Now Assist release notes

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of Now Assist Release Notes - Australia Release

    Now Assist integrates generative AI across your ServiceNow environment to enhance productivity by improving self-service, recommending actions, and delivering AI-powered search and answers. The Australia release introduces significant enhancements and new capabilities designed to improve knowledge management, security, and user experience while enabling deeper AI integration across workflows.

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    Key Features

    • Now Assist Guardian Enabled by Default: Automatically detects and logs prompt injection attempts and offensive content across generative AI features. It can be configured per skill to block AI-generated responses when threats are detected.
    • Knowledge Article Creation with Box Integration: Now Assist can generate knowledge articles using files stored in Box, streamlining content creation directly from existing resources.
    • Article Optimization with Reading Ease Scan: AI-powered readability scanning provides actionable suggestions to improve knowledge articles’ clarity and accessibility.
    • Merge Duplicate Knowledge Articles: Consolidate duplicates into a single article while preserving references, maintaining a clean and high-quality knowledge base.
    • Visual Q&A: Upload images, screenshots, or documents into the Now Assist panel to receive AI-generated answers without leaving the current context.
    • Enhanced Catalog Experience: Prevent accidental loss of work with navigation warnings and enable users to view details post-submission.
    • Interactive Multi-view Conversations: Switch between knowledge articles, catalogs, and org charts within a single Now Assist conversation using a dropdown menu.
    • Context Preservation: Conversations automatically maintain context when opened alongside incident records, allowing seamless continuation of work.
    • Now Assist Admin Enhancements: Expanded UI tabs for skill workflows, usage analytics, security management, and archiving of custom skills.
    • ServiceNow AI Platform Licensing Tiers: Foundation, Advanced, and Prime tiers offer progressive AI capabilities, from delivering insights to autonomous AI agent actions and skill creation.

    Important Upgrade and Security Updates

    • Enhanced protections for read-only fields on the AI Platform introduce granular control options to strengthen security while preserving flexibility in client scripts.
    • Access control improvements replace broad admin roles with purpose-driven granular roles, updating APIs accordingly for better authorization management.
    • Customers with customized Now Assist skills should update their code to remain compatible with new skill releases and avoid functionality issues.

    Plugin Activation and Availability

    Now Assist features are available through activation of various plugins via the ServiceNow Store, covering a broad range of applications such as ITSM, HRSD, CSM, FSM, and more. Conversational Help Skills are deprecated and planned for full removal in May 2026. The Next Experience UI Framework and supported browsers like Chrome and Edge are prerequisites for Now Assist usability.

    Related Applications

    • AI Search: Provides consumer-grade search capabilities across Service Portal, Now Mobile, and Virtual Agent.
    • Document Intelligence: Automates data extraction from documents to integrate into workflows.
    • Dynamic Translation: Enables seamless multi-language support in applications and chat.
    • Generative AI Controller: Facilitates integration of third-party large language models with ServiceNow workflows.
    • Knowledge Management and Knowledge Center: Tools to create, manage, and optimize knowledge base articles efficiently.
    • Now Assist in Virtual Agent: Embeds generative AI for natural-language conversational experiences improving self-service success.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    With the Australia release, Now Assist empowers your organization to efficiently generate and maintain high-quality knowledge content, secure AI interactions with default guardian protections, and enrich user experiences through multimodal AI capabilities. The integration with Box and enhanced admin controls streamline content management and governance. These improvements collectively support faster resolution, better knowledge accessibility, and stronger security posture in your ServiceNow environment.

    The ServiceNow® Now Assist experience brings generative AI to your organization. You can improve productivity and efficiency by delivering better self-service, recommending actions, delivering answers, and providing your users with AI Search. Now Assist was enhanced and updated in the Australia release.

    Now Assist highlights for the Australia release

    Australia Patch 3
    • Now Assist Guardian is enabled by default and detects prompt injection attempts and offensive content without manual activation.
    • Configure prompt injection detection separately for each Now Assist skill.
    • Create knowledge articles from Now Assist using files stored in Box.
    • Improve the clarity and accessibility of your articles with the AI-powered prompt Reading Ease scan.
    Merge duplicate articles
    Merge selected duplicate knowledge articles into a new consolidated article using Now Assist in Knowledge Management. The merge preserves references to source articles and helps maintain a clean, high‑quality knowledge base.
    Important:
    Now Assist is available in the ServiceNow Store. For details, see the "Activation information" section of these release notes.

