Using ServiceNow Otto for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO)

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

    ServiceNow Otto for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO) enhances the purchasing experience for requesters and procurement teams by leveraging conversational AI through the Virtual Agent and Now Assist. It enables requesters to efficiently search product catalogs, submit purchase and sourcing requests, and engage with procurement teams via natural language conversations. Fulfillers and shoppers can also use the solution to summarize procurement records and track their status, improving operational visibility and efficiency.

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    Key Features

    • Virtual Agent for Requesters: Searches product catalogs and guides users through intake questions to submit purchase requests. If items are off-catalog, it directs users to appropriate forms or allows submission of procurement team inquiries with attachments.
    • Role-Based Access: Requesters with the snspendpsd.requestor role can create procurement cases by asking questions through the Virtual Agent.
    • Conversational Search and Discovery: Users can start by selecting topics or typing needs directly. The Virtual Agent uses utterance detection and Genius Results to display relevant catalog items, topics, and Q&A in an interactive card carousel.
    • Generative AI with Now Assist: Provides an interactive, natural language conversation experience to simplify user interactions and increase comfort with bot assistance.
    • Record Summarization: Fulfiller and shopper roles can summarize procurement-related records—such as sourcing requests, purchase requisitions, and purchase orders—to quickly understand status, progress, and action items.
    • Now Assist Panel Integration: Enables contextual AI-driven summarization and request handling directly within the ServiceNow platform via conversational interfaces.
    • Email Response Generation: Helps procurement specialists and buyers draft professional and accurate email replies swiftly, reducing manual workload and enabling focus on strategic tasks.
    • Sentiment Analysis: Analyzes requester sentiment on active procurement cases to help prioritize and manage sensitive requests effectively.
    • Monitoring and Analytics: Administrators can track Virtual Agent performance and conversation deflection rates using the Now Assist Analytics dashboard to optimize self-service effectiveness.

    Key Outcomes

    • Requesters can independently submit and track purchase and sourcing requests using natural language conversations without needing immediate fulfiller assistance.
    • Increased efficiency in procurement processes through AI-driven guidance, summarization, and automated email responses.
    • Improved visibility into procurement record statuses and timely identification of sensitive cases via sentiment analysis.
    • Administrators gain actionable insights into Virtual Agent usage and performance to continuously enhance the self-service experience.

    For your requesters' purchasing needs, the ServiceNow Otto 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 ServiceNow Otto for SPO in particular, see Explore ServiceNow Otto for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO).

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