Searching translated content

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated February 4, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Searching Translated Content

    The ServiceNow AI Platform® allows users to search translated fields and documents effectively. It categorizes content into two types: translated fields and translated documents, each with specific matching behaviors during searches. Understanding these differences is essential for optimizing search results in various languages.

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    Key Features

    • Translated Fields: When searching, AI Search matches field translations in the user's session language. If a translation is unavailable, it defaults to the English version. For instance, if the session language is Japanese, AI Search will return Japanese translations for applicable fields while reverting to English for fields lacking a Japanese version.
    • Reindexing: After inserting or updating translations in the Translated Text [systranslatedtext] table, users must reindex to apply new translations. Refer to the appropriate indexing guides for specific instructions.
    • Limitations on Knowledge Table: AI Search does not support translated fields for the Knowledge [kbknowledge] table, resulting in no matches or display for translated fields within this table.
    • Translated Documents: AI Search matches documents based on the user's session language. Users can configure globally searchable knowledge articles to include articles in any language, enhancing search flexibility.
    • Fallback Language Support: Starting with the Tokyo release, users can set a fallback language, allowing search results to include both the session language and the fallback language. A global fallback locale can also be configured to broaden search capabilities across documents.

    Key Outcomes

    By utilizing these features, ServiceNow customers can enhance their search capabilities, ensuring that users find relevant content in their preferred language. Configuring fallback languages and global searchable articles will improve accessibility and user experience across diverse language settings.

    Understand how AI Search searches translated fields and documents.

    The ServiceNow AI Platform® includes two categories of translated content:
    1. Translated fields, such as translations of Catalog Item record fields.
    2. Translated documents (long text and HTML values), such as translations of knowledge article records.

    The default AI Search matching behavior differs for these two types of content.

    Translated fields

    When you search content that includes translated fields, AI Search matches and displays field translations in your ServiceNow AI Platform session language. If a field lacks a translation in the session language, AI Search instead falls back to matching against the English-language field value. For example, if your session language is Japanese, AI Search returns Japanese field translations where present on a Catalog Item record, but returns English values for Catalog Item fields that have no Japanese translation.

    To learn more about how the ServiceNow AI Platform handles translated fields, see Translating individual UI strings.

    If you insert or update field translation records in the Translated Text [sys_translated_text] table, reindex content from the relevant indexed source to make AI Search use the new translations. For details on reindexing content, see Perform a full table index or reindex for a single AI Search indexed source and Perform a full table index or reindex for multiple AI Search indexed sources.
    Note:
    AI Search doesn't support translated fields on the Knowledge [kb_knowledge] table. This behavior has the following effects.
    • Search queries don't match translated versions of kb_knowledge translated fields.
    • Search results don't display translated versions of kb_knowledge translated fields.
    • Search application facets don't display translated versions of kb_knowledge translated fields.

    Translated documents

    When searching content with translated documents, by default AI Search only matches documents in the user's ServiceNow AI Platform session language. For example, a Japanese user search only matches knowledge articles in Japanese, excluding all knowledge articles in other languages.

    Starting in the Utah release, you can configure a filter condition for globally searchable knowledge articles. Articles that satisfy this condition can be matched by searches in any language. For information on this setting, see Configure globally searchable knowledge articles.

    Beginning in the Tokyo release, you can set a fallback language for each language enabled in your ServiceNow AI Platform instance. When a fallback language is configured for the user's session language, AI Search returns search results in both languages. For more details, see AI Search interaction with fallback languages.

    You can configure a global fallback locale to make AI Search match documents in the instance locale's language as well as the user's session language. This configuration works best when you want to make all English-language documents globally searchable. To learn more about configuring a global fallback locale, see Enable a global fallback locale for translated content.