Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bot generation skill

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bot generation skill

    The RPA bot generation skill, available in the Zurich release, empowers citizen developers and RPA professionals to create and enhance automation workflows using natural language text instructions within the RPA Desktop Design Studio user interface. This capability simplifies and accelerates the creation of automations, activities, and logic extensions by reducing the need for deep technical or programming knowledge, thus broadening automation accessibility across the organization.

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    Key Features

    • Natural language input: Users can describe automation tasks in plain text to generate workflows quickly.
    • Integration with RPA Desktop Design Studio: Enables preview, creation, and editing of automations directly from the design environment.
    • Support for both new automations and enhancements: Easily build new workflows or add modular activities to existing automations.
    • In-line prompting: Refine automation logic interactively, whether starting from components or a blank canvas.
    • Role-based access: Only users with RPA Developer or RPA Admin roles can utilize the generative AI capabilities.

    Practical Implementation

    To enable this skill, customers must install the ServiceNow Otto for RPA Hub application from the ServiceNow Store and activate the RPA bot generation skill. A valid subscription for both the Otto for Creator and RPA Hub applications is required. Once enabled, the generative AI features become available only when logging in with the appropriate RPA roles.

    Important Considerations

    • Access to generative AI automation creation is strictly limited to RPA Developer and RPA Admin roles; other roles will not have this capability.
    • Switching roles during an active session may cause loss of access to generative AI features, requiring a restart and login with correct roles.
    • Be aware of the documented limitations of the RPA bot generation skill as outlined in ServiceNow Otto for RPA Hub documentation.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Accelerated automation development cycles, reducing build time from hours or days to minutes.
    • Facilitates collaboration between technical and non-technical users by enabling citizen developers to contribute directly.
    • Enhances scalability and maintainability by supporting modular automation components.

    Use the RPA bot generation skill to create automations, activities, and automation logic additions from text instructions and preview options from the RPA Desktop Design Studio user interface.

    The skill enables citizen developers to participate in the automation development process. Citizen developers can contribute their domain expertise and knowledge of business processes to create automation flows. A citizen developer can quickly and easily create automation flows by describing the task or process in natural language via text. No in-depth technical knowledge of Robotic Process Automation (RPA tools) or programming languages is needed, which makes automation accessible to a wider audience.

    The RPA bot generation skill streamlines the process of creating workflows, reducing the time and effort required to implement RPA solutions. An automation flow can be generated in minutes rather than hours or days, accelerating the time-to-value.

    By generating automation flows through text-based descriptions, RPA becomes more approachable for individuals and businesses who may not have prior experience with automation or coding.

    Access the RPA bot generation skill from the RPA Desktop Design Studio user interface.

    Enable RPA bot generation to gain the following benefits:
    • Build simple, brand-new automations quickly and efficiently.
    • Easily add new activities to existing automations, ensuring modularity and scalability.
    • Use in-line prompting to refine automation logic, whether starting from components or a empty design surface.

    Roles

    RPA developer (sn_rpa_fdn.rpa_developer) or RPA admin (sn_rpa_fdn.rpa_admin) roles are required to use this skill. These roles contain the AI Admin Hub user role (sn_nowassist_admin.user).

    Activation

    Install the ServiceNow Otto for RPA Hub application from the ServiceNow Store website. For more information, see Install ServiceNow Otto for RPA Hub.

    Then, turn on the RPA bot generation skill to use generative AI for creating automations and activities, and extending automation logic. For more information, see Turn on the RPA bot generation skill.

    You must have a subscription for ServiceNow Otto for Creator and RPA Hub applications.

    Limitations of the RPA bot generation skill

    For more information about the limitations of the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bot generation skill, see Limitations of ServiceNow Otto for RPA Hub.

    Accessing the generative AI capability in RPA Desktop Design Studio

    If you log in to the RPA Desktop Design Studio with either RPA Developer or RPA Admin after enabling the RPA bot generation skill, the generative AI capability is available. In this scenario, you can create and edit automations, activities, and extend automation logic flow through text instructions and preview options.

    If you log in to the RPA Desktop Design Studio with a role other than RPA Developer or RPA Admin after enabling the RPA bot generation skill, the generative AI capability will not be available. In this scenario, you will not be able to create and edit automations, activities, or extend automation logic flow through text instructions and preview options.

    If you log in to the RPA Desktop Design Studio with a role other than RPA Developer or RPA Admin and then switch to one of these roles, you won't be able to access the generative AI capability. Restart the RPA Desktop Design Studio and log in with RPA Admin or Developer.

    If you log in to the RPA Desktop Design Studio with either RPA Developer or RPA Admin, and then switch to any other user roles apart from these, you will encounter an error message when attempting to access the generative AI capability.