--- sourceDocument: yokohama Combined Product Files sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/yokohama/delta-xanadu-yokohama Release : - yokohama ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - yokohama Combined Product Files ft:clusterId : - delta3yx bundleId : - delta3yx --- # Combined ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management release notes for upgrades from Xanadu to Yokohama # Combined ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management release notes for upgrades from Xanadu to Yokohama {#ariaid-title1} Release version: Yokohama Updated October 8, 2026 ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 10 minutes to read Summarize ![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. ## Summary of Combined ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management Release Notes for Upgrades from Xanadu to Yokohama This consolidated release note overview assists ServiceNow customers in preparing for upgrades from the Xanadu to Yokohama release family of ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM). It summarizes new features, important changes, activation requirements, and enhancements introduced across the releases to help optimize portfolio and project management workflows. Show full answer Show less ## New Features * **AI Agents and Now Assist Enhancements:** Multiple AI-driven capabilities were introduced to improve task monitoring, content summarization, and project insights. Notable features include: * AI agents autonomously monitor project tasks to detect delays, status changes, and critical updates, enabling proactive management. * Generative AI skills summarize multiple feedback records, project documents, and planning items, saving time on manual analysis. * New Now Assist skills help identify similar demand records contextually during demand creation or editing, improving demand management accuracy. * Target generation skill accelerates measurable goal setting by auto-populating target creation forms with relevant context. * Scheduling and instant sending of project insights emails to project managers enhance communication and visibility on project status. * Support for new third-party AI model providers, including Google Gemini 2.0 \& 2.5, and AWS Claude 3.7, augment AI capabilities alongside existing Now LLM Service and Azure OpenAI models. * Write planning item skill introduces AI-assisted text refinement with options to elaborate or shorten descriptions across Strategic Planning Workspace forms. ## Key Changes * **Now Assist Usage Measurement:** Transitioned from a 365-day look-back to a 365-day burn-down model resetting at the contract anniversary, impacting how AI usage is tracked. * **Default AI Skill Activation:** Designated Now Assist skills are automatically enabled for new customers and certain existing customers during upgrades, streamlining initial configuration. * **Access Control Enhancements:** ACLs can now be configured in AI Agent Studio to control who can discover and trigger AI agents and workflows, including specifying whether agents behave as dynamic or AI users and their availability scope. * **User Interface Improvements:** Various UI updates include renaming and reorganizing project insights email configuration, adding hover animations and loaders for Now Assist icons, and enabling more personalized email scheduling and content selection. * **Demand Management Enhancements:** 'Identify similar demands' button and related list were added to improve demand duplication detection using AI similarity skills. * **Skill Renaming:** Several AI skills were renamed to better reflect functionality, such as the email project summary skill becoming the project insights generation skill. ## Activation and Licensing Activation of Now Assist features requires enabling the ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management plugin. The application mandates a Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) Pro plus license. This requirement has been consistent since the Xanadu release. ## Additional Information * No feature removals or deprecations occurred between Xanadu and Yokohama releases. * There are no changes to browser requirements, localization, or accessibility compliance noted for these releases. * Pre- and post-upgrade tasks are recommended to ensure smooth transition to Yokohama, including reviewing AI skill configurations and usage measurement changes. ## Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers * Enhanced AI-driven automation and insights improve project and portfolio management efficiency by proactively surfacing risks and summarizing key information. * The ability to schedule and customize project insights emails fosters better stakeholder communication and timely decision-making. * New AI model integrations provide customers with more choice and performance options for AI-assisted capabilities. * Streamlined access control and automatic skill activation reduce administrative overhead during and after upgrades. * Improved UI and descriptive skill naming contribute to a more intuitive user experience. Consolidated page of all release notes for ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management from Xanadu to Yokohama. ## How to use this page To help you prepare for your upgrade, we have combined the cross-family ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management release notes onto one page. Read this summary of the new features, changes, and updated information for your product from Xanadu to Yokohama. Tip: If there were no updates for a release notes section in a certain family release, we included a short note for your reference. For example, if a product did not have any updates in Tokyo, the row says "No updates for this release." ## Important information for