Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM) release notes

Release version: Zurich

Updated July 31, 2025

17 minutes to read

Summarize

Summarized using AI

Summary of Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM) Zurich Release Notes

The Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM) application integrates agentic AI capabilities to enhance ITSM workflows, improving agent productivity, incident management, change requests, and virtual agent interactions. The Zurich release introduces significant updates across multiple patches, focusing on AI-driven insights, workflow automation, analytics, self-service enhancements, and improved security configurations.

Show full answer Show less

Key Features

AI-Powered Incident Management: Automatic clustering of incidents into trend categories with AI-generated summaries via the Insights and Opportunities for Incident dashboard (Patch 10). Context-aware incident assist workflows answer incident-related questions and generate summaries (Patch 8).
Virtual Agent Analytics and Enhancements: Track knowledge articles and catalog items that successfully deflect users from human agent escalation using the ITSM Virtual Agent Analytics dashboard (Patch 9). Voice AI agents support password resets and account unlock requests via phone channels (Patches 9, 7, and 4).
Agentic Workflows for Change Management: New workflows enable quick linking of configuration items (CIs), conflict assessment, scheduling, quality assessment, and outage association directly from the Now Assist panel, streamlining change request processes (Patches 1 and 4).
Resolution and Knowledge Article Generation: Automated generation of resolution notes, knowledge articles, and activity responses enhance documentation efficiency and knowledge sharing (Patch 1 and Patch 7).
Enhanced Diagnostics and Root Cause Analysis: Specialized agentic workflows diagnose and resolve issues on DEX monitored devices and Zoom call quality problems, delivering real-time guidance and remedial actions (Patch 8).
Now Assist Skill Configuration and Security: Skills such as incident summarization and change request summarization are activated by default for new users. Admins can edit skill prompts using the Now Assist Skill Kit (NASK) and apply role masking to control access to AI agents and workflows (Patch 4 and others).
UI Enhancements: Introduction of the Coral theme as default with a dark mode option improves user experience across portals and mobile devices (Patch 4).
Usage Measurement Updates: Transition from a 365-day look-back to a 365-day burn-down usage measurement model aligning with contract anniversaries for more accurate tracking (Patch 5).

Important Considerations for ServiceNow Customers

Customizations to the Now Assist context menu will not be preserved upon upgrading to Zurich Patch 4; review the community upgrade guidance.
The Incident assist skill is deprecated as of Patch 9; customers should transition to the Incident assist agentic workflow for improved capabilities.
Role configurations are required to enable agentic workflows and AI agents; ensure appropriate roles are assigned for proper execution and security.
Several demo voice AI agents have been renamed to primers and are available as demo data for training and testing.
Some skills, including the Suggested steps skill, are being deprecated and replaced by the Learning Enhanced Automation Platform (LEAP); customers should consider installing the LEAP plugin for future readiness.

Activation and Related Applications

Now Assist for ITSM is available for installation through the ServiceNow Store. After installation, customers can use the Now Assist Admin console for configuration and monitoring, and leverage the Now Assist panel within Service Operations Workspace to interact with AI skills and workflows.

Related applications such as Now Assist provide generative AI features across ITSM workflows, including chat and incident summarization, resolution notes generation, and virtual agent support.

Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

Enhanced operational efficiency through AI-driven incident and change management automation.
Improved self-service capabilities and reduced load on live agents via AI-powered virtual agents and voice AI.
Better insights into incident trends, SLA performance, and virtual agent effectiveness with comprehensive dashboards.
Streamlined knowledge management with AI-assisted article creation and editing.
Increased security and governance by controlling AI agent access through role masking.
Modernized user experience with updated UI themes and conversational AI interfaces.

The ServiceNow® Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM) application brings agentic AI to IT Service Management. Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM) was enhanced and updated in the Zurich release.

Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM) highlights for the Zurich release

Zurich Patch 10

Automatically cluster incidents into trend categories and get AI-generated summaries of incident patterns using the Insights and Opportunities for Incident dashboard in Service Operations Workspace.

