Using Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO)

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Using Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO)

    Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO) integrates generative AI capabilities within ServiceNow’s Virtual Agent to streamline procurement request handling for both requesters and fulfillers. It enables users to interact via natural language conversations to search product catalogs, submit purchase requests, and manage sourcing and procurement cases efficiently without needing direct intervention from fulfillers.

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    Key Features

    • Product Catalog Search and Purchase Requests: Requesters can search for catalog products, answer guided intake questions, review responses, edit them if needed, and submit purchase requests. If products or services are not found, the system routes the requester to off-catalog intake forms or allows submission of procurement questions with attachments.
    • Conversational Interface: Using natural language processing and Genius Results, the Virtual Agent presents relevant topics, catalog items, and Q&A results via a user-friendly card carousel, facilitating easy navigation and request submission.
    • Record Summarization: Both fulfillers and shoppers can summarize procurement-related records (such as sourcing requests, purchase requisitions, and purchase orders) to quickly understand status, progress, and required actions through Now Assist’s generative AI.
    • Contextual AI Assistance: Users can request contextual generative AI support directly via Now Assist panels or Virtual Agent chats to enhance procurement record understanding and interaction.
    • Email Response Generation: Procurement specialists and buyers can generate professional and accurate email responses automatically, reducing manual effort and enabling focus on strategic tasks.
    • Sentiment Analysis: The system analyzes requester sentiment on active procurement cases, helping procurement teams prioritize and manage sensitive requests effectively.
    • Role-Based Access: Certain capabilities, such as submitting procurement questions and creating cases, require the appropriate ServiceNow role (snspendpsd.requestor), ensuring controlled access.
    • Performance Monitoring: Administrators can track Now Assist usage and effectiveness through the Now Assist in Virtual Agent Analytics dashboard, which measures conversation deflection rates and resolution outcomes.

    Key Outcomes

    • Requesters gain a seamless, guided experience for submitting purchase and sourcing requests, improving self-service efficiency and reducing reliance on procurement fulfillers.
    • Procurement specialists can handle inquiries faster with AI-generated email responses and prioritize cases based on sentiment analysis.
    • Fulfiller and shopper roles benefit from quick access to summarized procurement records, enabling better decision-making and action tracking.
    • Administrators can monitor and optimize the performance of the Now Assist tool to increase self-service adoption and deflect manual support requests.

    For your requesters' purchasing needs, the Now Assist for SPO Virtual Agent searches against the existing products in the product catalog and displays the available products.

    If a product is found with or without a price in the catalog, the requester can then fill out the intake questions through a simple conversation, and then submit the purchase request after reviewing the summary of responses. They can also edit a response before submitting.

    If a product or service isn’t found in the catalog, the chatbot gathers more information, such as checking for availability of quotes, and routes the requester to the corresponding off-catalog intake form. It also provides the requester with the option to submit a question to the procurement team about the required product or service, with relevant attachments, if any, all through a conversation.
    Note:
    You can ask a question to the procurement team, and create a corresponding procurement case, only if you have the sn_spend_psd.requestor role. Ensure that you admin has assigned that role to you.

    As a requester, you can start with viewing all the topics, and then selecting Buy a product.

    View all topics

    You could also directly start typing what you need, in which case the utterance detection mechanism uses Genius Results to retrieve Virtual Agent topics, catalog items, and Q&A results, and displays them to the requester within a card carousel. For details, see Using Now Assist in Virtual Agent.

    The Virtual Agent engages you in a guided conversation, asking you relevant questions along the way to help you submit your purchase, sourcing, and off-catalog requests, as well as procurement cases, independently, without the need to reach out to fulfillers. You can then review and track these request records from Shopping Hub, Employee Center, or Platform.

    To learn more about quick checkout and sourcing checkout processes, see Order a product with quick checkout and Complete sourcing checkout respectively. For more information on off-catalog intake forms, see Requesting for products or services that you don't see on ShoppingHub.

    Now Assist in Virtual Agent provides your users with an interactive generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) experience. A friendly, natural language conversation is easier to understand and makes requesters more comfortable with talking to a bot. To learn how a conversation powered by generative AI might look in Virtual Agent, see Using Now Assist in Virtual Agent.

    As an administrator, you can use the Now Assist in Virtual Agent Analytics dashboard to monitor the performance of Now Assist in Virtual Agent as a self-service deflection tool. To learn more, see . Now Assist in Virtual Agent Analytics calculates the conversation deflection rate based on the resolution status associated with Now Assist query responses. For more information, see .

    For detailed information on Now Assist in Virtual Agent in general, and Now Assist for SPO in particular, see Explore Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO).

    For information on configuring Now Assist for SPO, see Configure Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO).