AI Search readiness for Now Assist on the ServiceNow AI Platform

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated October 14, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of AI Search readiness for Now Assist on the ServiceNow AI Platform

    Now Assist leverages ServiceNow's AI Search framework to efficiently retrieve and rank enterprise content such as knowledge articles and records. This integration ensures that users only access information they are authorized to view, enhancing security and trust in the results provided.

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    Key Features

    • Security Compliance: Responses are based on the user's access permissions, ensuring security standards are met.
    • Relevancy Tuning: Admin tools allow customization of content relevancy for better search results.
    • Citations: Every AI-generated answer includes references for transparency and accuracy.
    • Actionable Q&A: Now Assist enhances user interaction through Genius Results cards across various platforms.

    Key Outcomes

    To effectively implement Now Assist, it is recommended to activate AI Search prior to broader deployment. Key steps include:

    • Verify the status of AI Search and activate it if necessary.
    • Configure search sources to determine data accessibility.
    • Include external content for comprehensive Q&A capabilities.
    • Enable AI Search on portals for displaying results.
    • Install Now Assist and configure Q&A Genius Results types for effective information synthesis.
    • Ensure compatibility of customized AI Search widgets to avoid issues post-upgrade.

    By following these steps, ServiceNow customers can optimize their use of Now Assist for enhanced search capabilities and user experience.

    Now Assist in AI Search is built directly on the robust foundation of ServiceNow® AI Search. AI Search provides the underlying infrastructure that enables Now Assist to retrieve and rank enterprise content—such as knowledge articles, records, and documentation—based on relevance and access permissions.

    Because AI Search adheres to ServiceNow security models, responses are always grounded in content the user is authorized to access. Additionally, AI Search admin tools give you control over relevancy tuning, allowing you to refine how content is surfaced and ensure that Now Assist delivers the most useful and trustworthy results.

    Every AI-generated answer includes citations and references, allowing users to see exactly where the information came from. This not only boosts confidence in the accuracy of responses, but also reduces the risk of hallucination by grounding outputs in your organization’s actual content.

    To maximize its impact, Now Assist in AI Search should be activated before Now Assist is more broadly implemented. Once enabled, it powers actionable Q&A through Genius Results cards in global search, Service Portal, Employee Center, and Virtual Agent.

    High-level checklist

    1. Verify AI Search status
    Make sure AI Search is active on your instance. To check status, navigate to All > AI Search > AI Search Status. If AI Search is not active, select the Request AI Search button to initiate activation.
    See:
    2. Review search sources
    Configure search sources to determine what data will be searched by user queries.
    See:
    3. Configure search sources for external content
    Allows Now Assist Q&A search to include external content.
    See:
    4. Enable AI Search on one or more portals
    Display AI Search results in the portals on your instance.
    See:
    5. Install Now Assist in AI Search
    Install a Now Assist product in the Now Assist Admin console.
    See: Install Now Assist in AI Search
    6. Enable Now Assist Q&A Genius Results in AI Search portals
    Specify the Now Assist Genius Result types you want to make available in each of your AI Search portals. Now Assist Multi-Content Response Genius Results use an LLM to generate search and chat responses that synthesize information from knowledge articles, Service Catalog items, and other available content types. Answers are presented in Q&A format.
    See:
    7. Verify AI Search widget customizations
    Customized AI Search widgets may not correctly show Q&A search results even when configured for Now Assist, since customizations get skipped during upgrades.

    See:

    The ServiceNow AI Platform® offers a variety of search tools, which may return different answers for the same or similar searches. This disparity in results is expected. For more information, see Search result disparities between AI Search and Now Assist search features.

    Tip:
    For more information, see Now Assist in AI Search FAQ in ServiceNow Community.