Playbook generation from text prompt or image

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Playbook generation from text prompt or image

    ServiceNow’s Playbook generation enables users to create detailed playbooks using AI by inputting text descriptions or images. This capability is provided through the ServiceNow Otto for Creator application, which activates AI-driven playbook creation. It is designed to help playbook authors quickly generate structured workflows for various business processes such as customer support, employee onboarding, travel reimbursements, and supplier evaluations.

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    Activation and Access

    To use Playbook generation, you must install the ServiceNow Otto for Creator (snnowcreator) application from the ServiceNow Store and enable the Playbook generation skill. The feature is accessible within Workflow Studio during playbook creation.

    Prompt Guidelines for Effective Playbook Creation

    • Meaningful Playbook Name: Use descriptive names to help AI generate accurate playbooks.
    • Detailed Descriptions: Clearly describe each stage and activity, including their sequence and concurrency.
    • Image Quality: Use high-resolution images (up to 10 MB in JPG, JPEG, PNG, or WEBP) that have clear shapes, text, and arrows; avoid blurred or unclear visuals.
    • Experimentation: Save prompts and their variations for comparison and refinement. Only prompts used for saved playbooks are retained.

    Review and Configuration

    • Accuracy Check: Review generated playbooks to ensure they accurately and efficiently represent your business processes.
    • Placeholder Activities: Configure any placeholders before activating the playbook, using AI recommendations to select appropriate activity definitions.

    Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) Support

    The AI leverages active instance-specific elements such as actions, subflows, flows, and activity definitions through RAG, with updates every hour. This ensures generated playbooks align with your current environment and can reference active components by name.

    Example Use Cases

    • Employee Onboarding: Automates onboarding steps from job offer acceptance through orientation and training to feedback collection.
    • Customer Support: Structures customer inquiry handling, ticket assignment, troubleshooting, escalation, and follow-up with feedback.
    • Travel Reimbursement: Manages expense submission, verification, approval, and payment processing.
    • Control Document Management: Coordinates document generation, review, collaboration, and approval.
    • Supplier Evaluation: Guides qualification requests, review processes, activity execution, and final qualification decisions.
    • Hardware Inventory Management: Tracks stock levels, categorizes inventory, triggers alerts, and integrates with procurement and sales.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By using Playbook generation, customers can accelerate the creation of repeatable, structured workflows customized to their specific needs without manual modeling. This improves process consistency, reduces build time, and leverages AI to incorporate best practices and instance-specific components. It supports both text and image inputs, enabling flexible and intuitive playbook design aligned with your organization’s operational requirements.

    Generate a playbook using AI from text prompt or image inputs. For example, you can enter a text description to generate a playbook for managing customer support cases.

    ServiceNow Otto for Creator activates the playbook generation skill. Playbook generation gives generative AI capabilities to playbook authors.

    Activation

    Playbook generation is a skill that is installed with the ServiceNow Otto for Creator (sn_now_creator) application. You can install this application from the ServiceNow Store website. You must enable the Playbook generation skill to generate playbooks using AI.

    Supported user interfaces

    Access the Playbook generation skill when you're creating a playbook in Workflow Studio.

    Build a new playbook using AI.

    Writing prompts

    Follow these guidelines when writing prompts to generate playbooks.

    Provide a meaningful name for the playbook
    The more descriptive the playbook name is, the better the playbook that AI can create.
    Be precise and descriptive in the directions
    • Describe each stage and activity in as much detail as you can.

    • Specify the order that stages and activities run in.

    • Specify if any stages or activities run at the same time.

    Use clear images
    Use high resolution images with clear shapes, text, and arrows. Avoid using blurred screenshots and images of unclear whiteboard diagrams.

    You can use one image of up to 10 MB, in JPG, JPEG, PNG, or WEBP format.

    Experiment with prompts
    Save your prompts somewhere, including any modified versions. Saving your prompts enables easy comparison of results.
    Note:
    Prompts used only to generate a preview aren't saved, but prompts used for a saved playbook outline are in the playbook's Properties setting.

    Reviewing playbooks

    Follow these guidelines to review the generated playbooks.

    Check for accuracy
    Review each stage and activity in a generated playbook to determine accuracy, efficiency, and how well it outlines your business process.
    Configure placeholder activities
    Configure placeholder activities before you activate your playbook. Use playbook recommendations to help choose activity definitions.
    Figure 1. Configure the activity definition in the activity side panel

    Choose an activity definition for the placeholder activity.

    Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) support

    Playbook generation uses Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) to include the names of active actions, subflows, flows, and activity definitions available on your instance. Workflow Studio updates the list of active actions, subflows, flows, and activity definitions every hour to make them available to playbook generation. You can refer to active actions, subflows, flows, and activity definitions by name in your playbook generation inputs.

    Example prompts

    The following examples can help you to generate playbook outlines:

    Example playbook prompt 1: Employee onboarding
    You can use this prompt to create a playbook for the onboarding process of new hires.
    Create an employee onboarding playbook that integrates new hires into the organization. 
    HR initiates it upon job offer acceptance, gathering documents, assigning mentors, providing orientation, 
    setting up IT access, ensuring compliance, and job-specific training. The playbook ends with feedback from the employee and HR, 
    resulting in an onboarding checklist.
    Example playbook prompt 2: Customer support
    You can use this prompt to create a playbook with the steps that an agent takes for customer support cases.
    Create a customer support playbook which is the primary point of contact for handling customer inquiries, 
    problems, and requests. It starts by receiving and categorizing customer inquiries based on urgency and complexity. 
    Support tickets are then assigned to agents who troubleshoot and resolve them, with the option to escalate to higher 
    support tiers if needed. After resolution, follow-up with the customer is crucial. A satisfaction survey gathers feedback for 
    improvement, and all interactions are documented, updating the knowledge base for future reference.
    Example playbook prompt 3: Travel reimbursement
    You can use this prompt to create a playbook to manage employee travel expenses.
    Create a travel expense reimbursement playbook for managing employee travel expenses efficiently. 
    Employees submit expense reports with valid receipts. Finance verifies expenses against policies, ensuring budget compliance. 
    Managers approve expenses, initiating payment processing.
    Example playbook prompt 4: Control document
    You can use this prompt to create a playbook to manage a control document.
    Create a playbook for generating, reviewing, and approving a control document. Suppliers and Quality managers collaborate 
    to upload documents and conduct appropriate refinement before a final document is approved.
    Example playbook prompt 5: Supplier evaluation
    You can use this prompt to create a playbook to evaluate whether potential suppliers meet qualification standards.
    Create a playbook for qualifying a new supplier. Suppliers request qualification. Quality managers review and approve 
    qualification requests, plan qualification deliverables, execute qualification activities, and summarize qualification findings in a report. 
    The playbook concludes by determining if the supplier has achieved the requested qualification.
    Example playbook prompt 6: Hardware inventory
    You can use this prompt to create a playbook to manage hardware inventory.
    Create a playbook that manages hardware inventory. This playbook should efficiently track stock levels, update in real-time, 
    and generate alerts for low inventory. It must support categorization, bar codes, and seamless integration with sales and procurement systems.