upgrading ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management to Yokohama Before you upgrade to Yokohama, review these pre- and post-upgrade tasks and complete the tasks as needed. {#dfrn3-servicenowottoforstrategicportfoliomanagement-summary__entry__2} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Xanadu | No updates for this release. | | Yokohama | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## New features Between your current release family and Yokohama, new features were introduced for ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management. {#dfrn3-servicenowottoforstrategicportfoliomanagement-summary__entry__8} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Xanadu | Xanadu Patch 7 [Monitor tasks](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=using-na-spm-ai-agents&family=xanadu&ft:locale=en-US) : Use ServiceNow Otto for SPM AI agents to help enhance project efficiency by monitoring your tasks autonomously.{#dfrn3-servicenowottoforstrategicportfoliomanagement-summary__entry__12} | AI agent use case | Description | |-|-| | Monitor project tasks | Track project tasks with AI agents to detect important updates such as delayed end dates, status turning red, or state updates. AI agents can help project managers to enhance productivity by delivering real-time visibility into key task changes, enabling proactive decision-making. | [Table 1. Available AI agents use case] [Summarize multiple feedback records](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=now-assist-spm&family=xanadu&ft:locale=en-US) : Summarize multiple feedback records through generative AI and save time by not having to do manual feedback analysis. You can generate a short summary for one or multiple feedback records at once and use it to make informed decisions on your product. [Generate a summary in Now Assist in Docs](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=summarize-documents-genai-skill-spw&family=xanadu&ft:locale=en-US) : Use Now Assist in Docs to create a concise summary of the selected text and quickly gain relevant information. [Schedule the project summary emails with Email project summary skill](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=email-project-summary-skill-pw&family=xanadu&ft:locale=en-US) : Generate a comprehensive summary of the entire content in Docs by using the Gen AI Docs skill and reduce the time spent on manually analyzing all the information. The Gen AI Docs skill name is Project Gen AI Docs in Project Workspace, Planning item Gen AI Docs in Strategic Planning, and EAP Teams Gen AI Docs in Enterprise Agile Planning. [Summarize content with Planning item doc summarization in Strategic Planning](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=summarize-documents-genai-skill-spw&family=xanadu&ft:locale=en-US) : Set up automated emails by using the email project summary skill to stay updated on the project progress. The email is shared on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly cadence. | | Yokohama | [Identify similar records using Now Assist](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=identify-similar-demand-records&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) : Detect similar existing demand records when creating or editing a demand using the identify similar records skill. The skill compares the Name, Description, and Business Case fields for contextual similarity. [Accelerate target creation with the target generation skill](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=generate-targets-for-goal&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) : Generate measurable targets from goals information and optional context with the target generation skill. The skill automatically populates key fields in the target creation form, helping teams define clear, measurable outcomes and create targets quickly. [Schedule project insights email](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=email-project-summary-skill-pw&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) : * Schedule project insights email in the Configure project insights modal. The project email is emailed to the project managers and users and continues on the selected schedule that you select until the project is inactive or paused. * Schedule and instantly send the project insights email to your project managers by selecting the Send preview button. * Track important updates such as the delayed end dates, the status turning red, or the state updates of your projects and receive project insights email on the schedule that you select. * Select the email frequency that works for you: weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. * Monitor critical elements such as milestones, resources, projects, and project tasks. * Receive proactive, AI-based notifications when project milestones or critical tasks could lead to delays using Monitor project task agent. Use the Enable critical task alerts option from planning page to enable the project task monitor AI agent. * Choose the recipients to whom you want to send the project insights email. [New third-party AI model provider options available for Now Assist](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=exploring-large-language-models&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) : Google Gemini 2.0 Flash, Google Gemini 2.5 Pro, and AWS Claude 3.7 Sonnet are available for Now Assist skills and AI agents in addition to Now LLM Service and Azure OpenAI GPT-4.1 and GPT-4.1 mini. [Write planning item skill](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=using-now-assist-for-spm&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) : * Use this skill to improve record quality and user satisfaction by enabling AI assistance in the Description field across all Strategic