Zurich Patch 9

Track which knowledge articles and catalog items support successful virtual agent deflections instead of transferring to human agents using the ITSM Virtual Agent Analytics dashboard.
Use the Password reset with voice AI agent to reset your password.

Zurich Patch 8

Answer incident-related questions with context-aware agents using the Incident assist agentic workflow.
Generate summaries for Request Management records.

Zurich Patch 7

Submit a catalog item for an account unlock using the voice AI agent.
Generate automatic responses for requests and requested items.
Use the ITSM Conversational Analytics dashboard that provides usage adoption performance metrics in Now Assist in Virtual Agent.

Zurich Patch 5

Review changes to Now Assist usage measurement.

Zurich Patch 4

Some Now Assist skills are now turned on by default.
Add self-service and deflection to your phone channel with Voice AI agents.
Edit the incident summarization skill prompts and inputs within the Now Assist Skill Kit (NASK).
Use the Now Assist context menu to create AI-powered generative text.
Use agentic workflows in Change Management to quickly link configuration items (CIs) to a change request, intuitively create change requests, and easily associate outages with a change request.
Empower service desk agents to diagnose and resolve incidents on DEX monitored devices quickly and efficiently by using the  DEX issue diagnosis and resolution agentic workflow.

Zurich Patch 1

Use the Assess conflicts for a change request agentic workflow to run conflict detection for change requests and assess conflicts, identify affected CIs, and view the list of impacted services.
Use the Schedule a change agentic workflow to schedule change requests by identifying the available schedule slots.
Use the Explain SLA agentic workflow to understand the breakdown of task assignment and ownership for the SLA relevant to a specific incident, problem, case, or change request. Gain insight into the potential causes of a breach or delays.
Use the Assess quality of a Change Request agentic workflow to assess the quality of a change request, analyze the information available in the fields, and generate suggestions to improve the information in the fields.
Use the Wrap-up and resolve incident agentic workflow to resolve incidents, create, or attach Knowledge Base (KB) articles, update duplicate incident information, and attach Known Error (KE) articles to the incident record.

See Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM) for more information.

Important:

Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM) is available in the ServiceNow Store. For details, see the "Activation information" section of these release notes.

Important information for upgrading Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM) to Zurich

When you upgrade to the Zurich Patch 4 release, any customizations you may have made to the Now Assist context menu (NACM) won’t be preserved. For more information, see the Community article Upgrade information for the NACM support in Now Assist for ITSM.

The Incident assist agentic workflow is active by default and includes all the capabilities of the [DEPRECATED] Incident assist skill, with enhancements. When you upgrade to the Zurich Patch 8 release, if you have the [DEPRECATED] Incident assist skill activated, consider deactivating it to avoid redundancy. For more information, see Incident assist skill.

Starting with the Australia Patch 2, the Incident assist skill has been deprecated, moved to the Archive section, and is no longer available for use.

New in the Zurich release

Zurich Patch 10
Insights and Opportunities for Incident dashboard: Automatically cluster incidents into trend categories and get AI-generated summaries of incident patterns, along with insights into SLA performance, sentiment, channel adoption, and geographic distribution using the Insights and Opportunities for Incident dashboard in Service Operations Workspace.

Zurich Patch 9
ITSM Virtual Agent resources analytics: Identify which knowledge article or catalog item resources support successful deflections and which ones are unable in preventing the transfer to a live agent using the Resources tab in the ITSM Virtual Agent dashboard to gain visibility into the ITSM Virtual Agent usage and effectiveness.
Password reset voice AI agent: Use the Password reset with voice AI agent to reset your password by receiving instructions from a knowledge article via email, a reset link via SMS, or having the reset URL read out by voice.

Zurich Patch 8

ITSM Virtual Agent resources analytics

Identify which knowledge article or catalog item resources support successful deflections and which ones are unable in preventing the transfer to a live agent using the Resources tab in the ITSM Virtual Agent dashboard to gain visibility into the ITSM Virtual Agent usage and effectiveness.

Incident assist agentic workflow

Answer incident-related questions using context-aware agents. Handle queries about incident details and get information about related records.

