Actionable notifications for approvals in ITSM Virtual Agent

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Actionable Notifications for Approvals in ITSM Virtual Agent

    Actionable notifications in ITSM Virtual Agent streamline the approval process for various requests, allowing employees to manage approvals efficiently through notifications. To utilize these features, notifications must be activated in Workflow Studio.

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    Key Features

    • Approval Request for Requested Items: Notifies the approver of a Service Catalog item request, allowing direct approval or rejection within the chat.
    • Approval Request for Changes: Sends notifications to end users regarding change requests, enabling them to approve, reject, or view details.
    • Knowledge Base Article Approval: Notifications are sent when a knowledge article is up for approval, with options to approve, reject, or view details.
    • Other Approval Notifications: Used for non-task records requiring approval, allowing approvers to view or skip notifications.
    • Approval Reminders: Reminds approvers of pending requests, facilitating timely responses.
    • Notification of Request Outcome: Notifies requesters of Service Catalog items about the approval or rejection of their requests.
    • Task Approval Notifications: Alerts approvers to newly created tasks needing review, excluding certain task types.

    Key Outcomes

    Utilizing actionable notifications enhances communication and efficiency in the approval process, ensuring timely responses and better tracking of requests. Admin users can customize notification details to suit their organization's needs, promoting a tailored approval experience. This ultimately leads to improved workflow management and user satisfaction within ServiceNow environments.

    Notify employees of approvals for requests with notifications from ITSM Virtual Agent.

    You must activate notifications in Workflow Studio in order to use them. For details, see Set up actionable notifications for ITSM Virtual Agent.

    Some of the default actionable notifications in ITSM Virtual Agent that need approvals are as follows:

    Approval request for requested items

    Virtual Agent sends a notification to the approver of a Service Catalog item request. The approver can choose to view the request details or skip the notification.

    Approvers can approve or reject the request directly in the chat. Approvers can also add comments to rejected requests directly in the chat.

    Approval request for requests

    When an approval for a change is requested, Virtual Agent sends a notification to the end user who made the change request. The end user can be either the requester or the approver. Virtual Agent sends the notification to the end user, as applicable, who can then approve or reject the request, see details, or skip the notification.

    Notification for approval details not configured task table.

    The fields shown below are the default fields for any task table (the Show Details field is not configured for the Task extended table).

    Actionable notification for approval details not configured on the task table.

    The fields below are the fields configured in the _show_approval_details_ topic (the Show Details field is configured for the Task extended table). Admin users can configure these fields by duplicating the topic and editing the approval_default_task_fields script variable within the topic.

    Actionable notification for approval details configured on the task table.

    KB request approved or rejected

    Virtual Agent sends a notification when an approval for a knowledge article is requested. End users approve or reject the request, see details, or skip the notification.

    Approval for knowledge article fields configured.

    The fields shown here are the fields configured in the _show_approval_details_ topic.​ Admin users can configure these fields by duplicating the topic and editing the approval_default_task_fields script variable within the topic.

    Approval for knowledge article fields configured.

    For non-task tables, when no fields are configured in the _show_approval_details_ topic, a message displays with a link to the record being reviewed.

    Notification for knowledge article approval.

    Other approval

    Virtual Agent sends a notification to the approver when a non-task record (such as a Knowledge Base article) needs approval. The approver can choose to view the request details or skip the notification.

    Request approval reminder

    Virtual Agent sends a notification to remind the approver of a pending Service Catalog request. The approver can choose to view the request details or skip the notification.

    Request approved or rejected

    Virtual Agent sends a notification to the requester of a Service Catalog item when their request has been approved or rejected. The requester can choose to view the request details or skip the notification.

    Task approval

    Virtual Agent notifies the approver about a newly created task that needs review and approval.

    This notification is not applicable for tasks such as Change or Standard Change. It is also not applicable to Requests (sc_requests) and Requested Items (sc_req_item).