ServiceNow Otto for Source-to-Pay Operations release notes
Summarize
Summary of ServiceNow Otto for Source-to-Pay Operations Release Notes - Zurich Release
ServiceNow Otto for Source-to-Pay Operations is a conversational AI platform integrated into ServiceNow workflows, designed to optimize procurement, supplier lifecycle, and accounts payable processes. The Zurich release introduces enhanced AI capabilities, improved conversational workflows, and new AI skills that streamline operations across sourcing, procurement, supplier onboarding, and invoice inquiry resolution.
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Key Features
- Conversational AI Platform (ServiceNow Otto): Supports multimodal interactions via web, mobile, and messaging, enabling autonomous orchestration of cross-system workflows.
- Enhanced AI Agents and Skills:
- Source-to-Pay Operations Workspace: Supplier summarization skill for unified views of supplier inquiries and pending actions.
- Invoice Inquiry Automation: Field extractor skill automates extraction of invoice numbers from multiple channels, improving Accounts Payable efficiency.
- Inquiry Classifier: Auto-populates invoice inquiry subcategories to streamline case handling in Accounts Payable Operations.
- Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO):
- AI-powered chat interface enables faster purchase requisitions by uploading vendor quotes for automatic data extraction and form pre-filling.
- Renamed agentic workflow to “Conversational intake for sourcing and procurement” reflecting expanded capabilities including policy enforcement and routing.
- Consolidation of procurement AI agents into three core agents for product recommendations, request tracking, and inquiry analysis enhances usability and operational efficiency.
- Now Assist for Supplier Lifecycle Operations (SLO):
- Coordinate supplier onboarding workflow automates registration, data validation, duplicate checks, communication, and approvals, accelerating supplier activation.
- Supplier document strategy generator AI agent creates onboarding tasks based on configurable knowledge base articles specific to region and industry.
- Now Assist for Accounts Payable Operations (APO):
- Inquiry resolution provider AI agent handles high volumes of invoice inquiries autonomously, reducing manual workload.
- Recommend invoice owner AI agent identifies or creates tasks to assign missing business owners on invoices, improving invoice processing accuracy.
- AI Model Provider Options: Support for Google Gemini and AWS Claude alongside Now LLM Service and Azure OpenAI, providing flexibility in generative AI backend selection.
- User Interface Updates: Introduction of the Coral theme as the default UI for portals and mobile, with brand-neutral illustrations and an optional dark mode.
Operational and Configuration Highlights
- Now Assist generative AI skills are enabled by default for new installations and certain upgrades, simplifying activation.
- Usage measurement for Now Assist AI transitions to a 365-day burn-down model resetting at contract anniversary, improving tracking accuracy.
- Access control lists (ACLs) ensure only authorized agents can activate or configure AI skills, maintaining security compliance.
- Customers can request the Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations application via the ServiceNow Store.
Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
- Accelerated procurement and supplier onboarding processes through intelligent automation and conversational AI.
- Reduced manual data entry and improved data accuracy by leveraging AI-powered extraction and classification.
- Enhanced operational efficiency and faster resolution of supplier and invoice inquiries with autonomous AI agents.
- Flexibility in AI model selection and improved governance for regulated industries with long-term stable AI models.
- Improved user experience with modernized UI themes and multi-channel AI interactions.
The ServiceNow Otto for Source-to-Pay Operations application includes improved AI search, enhanced AI agents, and Summarization skills for fulfillers on the ServiceNow AI Platform. The ServiceNow Otto for Source-to-Pay Operations were updated in the Zurich release.
Now Assist > ServiceNow Otto announcement
Now Assist introduced AI on the platform. As that experience has evolved, there's a new name for the experience. ServiceNow Otto® is the conversational AI platform integrated into ServiceNow workflows. It provides agentic capabilities, supports multimodal interactions across web, mobile, and messaging channels, and enables autonomous orchestration for cross-system workflows.
ServiceNow Otto for Source-to-Pay Operations highlights for the Zurich release
- Review changes to Now Assist usage measurement.
- Some Now Assist skills are now turned on by default.
- Additional role configuration required for agentic workflows and AI agents included with your applications.
- Some Now Assist skills are now turned on by default.
- Create purchase requisitions faster by uploading vendor quote files directly through Now Assist's AI-powered chat interface in the Employee Center.
- Use the improved AI search in Shopping Hub, powered by the Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) framework, to get more accurate and relevant results.
- The Help fulfill procurement requests agentic workflow has been renamed to Conversational intake for sourcing and procurement to better reflect its expanded scope and capabilities.
- Use enhanced AI agents for the Conversational intake for sourcing and procurement agentic workflow in Now Assist for SPO to improve usability and operational efficiency.
