Search profiles in AI Search

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated February 13, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Search profiles in AI Search

    Search profiles in AI Search define the configuration settings that shape the search experience within ServiceNow AI Platform® applications. These profiles include control over synonyms, stop words, typo corrections, Genius Results, and rules to improve search results. Each search profile corresponds to a unique search experience and must be published to be active in search applications.

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    Publishing a search profile makes it available for linking to one or more search application configurations, which determine both the search logic and how results are displayed. This separation allows administrators to tailor search behavior and presentation to different use cases.

    Key Features

    • Search Sources: Link one or more content sources to a search profile to control what users can search.
    • Synonyms: Define language-specific synonym dictionaries to expand query terms and improve recall by treating equivalent terms as matches.
    • Stop Words: Configure stop word dictionaries to remove common, irrelevant terms from queries, enhancing precision and relevancy.
    • Typo Handling: Set up auto-correction based on indexed content to replace misspelled query terms, improving search accuracy.
    • Genius Results: Enable AI-powered answer cards that analyze intent and provide direct answers, allowing users to act on results without extensive browsing.
    • Result Improvement Rules: Create rules with triggers to boost, block, or promote specific records in search results, including contextual boosts based on user attributes like country or device.

    Managing Search Profiles

    • Create and Clone: You can create new search profiles or clone existing ones to reuse settings such as dictionaries and rules.
    • Publishing: Publishing activates profile settings in linked search applications. Profiles can be in New, Draft, or Published states, with unpublished profiles requiring publication to take effect.
    • Linking to Applications: Published profiles are linked to search application configurations to control both search behavior and display.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By leveraging search profiles, administrators gain fine-grained control over the search experience, improving both the accuracy and relevance of search results. This leads to faster, more intuitive searches with fewer irrelevant results and enhanced user satisfaction via AI-driven direct answers. The ability to customize and publish profiles tailored to different applications ensures a flexible, scalable search strategy across the ServiceNow platform.

    Search profiles contain settings for a search experience, including synonyms, stop words, typo handling, Genius Results, and result improvement rules. Define a search profile for each unique search experience that you want to offer in a ServiceNow AI Platform® application. Publish search profiles to make them available in your search applications.

    A search profile contains settings that determine how AI Search generates search results for a given search experience. Publishing a search profile makes it available so you can link it to one or more search application configurations.

    A search application configuration specifies a search profile to use, and also determines how generated search results are displayed in the application. To learn about search application configuration display settings, see Search application configurations.

    The following table describes the search experience settings that you can configure in a search profile.

    Table 1. Search profile settings
    Setting Description
    Search sources Link one or more search sources to a search profile.

    Search sources give administrators precise control over the searchable content available to users.
    Synonyms Define language-specific dictionaries of terms that AI Search treats as equivalent in search queries.

    Synonyms improve search recall and provide a more natural search experience for users.
    Stop words Define language-specific dictionaries of common terms for AI Search to remove from search queries.

    Stop words improve search precision and result relevancy by discarding irrelevant matches.
    Typo handling Configure settings for derivation of auto-correction terms from search source indexed content.

    AI Search replaces misspelled search query terms with auto-correction terms.
    Genius Results Analyze search query intent and display the best answers as Genius Result answer cards.

    Genius Results enable users to act directly on their search results.
    Result improvement rules Define rules with configurable triggers to modify search results for specific search queries.

    Result improvement rules enable administrators to boost, block, or promote records in a search query's result set.

    Publishing search profile settings

    To make a search profile's settings active in search queries, you must publish it. Publishing propagates the following settings to search application configurations that reference the search profile.
    • The set of synonym and stop word dictionaries linked to the search profile
    • Settings, blocked terms, and derived auto-correction terms for typo handling dictionaries linked to the search profile
    • Result improvement rules and actions defined in the search profile
    A search profile can have one of these states:
    • New: The search profile has never been published.
    • Draft: The search profile is saved with unpublished changes.
    • Published: The search profile is saved with all changes published.

    In the All > AI Search > Search Experience > Search Profiles list, search profiles with the New state display an alert triangle icon . An informational message notifies you to publish these search profiles.