Virtual Agent features supported in Slack conversations

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Virtual Agent features supported in Slack conversations

    ServiceNow's Virtual Agent integrates with Slack to provide enhanced conversational capabilities within Slack bot conversations. This integration supports key Virtual Agent features from the Zurich release (updated July 31, 2025), enabling users to leverage AI-driven search results, receive notifications, and interact with conversation designs directly in Slack. Note that this integration is not supported on on-premises ServiceNow instances.

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    Key Features

    • AI Search Results: Virtual Agent can deliver AI Search results in Slack as Genius result cards and multi-link outputs. These results primarily include knowledge base (Q&A) and catalog items, improving the user experience by providing relevant information directly in the chat.
    • URL Navigation for Chat Links: Links to ServiceNow records within Slack conversations open automatically in the configured base system portals. Administrators can customize which portal handles these links, ensuring seamless navigation from Slack to ServiceNow.
    • Trusted Domains Configuration: For custom chat integrations, the Trusted media domains setting in the Provider Channel Identities table takes precedence, allowing admins to control which domains are considered safe for media content.
    • Chat Localization: Starting with version 5.0.1, chat messages are localized into the user’s preferred conversation language as set in Slack’s UI, independent of the session language. Localization uses ServiceNow’s translation function and supports three scenarios:
      • If the requested language plugin is installed, the conversation honors that language.
      • If the language plugin is missing but fallback is enabled via the glidei18n.languagefallbackenabled system property, a fallback language from the system is used.
      • If neither is available, English is used as the default translation language.
    • Virtual Agent Designer Controls: User input and bot response controls designed in Virtual Agent Designer, including table responses and card controls with images, are supported in Slack conversations, enabling rich interactive dialogues.
    • Virtual Agent Notifications: Slack supports Virtual Agent notifications during conversations, keeping users informed within the chat interface.

    Important Notes

    • Conversational Integration for Slack is unsupported on on-premises ServiceNow instances.
    • Some Virtual Agent features may not be supported within Slack; users should refer to specific documentation on unsupported features.

    Virtual Agent features, such as AI Search results, Virtual Agent notifications, and Virtual Agent Designer controls for creating Virtual Agent conversations are supported in Slack bot conversations.

    Note:
    Conversational Integration for Slack is not supported for on-prem instances.

    This section highlights key Virtual Agent features that are supported in the Conversational Integration with Slack app.

    AI Search results

    Virtual Agent can generate AI Search results that are displayed as Genius result cards and multi-link outputs in conversations. For details on how Virtual Agent generates AI Search results, see Improving the user experience with AI Search. The default AI Search configuration for Virtual Agent enables search results for Q&A (knowledge base) and catalog items.

    URL navigation for chat links

    In Virtual Agent and Live Agent conversations on the Slack app, links to ServiceNow records open automatically in base system portals—including links displayed in output cards, Virtual Agent notifications, and AI Search results. If needed, admins can change the portals in which these links are opened. For configuration details, see Configure URL navigation for chat links.

    Trusted Domains

    In custom chat integrations, the values specified in the Trusted media domains field of the Provider Channel Identities table [sys_cs_provider_application] takes precedence over the Connections table [sys_cs_provider] and therefore overrides.

    Chat Localization into Conversation Language

    Starting from version 5.0.1, chat gets localized into the customer specified conversation language set in the Slack UI, though the session language is different.

    Translation of responses to the conversation language is done using the function gs::getMessageLang(str, lang), where the language retrieved from Slack is passed through this function as a parameter. The translation process works with the following three use cases, when:
    • The requested language plugin is available in the ServiceNow instance.

      When the requested language plugin is available in the ServiceNow instance then the Session language honors the Conversation language set by the user.

    • The requested language plugin is absent, but fallback is set and enabled​.

      When the requested language plugin is absent, then the fallback language specified in the [sys_language] table is used for the translation process. However, for the fallback mechanism to work, you must enable the glide_i18n.language_fallback_enabled system property. By default, the value of the property is false. Set it to true to enable the fallback mechanism. For more information, see Set a fallback language.

    • The requested language plugin is absent, but fallback is not set/enabled.

      When the requested language plugin is absent and fallback is also not set/enabled, the default translation language will be English.