Explore Now Assist AI agents

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated July 20, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Explore Now Assist AI agents

    Now Assist AI agents are virtual agents within the ServiceNow AI Platform designed to enhance live agent productivity by performing tasks using natural language. These agents can analyze data, retrieve information from knowledge bases and enterprise systems, execute automated actions, and collaborate with other agents to resolve complex requests. They enable automation of workflows that mimic human intelligence, improving efficiency and user experience.

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    Key Features

    • AI Agent Studio: A unified environment to create, manage, and test AI agents and agentic workflows.
    • Agentic system: Uses AI agents orchestrated by an Orchestrator to execute intelligent, autonomous workflows.
    • Agentic workflows: Smart, context-aware automated processes where multiple AI agents collaborate to solve complex problems. These workflows are autonomous, adaptive, collaborative, and intelligent.
    • Orchestrator: The central system coordinating AI agents to ensure effective collaboration and workflow completion.
    • Guided Setup: Helps configure AI Agent triggers, data sources, and UI display locations tailored to your business needs.
    • Now Assist panel: The user interface for end-users to interact with AI agents, providing quick access to capabilities like record summarization, content creation, and alert analysis.
    • Tools: Functional extensions added to AI agents, enabling them to perform tasks such as web searches, record operations, and flow executions.

    How to Use Now Assist AI agents

    • Create agentic workflows: Define the business problem and context that AI agents will address.
    • Create AI agents: Build agents equipped with necessary tools to execute the defined workflows.
    • Test workflows and agents: Iteratively test and refine to ensure agents perform tasks accurately.
    • Deploy: Implement AI agents and workflows across the organization to automate tasks and enhance productivity.

    Configuration and Execution

    AI agents and agentic workflows are configured using Guided Setup in AI Agent Studio. This includes creating agents and workflows, assigning tools, and defining triggers and display settings. At runtime, triggers activate workflows where AI agents, coordinated by the Orchestrator, execute tasks and provide outputs through the Now Assist panel.

    For ServiceNow customers, Now Assist AI agents enable automation of complex, multi-step tasks with minimal human intervention, improving operational efficiency and user satisfaction through intelligent, adaptive assistance.

    Learn how the Now Assist AI agents enhance live agent productivity by mimicking human-like intelligence to manage tasks ranging from automated responses to complex problem solving.

    Now Assist AI agents overview

    The Now Assist AI agents are virtual agents within the ServiceNow AI Platform ecosystem. They can perform specific tasks and functions, often using natural language instead of traditional code.

    AI agents can perform the following tasks:
    • Analyze data.
    • Retrieve information from knowledge bases and enterprise systems.
    • Execute automated actions.
    • Collaborate with other agents to resolve issues or accomplish requests.
    Example: Imagine you need to reset your password. Multiple AI agents might be involved:
    1. One agent understands the request.
    2. Another verifies your account details.
    3. A third agent conducts a security check.
    4. A fourth agent resets the password and notifies you.

    Agentic AI framework

    AI Agent Studio
    The AI Agent Studio enables you to create, manage, and test AI agents and agentic workflows in a unified environment.
    agentic system
    The ServiceNow AI Platform's agentic system uses AI agents, orchestrated by an Orchestrator, to execute Agentic workflows.
    AI agents
    On the ServiceNow AI Platform agentic system, an AI agent contains a set of large language model (LLM) instructions with the tools to accomplish tasks.
    agentic workflow
    Agentic workflows are smart, context-aware, automated processes designed and executed by AI agents. They represent dynamic, human-like processes where specialized AI agents collaborate to accomplish complex goals. Here are a few key characteristics of Agentic workflows:
    • Autonomous: Operate independently without constant human intervention.
    • Adaptive: Adjust to changing situations and business needs.
    • Collaborative: Work together to complete complex tasks.
    • Intelligent: Use large language models and business data to make informed decisions.
    Orchestrator
    The AI agent Orchestrator is a central management system that coordinates AI agents to ensure they collaborate effectively to complete complex workflows.

    For more information, see Understand the Now Assist AI agents.

    Guided Setup
    The guided setup process in the helps you configure your AI Agent triggers, data sources, and display locations based on your specific business needs.
    Now Assist panel
    The Now Assist panel is a user-facing interface, commonly accessed through the context menu or chat interfaces. It provides quick access to agents' capabilities and enhances productivity by summarizing records, creating content, and analyzing alerts.
    Tools
    Tools equip your AI agents with the necessary capabilities to complete their tasks. Adding a tool to an AI agent enables various functionalities and helps the AI agents achieve their objectives.

    How to put Now Assist AI agents to work

    AI agents can use a variety of tools, such as web searches, record operations, and flows, to work on agentic workflows that you define.

    Navigate to All > AI Agent Studio > Overview > Get an overview of what to expect and select View steps to see how you can successfully put your AI agents to work.

    1. Create an agentic workflow: agentic workflows define the problem and situation that you want your AI agents to work on. Without an agentic workflow, your agents don’t know when or what to work on.
    2. Create AI agents: AI agents use tools to execute tasks. Consider the tasks needed to solve the agentic workflow you created. Create one or more agents to execute those tasks.
    3. Test the agentic workflow: See how your AI agents perform. Make adjustments to either the agentic workflow or AI agents. Test until everything’s working the way you want.
    4. Deploy: Put your AI agents to work across your organization.

    AI agents configuration and execution

    Workflow describing the configuration of Now Assist AI agents and how they work to execute an agentic workflow.

    Now Assist AI agents have two components: AI agents and agentic workflows. By using Guided Setup in AI Agent Studio, you create AI agents and workflows, add tools or define triggers, and define the availability or display location. After they're created, you can duplicate, modify, and test them in AI Agent Studio.

    In run time, triggers in the primary and secondary interfaces cause agentic workflow execution, where one or more AI agents execute the plan with the help of the AI agent Orchestrator to accomplish the task. After agentic workflow execution, the output appears in the Now Assist panel. To learn more about an AI agent Orchestrator is, see the Understand the Now Assist AI agents.