Planning Workspace forms, including product idea, demand, epic, project, capability, feature, and story. * Enable text refinement with the Elaborate and Shorten options on planning items to support product managers and agile team members in creating and editing content more effectively. | [ ] ## Changes Between your current release family and Yokohama, some changes were made to existing ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management features. {#dfrn3-servicenowottoforstrategicportfoliomanagement-summary__entry__18} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Xanadu | No updates for this release. | | Yokohama | [Changes to Now Assist usage measurement](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=monitoring-now-assist-usage&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) : Starting with Yokohama Patch 5, Now Assist 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: Now Assist Usage - Overview \& New Measurement Logic](https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB2704710). [Some Now Assist skills are turned on by default](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=now-assist-skills-on-by-default&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) : The new default behavior works as follows: * New customers: When you install a Now Assist product, designated skills are turned on automatically. * Existing customers who are upgrading (starting with Yokohama Patch 11): 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. [Configure ACLs for AI agents and agentic workflows](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=aia-security-implementation&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) : Configure the access control lists for who can discover and trigger AI agents and agentic workflows in their guided setups in AI Agent Studio. You can determine whether an AI agent or agentic workflow behaves as a dynamic user or as an AI user. You can also specify if an AI agent or agentic workflow can be available to all authenticated users or publicly available. [More actions context menu UI enhancements](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=email-project-summary-skill-pw&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) : * Email project summary option has been renamed to Configure project insights. * Enable critical task alerts option has been added. * Disable critical task alerts option has been added. [Configure project insights modal UI enhancements](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=email-project-summary-skill-pw&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) : * Email project summary modal has been renamed to Configure project insights modal. * Disable email summary check box has been renamed to Pause cadence check box. * Choose topics, personalize content, and set frequency setup have been added. * Project tasks, Milestones, and Resources check boxes have been added. * Include critical path task changes check box has been removed. * Schedule and send button has been renamed to Schedule button. * Send preview button has been added to send an email instantly. [Skill name updates](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=email-project-summary-skill-pw&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) : The email project summary skill has been renamed to the project insights generation skill. [Demand Management UI changes](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=identify-similar-demand-records&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) : * The Identify similar demands button has been added to the demand form to identify and view any similar demands with the identify similar demands skill. * The Similar Demands related list has been added, which displays the list of similar demand records identified by Now Assist. [Skill name updates](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=now-assist-spm&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) : * Renamed the Project Gen AI Docs skill to the Project doc summarization (Project Workspace) skill. * Renamed the Planning item Gen AI Docs skill to the Planning item doc summarization (Strategic Planning) skill. * Renamed the EAP Teams Gen AI Docs skill to the EAP doc summarization (Enterprise Agile Planning) skill. * Renamed the Story generation skill to Agile story generation (Enterprise Agile Planning). * Added the Write planning items skill in Strategic Planning. [Animation support for Now assist buttons and icons](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=now-assist-spm&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) : * Added hover animation in the Now Assist () icon for the Summarize button on the feedback list and Docs. * Added the Now Assist () icon in the Email project summary button. * Added hover animation in the Now Assist () icon for the Now Assist button in the Docs page. [UI enhancements](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=now-assist-spm&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) : The following UI enhancements were made: * Added hover animation for the Now Assist () icon. * Added a loader for the Now Assist side panel for a more engaging loading experience. | [ ] ## Removed Between your current release family and Yokohama, some ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management features or functionality were removed. {#dfrn3-servicenowottoforstrategicportfoliomanagement-summary__entry__24} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Xanadu | No updates for this release. | | Yokohama | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Deprecations Between your current release family and Yokohama, some ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management features or functionality were deprecated. {#dfrn3-servicenowottoforstrategicportfoliomanagement-summary__entry__30} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Xanadu | No updates for this release. | | Yokohama | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Activation information Review information on how to activate ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management. {#dfrn3-servicenowottoforstrategicportfoliomanagement-summary__entry__36} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Xanadu | Now Assist features are available with activation of the [ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=now-assist-spm&family=xanadu&ft:locale=en-US) plugin. For more information, see [Install Now Assist plugins](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=install-now-assist-feature-plugins&family=xanadu&ft:locale=en-US). | | Yokohama | Activation information : Now Assist features are available with activation of the [ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=now-assist-spm&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) plugin. The ServiceNow Otto for SPM application requires a Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) Pro plus license. For more information, see [Install Now Assist plugins](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=install-now-assist-feature-plugins&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US). | [ ] ## Additional requirements If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management we have noted them here. {#dfrn3-servicenowottoforstrategicportfoliomanagement-summary__entry__42} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Xanadu | The ServiceNow Otto for SPM application requires a Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) Pro plus license. ServiceNow Otto for SPM is supported from Xanadu patch 3 release. | | Yokohama | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Browser requirements If any specific browser requirements were introduced or changed for ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management we have noted them here. {#dfrn3-servicenowottoforstrategicportfoliomanagement-summary__entry__48} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Xanadu | No updates for this release. | | Yokohama | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Accessibility information Review details on accessibility information for ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management, such as specific requirements or compliance levels. {#dfrn3-servicenowottoforstrategicportfoliomanagement-summary__entry__54} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Xanadu | No updates for this release. | | Yokohama | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Localization information If there are specific localization considerations for ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management we have noted them here. {#dfrn3-servicenowottoforstrategicportfoliomanagement-summary__entry__60} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Xanadu | No updates for this release. | | Yokohama | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Highlight information If there are specific highlight considerations for ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management we have noted them here. {#dfrn3-servicenowottoforstrategicportfoliomanagement-summary__entry__66} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Xanadu | Yokohama Patch 1: Use ServiceNow Otto for SPM AI agents to help optimize workflows, improve productivity, and automate your tasks. * Summarize multiple feedback records with the multi-feedback summarization skill to extract insights from feedback. * Copy a generated summary and then use it to create a planning or non-planning item. * Get assistance from Now Assist for writing content in Now Assist Docs. Generate a summary of the selected content by using the Now Assist skill and shorten or elaborate the content as needed. * Enable the email project summary skill to receive project updates via email. * Generate a summary of the complete content in Now Assist in Docs using the Gen AI docs skill and save time on manual content analysis. See [ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=now-assist-spm&family=xanadu&ft:locale=en-US) for more information. | | Yokohama | [Yokohama Patch 11](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=yokohama-patch-11&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) * Review changes to Now Assist usage measurement. * Some Now Assist skills, agents, and agentic workflows are on by default. * Additional role configuration is required for agentic workflows and AI agents included with Now Assist applications. * Generate measurable targets from goals information and optional context with the target generation skill. * Use the identify similar records skill to find similar demands based on contextual similarity. * Enable the project task monitor AI agent to autonomously monitor project tasks on the critical path of a project. * Use the Send preview button to share a project insights email instantly. [Yokohama Patch 6](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=yokohama-patch-6&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) * Use Google Gemini and Anthropic Claude on AWS as AI model providers for Now Assist skills and AI agents in addition to Now LLM Service and Azure OpenAI. * Use a decorative loader to elevate visual interest during content loading in Strategic Planning. * Refine the planning item text descriptions by enabling AI assistance. * Use ServiceNow Otto for SPM AI agents to help optimize workflows, improve productivity, and automate your tasks. See [ServiceNow Otto for Strategic Portfolio Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=now-assist-spm&family=yokohama&ft:locale=en-US) for more information. | [ ]