Searching translated content

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

    This content explains how ServiceNow AI Search handles searching translated content within the AI Platform®, specifically focusing on two types of translated content: translated fields and translated documents. Understanding this behavior helps you optimize search results for users working in multiple languages.

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    Translated Fields

    AI Search displays translated fields, such as Catalog Item record fields, based on the user's session language. If a translation is unavailable in that language, AI Search defaults to the English value. For example, a Japanese session language will show Japanese translations when available, or English otherwise.

    Important details for ServiceNow customers:

    • To update translations, insert or update records in the Translated Text [systranslatedtext] table and reindex the relevant content source so AI Search reflects the changes.
    • AI Search does not support translated fields on the Knowledge [kbknowledge] table, meaning search queries and results do not match or display translated versions of knowledge article fields, nor do facets show translations for these fields.

    Translated Documents

    For documents with long text or HTML values like knowledge articles, AI Search by default matches only documents in the user’s session language. For example, a Japanese user will only find Japanese knowledge articles.

    • Starting with the Utah release, you can configure a filter to make certain knowledge articles globally searchable across all languages.
    • From the Tokyo release, you can set fallback languages per enabled language. This allows AI Search to return results in the session language and its fallback language.
    • A global fallback locale can be configured to make documents in the instance locale language (commonly English) searchable alongside the user’s session language, enabling better access to English-language content globally.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    • Ensure translated fields are updated and reindexed to maintain accurate multi-language search experiences.
    • Recognize that knowledge article fields do not support translated field search, so plan content and search strategies accordingly.
    • Leverage fallback language settings and global fallback locale configurations to improve search result coverage in multi-language environments.
    • Use the globally searchable knowledge article filter to broaden access to important articles regardless of user language.

    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 with 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.

    Starting with 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.