    Important information for upgrading Now Assist to Australia

    If you customized actions on the user interface or other items that are associated with Now Assist skills, confirm that your customized code is updated with the new skill releases. Otherwise, certain functions might not work as expected.

    If you run into issues when you're upgrading a Now Assist product, see the Issues and mitigation for Now Assist (generative AI) Applications and Plugin updates [KB1637452] article in the Now Support Knowledge Base. Log in to view the article.

    The Australia release introduces enhanced protections for read‑only fields across the ServiceNow AI Platform. These changes include a new read_only_option field with granular control levels, including strict_read_only and client_script_modifiable. The changes occur in the back end and maintain backward‑compatible behavior. This update helps strengthen instance security while preserving flexibility. If you have custom client scripts that modify read‑only fields using g_form.setValue() or g_form.clearValue(), refer to the KB2718122 article in the Now Support Knowledge Base to identify affected fields and adjust the settings.

    The existing access control lists (ACLs) have been updated to replace the admin role with purpose-driven granular roles within scripts or security attributes. As part of this update, the getRoles() API is replaced with the hasRole() API for authorization purposes. Additionally, all references to the admin role in the code have been substituted with the granular roles for authorization use cases. For more information, see Granular admin roles.

    New in the Australia release

    Visual Q&A in Now Assist
    Upload screenshots, error images, or documents in the Now Assist panel and get AI-generated answers about content without leaving your current context.
    Using Now Assist Admin
    Explore the archive option from navigation pane within Now Assist Admin and archive custom and copies of Now Assist skills.
    ServiceNow product tiers
    The ServiceNow AI Platform now brings you an AI native experience with three licensing tiers available:
    • Foundation: AI agents and skills to deliver insights
    • Advanced: AI agents and skills to boost productivity across relevant use cases
    • Prime: Act autonomously with all AI agents and skills, and create your own
    Merge duplicate articles
    Use Now Assist in Knowledge Management to merge selected duplicate knowledge articles into a single consolidated article, preserving references to the original sources and maintaining a high‑quality, well‑organized knowledge base.

    Changed in this release

    Now Assist Conversational Help
    The discovery of Conversational Help Skills from the Now Assist panel is no longer configured as auto-enabled.

    Deprecated features

    Australia Patch 1

    Activation information

    Now Assist skills
    Now Assist features are available with activation of any Now Assist plugin from ServiceNow Store. The following plugins are available:

    Plugin information

    Now Assist Conversational Help

    The following plugin is planned for deprecation in a future release:

    Conversational Help Skills: Planned for deprecation in May 2026. Install the External Content Connectors Application Suite from the ServiceNow store. For configuration guidance, see External Content Connectors.

    Additional requirements

    The Next Experience UI Framework must be enabled before you can use the Now Assist panel.

    Browser requirements

    Now Assist supports various browsers, including Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. Now Assist isn’t supported in Internet Explorer.

    Localization information

    Now Assist supports Dynamic Translation for Australia.

    Related ServiceNow applications and features

    AI Search
    The ServiceNow® AI Search application provides a consumer-grade search engine for Service Portal, Now Mobile, and Virtual Agent. Intelligent query features help you quickly find the answers that you need.
    Document Intelligence
    The ServiceNow®Document Intelligence (DocIntel) application is an AI solution that enables any organization to automate and accelerate the process of extracting data from documents. That data can easily be integrated into larger automation workflows to save time and resources.
    Dynamic Translation
    The ServiceNow® Dynamic Translation application enables you to dynamically translate text entered in an application or chat window for a seamless localization experience.
    Generative AI Controller
    The ServiceNow® Generative AI Controller helps you integrate third-party LLMs with your workflows.
    Knowledge Management
    The ServiceNow® Knowledge Management application enables the sharing of information in Knowledge Base. A Knowledge Base contains articles that provide users with information such as self-help, troubleshooting, and task resolution.
    Knowledge Center
    The ServiceNow® Knowledge Center plugin helps you manage your knowledge articles from a single interface consisting of dashboards that provide metrics of articles and facilitate swift actions.
    Now Assist in Virtual Agent
    Use generative AI skills in your conversational experiences. Now Assist in Virtual Agent uses LLMs to create a natural-language, conversational experience that can improve the success of your self-service workflows.