- Use enhanced AI agents for the Coordinate supplier onboarding agentic workflow in Now Assist for SLO to automate supplier registration and streamline onboarding.
- Use the Field extractor skill to automate the extraction of invoice numbers or supplier invoice numbers from inquiry cases. The skill works with cases generated through emails, virtual agent chats, or web content. Automating the extraction enhances Accounts Payable agents' efficiency, leading to faster and more accurate resolutions.
- The Enhanced Inquiry resolution provider AI agent uses more data sources to suggest resolution to supplier inquiries.
New in the Zurich release
- Now Assist for FSC Common
- The Field Extractor skill extracts the invoice number and supplier invoice number from the inquiry case. The inquiry case is generated through different channels (emails, virtual agent chats, or web content). The access control lists (ACLs) confirm that only authorized agents can activate or configure the skill.
- ServiceNow Otto for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO) skills in a Virtual Agent chat
- Requesters can leverage contextual generative AI by using ServiceNow Otto for SPO in a Virtual Agent chat to complete self-service tasks, such as purchasing products.
- Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO)
- Upload quotes from vendors to request a purchase using the Procurement product recommendation AI agent. Now Assist automatically extracts supplier information, item descriptions, quantities, and pricing from uploaded vendor quotes to pre-fill purchase requisition forms, eliminating manual data entry and accelerating request submission.
- Now Assist for Supplier Lifecycle Operations (SLO)
- ServiceNow Otto for SLO includes the Coordinate supplier onboarding agentic workflow to streamline the supplier onboarding process by automating supplier registration. AI agents automate the supplier onboarding process
by validating profile data and banking details, checking for duplicate suppliers, task generation, communication with suppliers, and final approvals, streamlining the entire process for faster time-to-activation.
To make the workflow more dynamic, the Supplier document strategy generator AI agent creates tasks by referring to a KB article which has all the details about the regions and industry related tasks and documents required for onboarding. The KB article is available as a part of demo data, however, the admin can edit and configure this KB article as required.
The following AI agents in the Coordinate supplier onboarding agentic workflow perform the supplier onboarding tasks:For more information, see .- Supplier data steward AI agent: Validates supplier data and checks for duplicate records, creates an invitation case for the supplier contact and assigns the necessary supplier tasks. Also, if required, communicates to the supplier about missing information that must be updated.
- Supplier data validator AI agent: Validates supplier-provided profile information and banking details (like account name, account ID, and bank name) in real time.
- Supplier approval AI agent: Manages approval or rejection of the supplier onboarding.
- Supplier document strategy generator AI agent: Generates a plan to create tasks after referring to the dedicated KB article which includes all the details about the tasks required for onboarding based on the region and industry.
- Now Assist for Accounts Payable Operations (APO)
- The ServiceNow Otto for APO includes Inquiry resolution provider agent and Recommend invoice owner which resolves invoice inquiries autonomously and recommends business owner for invoices (Non-PO, Non-PO type credit memo).
- The Inquiry resolution provider AI agent processes high volumes of repetitive invoice inquiries through various channels (web, email, virtual agent, mobile and manual entry) to significantly reduce the workload of human agents.
- The Recommend invoice owner AI agent identifies the missing business owner through semantic matching or by creating tasks. The Recommend invoice owner agent triggers when a Missing or invalid business owner exception is raised. For more information on the AI agents, see Using AI agents in Now Assist for Accounts Payable Operations
- New third-party AI model provider options available for all AI applications
- Google Gemini and AWS Claude are available for generative AI skills and AI agents, in addition to Now LLM Service and Azure OpenAI.
UI changes
- Coral theme
- Coral is now the default theme for new portal, web, and mobile experiences with Next Experience or Core UI enabled. This theme provides a fresh look and feel, featuring brand-neutral illustrations to enhance your user experience. A dark theme option is available for web and mobile experiences.
Changed features
- Zurich Patch 5
- Changes to Now Assist usage measurement
- Starting with Australia Early Access, AI usage measurement is transitioning from a 365-day look-back model to a 365-day burn-down model, with usage resetting at the contract anniversary date. For more information, refer to KB KB2704710: AI Usage - Overview & New Measurement Logic.
- Zurich Patch 4
- Some generative AI skills are turned on by default
- The new default behavior works as follows:
- New customers: When you install an AI product, designated skills are turned on automatically.
- Existing customers who are upgrading (starting with Australia Early Access): Any previously unconfigured skill is turned on automatically (the skill was never configured and turned on, then turned off again). Previously configured skills that were turned on, then off, remain inactive.
Activation information
Install Now Assist for Source-to-Pay Operations by requesting it from 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.
Plugin information
This application is available from ServiceNow Store.