Screen, anchor, and step properties in AI Desktop Actions

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated May 25, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Screen, anchor, and step properties in AI Desktop Actions

    This guide explains the properties of screens, anchors, and steps within AI Desktop Actions in ServiceNow's Zurich release. Understanding these properties enables customers to customize and control how automated steps interact with application screens, improving accuracy and flexibility in automation workflows.

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    Screen Properties

    • Name: Unique identifier for each captured screen, reflected in the interface.
    • Execution order: Defines the sequence in which multiple screens are processed; can be reordered via drag-and-drop.

    Anchor Properties

    • Name: Unique identifier for each anchor, visible in the Screens and Steps panel.
    • Execution order: Determines the order of anchor execution when multiple anchors are present.
    • Position and size (X, Y, Width, Height): Specify the location and dimensions of the anchor area on the screen.
    • Convert to grayscale: Option to convert the screen image to grayscale for matching (default is False).
    • Search in Scale: Enables scaling the target image between 100% and 150% in increments of 10% for matching (default is False).
    • Confidence threshold: Sets the required accuracy for image matching, defaulting to 95% (0.95).
    • Retry with scroll: Allows scrolling the target image to find a match.
    • Wait for image: Specifies whether automation waits for the image to appear before proceeding (default is True).
    • Max wait time: Maximum seconds to wait for the image or application to appear.
    • Delay before/after: Specifies delays in seconds before and after executing the anchor to control timing.

    Step Properties

    These properties apply to all step types such as Set Text, Click, Mouse Click, Send Keys, Get Text, Get Table, and OCR Read Text:

    • Name: Unique name for the step.
    • Execution order: Defines the order of execution among multiple steps under an anchor.
    • Type: Step action type (e.g., Set Text, Mouse Click).
    • Description: Optional helpful description for clarity.
    • X and Y: Coordinates of the step’s interaction point relative to the anchor.
    • Delay before/after: Seconds to wait before and after executing the step.

    Key Step Types and Their Properties

    • Set Text: Option to input static text or use a parameter value from AI Agent Studio.
    • Mouse Click: Supports multiple click types, including left/right click, double click, drag, drop, scroll, and paste.
    • Send Keys: Can clear existing field values before sending keys; supports static or parameter-driven input; optional mouse click focus.
    • OCR Read Text: Defines the width and height of the image area to recognize and extract text.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By configuring these properties, customers can precisely control automated interactions with application interfaces, improving reliability and flexibility in desktop automation tasks. Properties like confidence threshold, scaling, and delay settings help fine-tune automation to handle dynamic UI changes and ensure accurate data input and retrieval. Use of parameterized values enables reusable and adaptable automation steps integrated with AI Agent Studio.

    Learn about the properties of screens, anchors, and steps. There are multiple types of steps and each step type has distinct properties. You can update the properties to modify the behavior of the steps.

    Screen

    Table 1. Screen properties
    Property Description
    Name Unique name for the captured screen. The updated name reflects in the Screens and steps panel.
    Execution order Order in which the screen is executed when multiple screens are captured. You can drag the screen at the desired order in the Screens and steps panel.

    Anchor

    Table 2. Anchor properties
    Property Description
    Name Unique name of the added anchor. The updated name reflects in the Screens and steps panel.
    Execution order Order in which the anchor is executed when multiple anchors are added.
    X Location of the top-left corner of the anchor on the screen along the X-axis.
    Y Location of the top-left corner of the anchor on the screen along the Y-axis.
    Width Width of the area highlighted as anchor.
    Height Height of the area highlighted as anchor.
    Convert to grayscale Option to convert the captured screen as a grayscale image. The default value is False.
    Search in Scale Option to specify whether the component scales the target image before trying to match the source image. The scaling is done in an increment of 10% each between 100% and 150%. The default value is False.
    Confidence threshold Specifies the accuracy in matching the image captured before the component performs a step. The value of 1 defines a 100% match while 0.5 defines 50% match. The default value is 0.95 or 95% match.
    Retry with scroll Option to scroll the target image before trying to match the source image.
    Wait for image Option to specify if the automation must wait for the image to appear on the screen. The default value is True.
    Max wait time Number of seconds to wait for the image or application to appear on the screen.
    Delay before Delay in number of seconds before the anchor is executed. The automation waits until the specified time elapses before executing the anchor.
    Delay after Delay in number of seconds after the anchor is executed. The automation will wait until the specified time elapses before executing the next anchor.

    Step

    Common properties for steps

    The following properties apply to all steps - Set Text, Click, Mouse Click, Send Keys, Get Text, Get Table, and OCR Read Text.

    Table 3. Common properties
    Property Description
    Name Unique name of the step. The updated name reflects in the Screens and steps panel.
    Execution order Order in which this step is executed when multiple steps are set up. This order is assigned when you add a step from the anchor. You can drag the step under its anchor at the desired order in the Screens and Steps panel.
    Type Type of the step, such as Set Text, Get Text, Mouse Click.
    Description Helpful description of this step.
    X Location of the green plus icon along the X-axis relative to the anchor.
    Y Location of the green plus icon along the Y-axis relative to the anchor.
    Delay before Delay in seconds before the action is executed.
    Delay after Delay in seconds after the action is executed.
    Set Text
    Table 4. Set Text properties
    Property Description
    Use parameter Option to supply the value from a Desktop action parameter record mapped in AI Agent Studio. When selected, the Static value field is not used.
    Static value The text to enter in the field when Use parameter is not selected.
    Mouse Click
    Table 5. Mouse Click properties
    Property Description
    Mouse click type Type of mouse click action to set for this step:
    • Left click
    • Left double click
    • Middle click
    • Right click
    • Right double click
    • Move
    • Drag
    • Drop
    • Scroll down
    • Scroll up
    • Paste
    Send Keys
    Table 6. Send Keys properties
    Property Description
    Clear existing value Option to specify if the step clears the existing value on a field before setting the text.
    Use parameter Option to supply the value from a Desktop action parameter record mapped in AI Agent Studio. When selected, the Static value field is not used.
    Static value The text to enter in the field when Use parameter is not selected.
    Focus with mouse click Option to use the mouse click to focus on the area in the application where the mouse inputs are passed.
    OCR Read Text
    Table 7. OCR Read Text properties
    Property Description
    Width Width of the area in image to recognize and get the text.
    Height Height of the area in image to recognize and get the text.