AI Search readiness for Now Assist on the ServiceNow AI Platform

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of AI Search readiness for Now Assist on the ServiceNow AI Platform

    Now Assist in AI Search leverages the ServiceNow AI Search infrastructure to provide enterprise content retrieval and ranking based on relevance and access permissions. It ensures that users receive accurate, secure, and trustworthy AI-generated answers grounded in authorized organizational content, complete with citations and references. Activating Now Assist within AI Search before broader implementation enables actionable Q&A across multiple ServiceNow portals and interfaces.

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    Key Features

    • Security and Access Control: AI Search respects ServiceNow security models to deliver content only to authorized users.
    • Relevancy Tuning: Admin tools allow fine-tuning of search relevance to improve result usefulness and trustworthiness.
    • Actionable Genius Results: Now Assist delivers multi-content response cards synthesizing information from knowledge articles, service catalog items, and more in Q&A format.
    • Content Sources: Supports configuration of internal and external searchable content sources to broaden the scope of AI Search.
    • Integration Across Portals: AI Search results with Now Assist capabilities can be enabled in global search, Service Portal, Employee Center, and Virtual Agent.
    • Result Transparency: Every AI-generated answer includes citations to help users verify information and reduce hallucination risks.

    Implementation Checklist

    • Verify AI Search is active in your instance and request activation if necessary.
    • Configure internal and external search sources to define the data accessible by AI Search queries.
    • Enable AI Search functionality on desired ServiceNow portals to display enriched search results.
    • Install the Now Assist product via the Now Assist Admin console to activate AI-powered Q&A features.
    • Configure Now Assist Genius Result types per portal to tailor Q&A responses.
    • Review and adjust any customized AI Search widgets to ensure compatibility and correct display of Now Assist results, noting that some customizations may be skipped during upgrades.

    Practical Considerations

    ServiceNow customers should anticipate some variability in search results across different AI Platform tools, which is expected behavior. For optimal results and user confidence, enabling Now Assist within AI Search early in the adoption process is recommended. Detailed admin controls and transparency features help maintain trust and relevance in AI-driven search responses.

    Now Assist in AI Search is built directly on the robust foundation of ServiceNow® AI Search. AI Search provides the underlying infrastructure that enables Now Assist to retrieve and rank enterprise content—such as knowledge articles, records, and documentation—based on relevance and access permissions.

    Because AI Search adheres to ServiceNow security models, responses are always grounded in content the user is authorized to access. Additionally, AI Search admin tools give you control over relevancy tuning, allowing you to refine how content is surfaced and ensure that Now Assist delivers the most useful and trustworthy results.

    Every AI-generated answer includes citations and references, allowing users to see exactly where the information came from. This not only boosts confidence in the accuracy of responses, but also reduces the risk of hallucination by grounding outputs in your organization’s actual content.

    To maximize its impact, Now Assist in AI Search should be activated before Now Assist is more broadly implemented. Once enabled, it powers actionable Q&A through Genius Results cards in global search, Service Portal, Employee Center, and Virtual Agent.

    High-level checklist

    1. Verify AI Search status
    Make sure AI Search is active on your instance. To check status, navigate to All > AI Search > AI Search Status. If AI Search is not active, select the Request AI Search button to initiate activation.
    See:
    2. Review search sources
    Configure search sources to determine what data will be searched by user queries.
    See:
    3. Configure search sources for external content
    Allows Now Assist Q&A search to include external content.
    See:
    4. Enable AI Search on one or more portals
    Display AI Search results in the portals on your instance.
    See:
    5. Install Now Assist in AI Search
    Install a Now Assist product in the Now Assist Admin console.
    See: Install Now Assist in AI Search
    6. Enable Now Assist Q&A Genius Results in AI Search portals
    Specify the Now Assist Genius Result types you want to make available in each of your AI Search portals. Now Assist Multi-Content Response Genius Results use an LLM to generate search and chat responses that synthesize information from knowledge articles, Service Catalog items, and other available content types. Answers are presented in Q&A format.
    See:
    7. Verify AI Search widget customizations
    Customized AI Search widgets may not correctly show Q&A search results even when configured for Now Assist, since customizations get skipped during upgrades.

    See:

    The ServiceNow AI Platform® offers a variety of search tools, which may return different answers for the same or similar searches. This disparity in results is expected. For more information, see Search result disparities between AI Search and Now Assist search features.

    Tip:
    For more information, see Now Assist in AI Search FAQ in ServiceNow Community.