Create a flow with Now Assist

Use generative AI to create a flow from text directions and images.

Before you begin

• Roles required:
  • admin, flow_designer, or a delegated developer permission
  • now.assist.creator
• Turn on the flow generation skill. See Turn on the flow generation skill.
• Turn on the flow generation with images skill. See Turn on the flow generation with images skill.

About this task

Generate flows by using text prompts and image. Describe the flow in details, attach an image that illustrates the process clearly, and generate the flow with Now Assist. You can use only text prompts, only image, or both to generate the flow. Review the and flow and if required, make necessary updates to the prompts and regenerate the flow preview.

Procedure

1. Navigate to All > Process Automation > Workflow Studio.
2. From the Workflow Studio home page, select New > Flow.
3. Select the Build with Now Assist tab.
4. Fill in the fields to build your flow.

   Field	Description
   Flow name	Name to uniquely identify your flow. The system converts the flow name into an internal name by replacing space characters with underscore characters.
   Application	Application scope to create your flow in. Global is the default. The application scope determines what data your flow can access and what data it can share. Important: You can’t change the application scope of a flow after you’ve generated a preview for it.
   Now Assist directions	Text and image used by Now Assist to create your flow. You can use only text, only image, or image and text both to create the flow. For example, if you attach an image of a flow chart, you can add additional information about the flow as text directions. Describe the flow trigger and its data first. Then describe all the actions and flow logic in the order you want them in the flow. Include as much detail as possible for the best results.
   Try an example	Series of text examples to insert into the Now Assist directions field. Select this option to insert example text in the directions field. Each example illustrates directions that will build a flow outline. Trying an example overwrites any directions text that you previously added. You can use the undo and redo options to revert to your previous directions.

   Follow these general guidelines when writing Now Assist directions.

   Always describe the trigger first

   Describe the flow trigger and its data conditions first. After the trigger, describe the actions and flow logic in the same order that you want them to be in the flow.

   Avoid spelling errors

   Avoid misspelling the names of actions, flow logic, or tables. Consider using hash tags to avoid making mistakes with table names.

   Be precise and descriptive in your request

   Make sure that your request is precise and descriptive. Describe the flow trigger, record data, actions, and flow logic in as much detail as you can. If you attach an image, make sure to attach a clear, high quality image of the process.

   Be succinct and direct in your request

   Start by specifying whether you want to generate a flow or a subflow. For example, use the phrase, "Create a flow that" to generate a flow. Describe each step the flow in order.

   Refer to actions, flow logic, and tables by name

   Use action, flow logic, and table names as part of your directions. The closer your directions are to the actual names, the easier it is for the LLM to recognize them. For example, use the text for each or do the following in parallel to refer to those specific flow logic options. For table names, consider using hash tags.

   Review the generated flow outline and input values

   Review each action, flow logic, and subflow in the generated flow outline. Review the generated inputs values to confirm that they contain relevant data references.

   Use hash tags to refer to data in a specific table

   Use a hash tag to select a specific table name. Hash tags are particularly useful to distinguish between tables that have identical or similar display names such as the User [sys_user] and User [imp_user] tables.

   Use numbers to distinguish the branches of do the following in parallel flow logic

   Add a number to each parallel branch. For example, the directions, "When a P1 incident is created, do the following in parallel: 1. Log its short description and 2. Look up the user assigned to it and send an email," makes it clear that there are two branches.

   Use quotation marks to set exact values

   Enclose exact data values in quotations marks to help the LLM distinguish between operation names and data values. For example, the directions, "Log the value, 'incident reopened'" make it clear that the text "incident reopened" is a data value.

   Table 1. Show additional properties

   Field	Description
   Protection	Selection to specify if the flow is read-only. You can only select a value when you create the flow in an application scope that you own.
   Run as	Option to specify the user that runs the flow. You can select the system user or the user who initiates the session. Select the user who initiates the session option when updates should come from the user who triggered the flow. For example, use this option when you want the incident record comments to come from the user who started the flow. Settings for the Run as option in a flow don't apply to child subflows. Note: By default, flows run as the user who initiates the session. To create a flow that can run with a personal OAuth token, select the user who initiates the session option. If the user who is running the flow has a personal OAuth token, the flow runs with that token. For more information about creating a personal OAuth token, see OAuth 2.0 credentials. When flows run as the user who initiates the session, the system limits flow actions by user ACL restrictions. Ensure that security restrictions don't prevent users who trigger the flow from performing flow actions. Flows run by the initiating user also respect user-specific settings such as date/time formats. Note: Inbound email flows ignore this setting and always run as the user who initiates the session. To test access controls for an inbound email flow, impersonate a typical inbound email user and manually trigger the flow.
   Run with roles	Roles that the flow runs with. This option is only available when Run as is set to user who initiates the session. You can add one or more roles that the flow can use to access data. These roles only apply to running the flow. For example, add the itil role to flows that need to access ITSM data.
   Flow Priority Default	Priority level at which you want the system to run this flow by default. Options include: Low Medium (Default) High To learn about flow priority levels, see Flow priority.

5. Optional: Select the Try an example option to insert a valid example of flow directions.
   Each time you select the option, the system inserts a different example of flow directions text. There are three example directions to choose from. Each example direction produces a different type of flow. Selecting Try an example overwrites any directions text that you previously added. You can use the undo and redo options to revert to your previous directions.
6. Select Generate flow preview.
   
   Workflow Studio uses your text and image inputs to build a flow outline. If successful, Workflow Studio displays a preview of the flow in the diagramming view. Beneath each node of the flow, there is an annotation showing the text directions used to generate the item.

   

7. Optional: If the generated flow preview does not meet your needs, you can update the Now Assist directions, and select Regenerate preview.
   Each time you build or rebuild a flow, the operation counts as an assist tracked by your Now Assist subscription. To track your Now Assist usage, see Monitoring Now Assist usage in Subscription Management.
8. Optional: If you want to stop creating a flow and return to the Workflow Studio homepage, you can select Discard flow.
   Important:

   Workflow Studio does not save flow previews. If you discard a flow, all information about it is lost.
9. Select Save and edit flow to review the flow outline.
   Note:

   Opening a flow does not count as an assist.

Result

Now Assist creates a flow outline with the name you provided. If the large language model couldn't find a matching action, flow logic, or subflow for your request, it may add one or more placeholder steps instead.

Create a flow with a scheduled trigger

You can use these prompt values to create a flow with a scheduled trigger.

Flow name

Assign new problems for triage daily

Now Assist directions

Create a flow that runs every day at midnight, and then find all the newly created problem records for the past day. Iterate over them. If they are not assigned, update it to assign the problem to level 1 triage group, move the state to "triaged," and then send a notification to the group.

What to do next

• Replace any placeholder steps with actual actions or subflows.
• Configure the inputs of each action, flow logic, and subflow to use appropriate data.
• Test the flow before activating it.