Getting started with Assistant Designer Asset library

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated August 6, 2025
  • 9 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    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 Getting started with Assistant Designer Asset library

    The Assistant Designer Asset library in ServiceNow Zurich release provides a comprehensive diagram tool to create and manage Virtual Agent topics—blueprints for conversations between a virtual agent and users. This tool supports designing conversations that help users resolve common issues or perform self-service tasks by combining various controls and logic flows. It integrates with advanced AI capabilities like large language models (LLM) via ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent and traditional Natural Language Understanding (NLU) for topic discovery and management.

    Show full answer Show less

    Key Features

    • Topic and Asset Management: View, create, edit, and organize assets such as topics, topic blocks, setup topics, small talk topics, custom controls, conversational subflows, actions, and AI agents all within Assistant Designer Asset library.
    • Conversational Subflows and Actions: Available when ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent is configured, allowing reuse of conversation components and integration with Workflow Studio, enhancing conversation design and execution.
    • Custom Skills and AI Agents: Manage custom skills created via AI Skill Kit and AI agents developed in AI Agent Studio directly in the asset library, enabling seamless AI integration within Virtual Agent conversations.
    • LLM and NLU Topic Discovery: Supports both generative AI-driven LLM topic discovery and traditional NLU/keyword-based mapping, with capabilities to test, train, and publish models from within the library.
    • Enhanced User Interface: Updated UI when ServiceNow Otto is installed, including list and table views for efficient asset management, search, sorting, and filtering options.
    • Topic Properties and Flow Design: Define topic metadata, purpose, assistants involved, channel controls, and build conversation flows visually or via table view with drag-and-drop controls and script variable support.
    • Language and Translation Management: Monitor and edit translation statuses for activated languages and map NLU language and entity data to support multilingual conversations.
    • Testing and Debugging: Preview, test, and debug both LLM and NLU topics using an integrated chat window to ensure conversations perform as expected before publishing.
    • Lifecycle Management: Duplicate, migrate (from NLU to LLM), publish, delete, and promote Virtual Agent topics and conversational assets to control availability and recommendation ordering.
    • Promotion and Conditional Ordering: Promote LLM assets to be suggested by Virtual Agent assistants and define conditions to prioritize promoted topics during conversations.

    Practical Use and Benefits

    ServiceNow customers can leverage the Assistant Designer Asset library to efficiently build, manage, and optimize Virtual Agent conversations tailored to their organizational needs. It enables integration with cutting-edge AI through ServiceNow Otto, improving user experience by reducing manual configuration and enhancing topic discovery accuracy. The asset library’s comprehensive management and testing tools help ensure high-quality, multilingual conversational experiences. Customers can maintain control over topic lifecycle, promote key assets, and easily migrate legacy content to newer AI models, thus accelerating deployment and improving user engagement with Virtual Agent services.

    The Assistant Designer Asset library includes a diagram tool for creating and managing topics, which are blueprints for conversations between a virtual agent and user. You can design topics that help your users resolve common work issues or guide them through self-service tasks.

    Virtual Agent conversations are built using topics. You can use various components (controls) to build the logic of a conversation, and the responses that the user sees.

    You can also view and manage the following in Assistant Designer Asset library:
    • Conversational subflows and actions for LLM-enabled conversations

      Virtual Agent conversations can include subflows and actions if they were made conversational in Workflow Studio or topics that include subflows and actions through the Action utility node.

      • Conversational subflows and actions are available in Assistant Designer Asset library only if ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent has been configured.
      • Conversational subflows and actions are also shown in Assistant Designer Asset library if the ServiceNow Otto Panel is available. For more information on the ServiceNow Otto Panel, see ServiceNow Otto panel.
      • Conversational subflows and actions only appear to users during a conversation if the Subflows and actions skill is turned on in ServiceNow Otto Admin. For more information, see ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent.
      Note:
      Conversational subflows and actions are not applicable to the Virtual Agent Designer legacy topic cards page view.
    • Custom skills

      You can view custom skills created in AI Skill Kit through Assistant Designer Asset library. For more information, see Managing custom skills in Assistant Designer Asset library.

    • AI agents

      You can view AI agents created in AI Agent Studio through Assistant Designer Asset library. For more information, see Managing AI agents in Assistant Designer Asset library.

    Virtual Agent can use either large language model (LLM) or Natural Language Understanding (NLU) to match the user's request with the appropriate conversation or topic.

    With LLM topic discovery, you can use generative AI through ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent to match the user's request with the desired conversation or topic. With ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent, you can test and publish your models from within Assistant Designer Asset library. ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent uses LLMs and generative AI skills to improve deflection rates and reduce the amount of time-consuming work that Natural Language Understanding (NLU) topic discovery requires. For more information, see LLM topic discovery in Virtual Agent.

    With NLU/keyword topic discovery, the topic author associates the topic with an intent within an NLU model. An intent describes what the user wants to achieve. User utterances are matched with intents to determine the most appropriate topic for the user. Associating a topic with a model and intent is called mapping.

    If you're using ServiceNow NLU/keyword topic discovery, then Assistant Designer Asset library integrates with NLU Workbench so that you can map topics to new or existing models and intents without leaving the interface. In addition, you can also modify utterances, test, train, and publish your models from within Assistant Designer Asset library.

    Assistant Designer Asset library

    Note:
    An updated Assistant Designer Asset library user interface is available when you install ServiceNow Otto in Virtual Agent. This content assumes that you can see the list view. If ServiceNow Otto in Virtual Agent is not installed, you see the legacy UI and topics page. For more information, see Virtual Agent Designer legacy topics page.
    When you open Assistant Designer Asset library, you can see all the assets in your instance. These assets include topics, topic blocks, setup topics, small talk topics, custom controls, subflows, actions, and AI agents.
    Note:
    Along with small talk topics, you can also set small talk filters to redirect conversations based on unexpected user statements. For more information, see Configure small talk filters.
    On the home page, you can access and edit any of these assets in Asset library, and create topics, topic blocks, setup topics, small talk topics, and custom controls.

    Assistant Designer Asset library page.

    Note:
    Conversational subflows and actions are available in Assistant Designer Asset library if ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent has been configured. Conversational subflows and actions are also shown in th Assistant Designer Asset library if the ServiceNow Otto Panel is available. For more information on the ServiceNow Otto Panel, see ServiceNow Otto panel.

    You can test and preview active topics to verify that they work as intended. You can also sort and search for topics. When you have many assets, use the search bar and filter icon to quickly organize and find your topics. For more information, see Assistant Designer Asset library.

    Each topic list entry identifies the asset and provides the following information by default:
    Field Description
    Name Name of the topic. Template topics also contain (Template) in the name.
    Type Topic types include Topic, Topic Block, Setup Topic, Small Talk, Custom Input Control, Custom Response Control, Subflows, and Actions.
    Status Status types include Draft, Modified (with unsaved changes), or Published.
    Active Whether the asset is active or inactive.
    Last modified Time (minutes, hours, days, or months) that the asset was last modified.
    Description Description of the asset. For topics, this field is created and updated on the Properties tab.

    When you open a topic, a tab is displayed in the navigation header bar. The topic's name is shown on the tab, and a red dot appears if the topic has unsaved changes. Hover over the tab to view the scope in which the topic was created.

    Topic tab that displays the topic name, saved condition, and application scope.

    When you open a subflow or action, a tab is displayed in the navigation header bar. This tab opens the subflow or action in Workflow Studio within the Assistant Designer Asset library environment.

    Assistants

    For LLM topics, the Select assistant list enables you to filter the assets based on the LLM Virtual Agent (assistant) selected. By default the following assistants are available for Assistant Designer Asset library:
    • ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent (default)
    • ServiceNow Otto Panel - Platform (default)

      For the ServiceNow Otto Panel - Platform (default) assistant, if you want AI agents to be Discoverable, Visible, or Promoted, set the Value field in the system property sn_aia.enable_aiagents_discovery to True. If the Value field is set to False, then AI agents can't be set as Discoverable, Visible, or Promoted. To enable this property, you must contact ServiceNow support.

    Select an assistant.

    You can create new assistants from Conversational interfaces > Assistant Designer. For more information about creating assistants, see Create a chat assistant.

    For more information about LLM assistants, see LLM assistants.

    Topic properties

    Use the topic Properties tab to identify a Virtual Agent asset and how it’s used. The properties you can specify depend on the method of topic discovery used in your instance: LLM or NLU/keyword. For example, if you activated ServiceNow Otto and work with an LLM topic, the Properties tab includes fields for what you want the topic to do and which assistants to use. If you activated NLU, you can select NLU/keyword from the Type drop-down menu when you create a topic. The Properties tab includes fields for identifying the NLU model and intent for the topic.

    Use the Properties tab to do the following:
    • Specify the name and type of asset, such as topic, topic block, custom control, and so on.
    • Specify the model type, purpose of the topic, and which assistants can run this topic for ServiceNow Otto customers.
    • Specify the model type, add a topic description, specify the purpose of the topic, and select which assistants can run this topic for ServiceNow Otto customers.
    • Control who uses the topic and what channels it can run in.
    • Associate live agent variables with a topic.
    • Add keywords to the topic or map the topic to a ServiceNow NLU model and intent.

    For more information, see Topic Properties tab.

    Topic flow

    When you create or update a topic, topic block, or custom control, you build the conversation flow on the Flow tab. In the default view, the flow looks like a diagram. Use the controls for user inputs, bot responses, and utilities to define the flow. The status of the topic and NLU model (if used) appears in the upper-right corner of the window.

    The Table View option in Assistant Designer Asset library displays the nodes in your conversation flow as a table, rather than as a diagram. Each node is identified in a corresponding row in the table. You can add, change, or delete nodes using these table rows.

    For example, instead of dragging controls and dropping them onto the canvas, you can select Add new node to insert a node into the appropriate row in the table. When you focus on a particular row (node), the corresponding property sheet for the node is displayed.

    As you create or update your design, you might find it helpful to switch between the diagram view and the Table View using the Table View option. If your conversation contains many nodes, the Table View lets you review all the nodes in your conversation quickly. You can use the Search table option to quickly find a particular node or control.

    Use the Flow tab to do the following:

    For more information, see Topic Flow tab.

    NLU model and intent mappings

    If you activated NLU on your instance, the NLU Intent tab is available for your topics in Assistant Designer Asset library. Once you have bound the topic to a model and intent on the Properties tab, you can use the NLU Intent tab to do the following:
    Note:
    The virtual_agent_admin role includes the nlu_admin role, which enables topic authors to work on ServiceNow models.

    For more information about this tab, see Topic NLU Intent tab.

    Topic languages

    The Languages tab displays the topic's translation status for languages that have been activated on the instance for both LLM and NLU conversations. If you're using NLU/keyword, you can also review the language mappings for that topic.

    Use the Languages tab to do the following:

    For more information about this tab, see Topic Languages tab.