Skills Foundation release notes

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Skills Foundation release notes

    The ServiceNow Skills Foundation application centralizes skills-related data management and job architecture administration in one location. The Zurich release introduces significant updates including a name change from Skills Intelligence to Skills Foundation, removal of the default skills ontology, and enhanced AI-powered skill search capabilities. These changes are designed to improve data accuracy, integration, and user experience for ServiceNow customers managing skills and job profiles.

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    Key Features

    • Application Rename: Skills Intelligence is now called Skills Foundation.
    • Custom Skills Data: The previous skills ontology (skill categories and definitions) is no longer provided; customers must supply and import their own skills data.
    • Enhanced Skill Search: Machine learning models are replaced with AI search, including Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) configuration for Pro Plus License customers with LLM integration, enabling more efficient and customizable skill searches based on skill name, description, or both.
    • HR and Talent Profile Sync: Automatic synchronization of HR and Talent job profiles occurs when employees join or change positions, requiring the Human Resources Scoped App (snhrcore) installed.
    • SAP SuccessFactors Integration: Enables importing of skills and user skills data into ServiceNow for customers utilizing Job Profile Builder, enhancing Growth Experiences features and adoption. Note this integration is not compatible with Talent Intelligence Hub users.
    • Skills Workspace Updates: Renamed from Skills Intelligence Workspace; relies on customer-provided ontology data for role group skill recommendations; duplicate skill identification now uses AI search instead of ML models.
    • Career Tab Enhancements: Recommended skills are derived from both tagged employee activities and similar user skills for improved personalization.

    Important Changes and Removals

    • LinkedIn Parsing feature has been removed due to reliance on deprecated ML models.
    • Industry skills data downloads are no longer part of the guided setup during upgrade.
    • Multilingual skill support is now limited to languages supported by AI Search, fewer than previously available.
    • Resume parsing functionality is now powered by Now Assist.
    • ITSM skills data moved back to seed data plugin from CDS plugin.
    • Legacy Data Science algorithms from Talent Development applications have been removed.

    Activation and Requirements

    • Skills Foundation must be installed via the ServiceNow Store.
    • Human Resources Scoped App (snhrcore) plugin (Australia family release) is required for HR and Talent profile synchronization.
    • Skills Foundation plugin (snskillsint) version 10.0 and Skills Workspace plugin (snskillsintws) version 6.1 are required for full functionality.
    • HRSD integration for SAP SuccessFactors (snhrsf) plugin, dependent on SuccessFactors spoke v4.6.1-7, is needed for importing skills data.
    • Existing customers may need to approve Restricted Caller Access (RCA) messages and manually re-import plugins during upgrades.

    Practical Impact for ServiceNow Customers

    Customers can expect a more streamlined and AI-enhanced experience managing skills data, but must prepare to supply their own skills ontology and adapt to changed multilingual and parsing capabilities. Integration with SAP SuccessFactors and automatic profile synchronization enhances data consistency and user adoption. Proper installation and configuration of required plugins are essential to leverage all new features in Zurich.

    The ServiceNow® Skills Foundation application provides an overview of skills-related data and enables admins to work on Job architecture data from a single location. Skills Foundation was enhanced and updated in the Zurich release.

    Skills Foundation highlights for the Zurich release

    • The Skills Intelligence application name has been changed to Skills Foundation.
    • The skills ontology, which contained skill structure with categories and definition, is no longer provided. Supply your own skills data and import it into the Skills Foundation application.
    • Efficient skill search mechanism is provided by replacing machine learning models with AI search and AI search with RAG configuration for Pro Plus License (i.e. LLM Integration) customers.
    • Automatic HR job profile and Talent job profile synchronization when a new employee joins the organization, or​ an existing employee changes position. You must have Human Resources Scoped App (sn_hr_core) installed for this feature to work.
    • Integration between SAP SuccessFactors and ServiceNow enables customers to import skills and user skills into ServiceNow, unlocking Growth Experiences features and driving higher adoption​. The integration feature will only work for the customers who are using Job Profile Builder and will not work for those who are using Talent Intelligence Hub.

    See Skills Foundation for more information.

    Important:
    Skills Foundation is available in the ServiceNow Store. For details, see the "Activation information" section of these release notes.

    Important information for upgrading Skills Foundation to Zurich

    You cannot download industry skills data as part of the guided setup.

    Changed in this release

    Skills Foundation
    Skills search is powered by AI Search capability instead of machine learning models. You can configure the skill search to be indexed based on the skill name or description or both. For Pro Plus License (i.e. LLM Integration) customers, AI search with RAG configuration is provided to power skill search.
    Multilingual skill support is limited to the languages supported by AI Search, which is fewer than the previously supported 23 languages.
    Resume parsing is done using Now Assist.
    ITSM skills previously stored in the CDS plugin were moved back to the seed data plugin.
    Skills Workspace
    The application name Skills Intelligence Workspace has been changed to Skills Workspace.
    Role group skill recommendations will not be readily available unless you load your own ontology data to the industry plugin.
    In Skill Harmonization, duplicate skills identification relies on AI search instead of ML models, which will have some quality impact in identifying duplicates.
    In Skills Import, two new integration options are added for SAP SuccessFactors and skills and user skills imported go through harmonization pipeline.
    Career tab in Employee Center
    In the Career tab, the recommended skills source is now derived both from skills that are tagged to activities that employees has been pursuing and from similar user skills.

    Removed in this release

    • The LinkedIn Parsing capability is not supported because it is based on ML models.
    • The skills ontology, which contained skill structure with categories and definition, is no longer provided. Supply your own skills data and import it into the Skills Foundation application.
    • Legacy Data Science algorithms from Talent Development applications.

    Activation information

    Install Skills Foundation by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

    Additional requirements

    • The Human Resources Scoped App (sn_hr_core) plugin on Australia family release must be installed for HR profile and Talent job profile synchronization.

      Note:
      For earlier releases, you might encounter Restricted Caller Access (RCA) approval messages requesting for an update in the access request. Approve the message and re-import the plugin manually.
    • The Skills foundation (sn_skills_int) v 10.0 for the skills foundation features.
    • The Skills Workspace plugin (sn_skills_int_ws) v 6.1 must be installed to access the workspace experience.
    • HRSD integration for SAP SuccessFactors (sn_hr_sf) Plugin which depends on SuccessFactors (sn_successfactors) spoke v 4.6.1-7 to fetch skills and user skills data.