Tips

    For more information about conversational catalogs in AI, see the following information from ServiceNow Community and YouTube: