Prebuilt Virtual Agent topics, topic blocks, and ServiceNow NLU models
Summarize
Summary of Prebuilt Virtual Agent topics, topic blocks, and ServiceNow NLU models
ServiceNow provides prebuilt Virtual Agent topics, reusable topic blocks, and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) models designed to streamline common self-service tasks across various business applications, including Customer Service Management (CSM), HR Service Delivery (HRSD), IT Service Management (ITSM), Legal, and Field Service. These prebuilt components enable faster deployment and improved user experiences by handling frequent inquiries such as case creation, updates, and FAQs.
Show less
Key Features
- Prebuilt Topics: Complete conversation flows tailored to specific business areas that guide users through common service tasks.
- Topic Blocks: Reusable conversation components (similar to subflows) that perform specific functions and can be incorporated into multiple topics.
- ServiceNow NLU Models: Business-specific language models defining intents and entities to help Virtual Agent accurately understand user requests, with each intent linked to a conversation topic.
- Plugin and App Availability: Prebuilt topics, topic blocks, and NLU models are available through ServiceNow plugins and apps accessible via the ServiceNow Store, including those for CSM, HRSD, ITSM, Legal, and Field Service.
- Virtual Agent Platform Support: Includes setup topics and blocks such as Agent Availability and AI Search to support Virtual Agent functionality.
Working with Prebuilt Components
- Access and Testing: After installation, administrators can preview and test prebuilt topics and topic blocks within the Virtual Agent Designer by selecting and running tests in the Flow tab.
- Customization: Prebuilt topics and topic blocks are read-only but can be duplicated and modified to fit specific customer requirements before publishing and deployment.
- NLU Model Management: Prebuilt NLU models are also read-only but can be duplicated in the ServiceNow NLU Workbench to create customized models. Intents can be imported from prebuilt or custom models to extend language understanding.
- Integration with Design Tools: Virtual Agent Designer and NLU Workbench provide interfaces to preview, review intents, utterances, and entities, and manage conversation logic effectively.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
- Accelerate Virtual Agent deployment by leveraging tested, prebuilt conversational content aligned with industry best practices.
- Enhance user engagement by providing relevant, business-specific self-service conversations that reduce manual support efforts.
- Customize and extend Virtual Agent capabilities via duplication and modification of prebuilt topics, topic blocks, and NLU models to match organizational needs.
- Maintain consistency and improve maintainability by reusing topic blocks as modular conversation elements.
- Utilize ServiceNow Store to easily acquire the required plugins and apps for various business domains.
Prebuilt Virtual Agent conversations (topics), reusable topic blocks, and ServiceNow NLU models are available for the Virtual Agent platform and various business applications, such as Customer Service Management, HR Service Delivery, IT Service Management, and more.
These predefined conversations help users with common self-service tasks in each business area, such as creating or updating cases or providing answers to frequently asked questions. Prebuilt topic blocks are reusable components (similar to subflows) that perform a specific function or task and can be added to a conversation topic. Prebuilt NLU models define the business-specific language understanding needed for Virtual Agent to understand and process user requests. Each NLU intent in a model maps to a single Virtual Agent conversation topic.
Summaries of prebuilt topics and topic blocks
For more information on the Virtual Agent prebuilt topics and topic blocks provided by various ServiceNow applications, refer to the documentation for those applications. For example, the CSM, HRSD, and ITSM applications provide information on their prebuilt topics in the following sections:
| Predefined topics and topic blocks | Activation |
|---|---|
| Customer Service Virtual Agent conversations |
Plugin name: com.sn_csm.virtualagent For more information about activating a plugin, see Activate a plugin. |
| Field Service Virtual Agent Conversations |
Request the Field Service Virtual Agent Conversations and Field Service NLU Model for Virtual Agent Conversations apps from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes. |
| Human Resources Virtual Agent conversations |
Request the HR Service Delivery Virtual Agent Conversations app from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes. |
| ITSM Virtual Agent Conversations |
Request ITSM Virtual Agent and the ITSM NLU Model for Virtual Agent Conversations from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes. |
| Legal Virtual Agent Conversations |
Request Legal Virtual Agent Conversations from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes. |
|
Virtual Agent Platform topics and topic blocks
|
Plugin name: com.glide.cs.chatbot For more information about activating a plugin, see Activate a plugin. |
After installing the plugins or apps, you can preview (test) the topics and topic blocks using Virtual Agent Designer. You can review the intents, utterances, and entities in the prebuilt NLU models using ServiceNow NLU Workbench or within Virtual Agent Designer if your NLU-enabled topics are associated with intents in ServiceNow NLU models.
Working with prebuilt topics and topic blocks in Virtual Agent Designer
- Previewing topics and topic blocks – After you install the plugins for prebuilt topics, admins or Virtual Agent admins can access the prebuilt topics and topic blocks in the Virtual Agent Designer home page. Select the topic and in the Flow tab, select Test. Review the conversation as it runs in the test window to determine the topics and topic blocks that you want to use.
- Using prebuilt topics and topic blocks – Although prebuilt topics and topic blocks are read only and can't be changed, you can reuse them by duplicating and modifying them as needed. After you test a duplicated topic and are ready to deploy it to your Virtual Agent clients, publish the topic. Similarly, after testing a duplicated topic block, publish it to make it available for use in conversation (calling) topics.
For details on creating, testing (previewing), duplicating, and publishing a topic, see Getting started with Virtual Agent Designer. For details on working with topic blocks, see Maximizing code reuse with topic blocks.
Working with prebuilt ServiceNow NLU models in ServiceNow NLU Workbench
- Reviewing a prebuilt NLU model – After you install the plugins for predefined topics, you can view the prebuilt models in NLU Workbench. The prebuilt NLU models for ServiceNow applications define the intents, entities, and utterances used for the predefined topics. These models are also trained and published. You can also review the utterances for a prebuilt model in Virtual Agent Designer. However to copy a prebuilt model, you use NLU Workbench.
- Duplicating prebuilt NLU models – Although prebuilt NLU models are read only and can't be edited, you can Duplicate an NLU model prebuilt NLU models to create your own NLU models and Import an NLU intent from prebuilt models or other NLU models that you create in NLU Workbench.
For details on creating, training, and publishing ServiceNow NLU models, see Natural Language Understanding.