Searching translated content

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Searching translated content

    This content explains how the ServiceNow AI Platform® AI Search functionality handles searching across translated content, which includes two main categories: translated fields (such as Catalog Item record fields) and translated documents (such as knowledge article records). Understanding this behavior helps you optimize search results for multilingual environments within your ServiceNow instance.

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    Translated Fields

    • AI Search attempts to match and display translated field values in the user's session language.
    • If a translation is missing for the session language, AI Search falls back to the English field value.
    • Example: A Japanese session returns Japanese translations when available, otherwise English.
    • To update translations, insert or update records in the Translated Text [systranslatedtext] table and then reindex the relevant content sources to apply changes.
    • Note: Translated fields on the Knowledge [kbknowledge] table are not supported by AI Search:
      • Search queries and results do not include translated knowledge fields.
      • Facets in search applications do not display translated knowledge fields.

    Translated Documents

    • By default, AI Search matches documents only in the user's session language (e.g., Japanese users only see knowledge articles in Japanese).
    • From the Utah release onward, you can configure a filter to make certain knowledge articles globally searchable across languages.
    • Starting with the Tokyo release, you may configure fallback languages per session language so that AI Search returns results in both the session and fallback languages.
    • A global fallback locale can be set to enable matching documents in the instance locale language alongside the user's session language, which is useful to make all English-language documents searchable globally.

    Practical Impact for ServiceNow Customers

    • Ensure translated field content is up to date and reindexed to enable accurate AI Search matching in the desired languages.
    • Be aware that knowledge article translated fields are currently not matched or displayed in searches, though translated documents are handled differently.
    • Use fallback language settings and global fallback locale configurations to broaden search coverage across different languages and improve user experience for multilingual users.
    • Configure globally searchable knowledge articles if you want cross-language searchability starting from the Utah release.

    Understand how AI Search searches translated fields and documents.

    The ServiceNow AI Platform® includes two categories of translated content:
    1. Translated fields, such as translations of Catalog Item record fields.
    2. Translated documents (long text and HTML values), such as translations of knowledge article records.

    The default AI Search matching behavior differs for these two types of content.

    Translated fields

    When you search content that includes translated fields, AI Search matches and displays field translations in your ServiceNow AI Platform session language. If a field lacks a translation in the session language, AI Search instead falls back to matching against the English-language field value. For example, if your session language is Japanese, AI Search returns Japanese field translations where present on a Catalog Item record, but returns English values for Catalog Item fields that have no Japanese translation.

    To learn more about how the ServiceNow AI Platform handles translated fields, see Translating individual UI strings.

    If you insert or update field translation records in the Translated Text [sys_translated_text] table, reindex content from the relevant indexed source to make AI Search use the new translations. For details on reindexing content, see Perform a full table index or reindex for a single AI Search indexed source and Perform a full table index or reindex for multiple AI Search indexed sources.
    Note:
    AI Search doesn't support translated fields on the Knowledge [kb_knowledge] table. This behavior has the following effects.
    • Search queries don't match translated versions of kb_knowledge translated fields.
    • Search results don't display translated versions of kb_knowledge translated fields.
    • Search application facets don't display translated versions of kb_knowledge translated fields.

    Translated documents

    When searching content with translated documents, by default AI Search only matches documents in the user's ServiceNow AI Platform session language. For example, a Japanese user search only matches knowledge articles in Japanese, excluding all knowledge articles in other languages.

    Starting with the Utah release, you can configure a filter condition for globally searchable knowledge articles. Articles that satisfy this condition can be matched by searches in any language. For information on this setting, see Configure globally searchable knowledge articles.

    Starting with the Tokyo release, you can set a fallback language for each language enabled in your ServiceNow AI Platform instance. When a fallback language is configured for the user's session language, AI Search returns search results in both languages. For more details, see AI Search interaction with fallback languages.

    You can configure a global fallback locale to make AI Search match documents in the instance locale's language as well as the user's session language. This configuration works best when you want to make all English-language documents globally searchable. To learn more about configuring a global fallback locale, see Enable a global fallback locale for translated content.