Enhancements to the Incident assist skill

The features in the [DEPRECATED] Incident assist skill is available in the Incident assist agentic workflow. You may turn off this skill and use the agentic workflow that has enhanced capabilities.

Configure summaries for Request Management records

As an admin, you can configure the following Request Management skills:

Request summarization
Requested item summarization
Catalog task summarization

Summarize Request Management records

View an aggregate of all relevant updates and progress indicators in a single, dynamic summary.

Zurich Patch 7
Creating a catalog item for unlocking accounts using the voice AI agent: Use the demo Submit account unlock catalog with the voice AI agent to create a catalog item to unlock the specified account when a user calls the help desk.
Enhancements to Troubleshoot Outlook issue with voice AI agent: Email relevant troubleshooting articles and instructions to users when you troubleshoot Outlook issues for them.
ITSM Conversational analytics dashboard: Get insights into virtual agent adoption, usage trends, and track metrics in Now Assist in Virtual Agent.
Generate a response to request activity: Automatically generate a response in record activity streams using the activity response generation skills for requests and requested items.
Knowledge Article Advanced Editor page: Use the new Knowledge Article Advanced Editor page to create or edit Knowledge articles using open prompts.
DEX issue diagnosis and resolution agentic workflow: Service desk agents can diagnose and resolve Zoom call quality issues using the DEX issue diagnosis and resolution agentic workflow, which integrates Zoom-specific diagnostics that correlate device, network, and application data.
AI-powered root cause analysis for Zoom call quality issues: Use Now Assist for Zoom call issues to identify the root cause of call quality degradation and review the supporting metric evidence for deeper insight. The analysis highlights the contributing device and network factors directly in the Zoom call quality view. Get the real-time guidance, including device ready remedial actions, contextual self-help instructions, and relevant Knowledge articles to help resolve the issue efficiently.
Get AI driven insights for boot time performance: Monitor device boot time to identify slow start-up issues and use Now Assist to investigate the root cause and get suggested resolutions, including remedial actions, self-help instructions, and Knowledge articles to resolve boot performance problems quickly.

Zurich Patch 4
Adding self-service and deflection to phone channels using Voice AI agents: Enhance employee productivity with Voice AI agents by adding self-service and deflection to their phone channel.
Getting password reset instructions using an AI agent: The DEMO Password reset agent is a demo AI agent that provides requesters with password reset instructions for the account that they need help with.
Editing the incident summarization skill prompts and inputs using the Now Assist Skill Kit: You can edit the prompts and inputs for the incident summarization skill within the Now Assist Skill Kit (NASK) and test the updates you've made.
Expanding attachment summarization capabilities to include additional document formats and language: You can now summarize, analyze, and extract data from attachments in additional formats and languages.
Creating a knowledge article in any incident state: Create knowledge articles from any incident state by configuring a system property for the required states.
Edit a knowledge article when one article is attached to an incident: You can edit a knowledge article if your administrator has enabled the system property to display the Edit knowledge button and if you have only one article attached to the incident.
Enhancing the efficiency of the Investigate and resolve ITSM incidents agentic workflow: For better efficiency, the ITSM incident resolution investigation AI agent and Find catalog item AI agent have been combined into one agent. This agent is called the ITSM incident resolution plan investigation AI agent.
Enhancing the efficiency of the Triage and categorize ITSM incidents agentic workflow: For better efficiency, the Link major incident AI agent and the Link incident to problem AI agent have been combined into one agent. This agent is called the Link major incident or problem AI agent.
Enhancing the efficiency of the Generate change request plans agentic workflow: For better efficiency, the existing six agents in the change request plans agentic workflow have been combined into one agent. This agent is called the Change request plans AI agent.
Display the risk factors sources that contribute to the calculation of a change risk explanation: When a change risk is calculated, Now Assist for ITSM provides the list of the change requests that were used to identify the potential risks for the change risk explanation so that you can understand which risk factors contributed to the calculated risk.
Generating resolution notes using the Now Assist context menu: As an admin, you can view and configure the Now Assist context menu (NACM) to generate resolution notes using the Resolution notes generation skill.
Generating an activity response using the Now Assist context menu: As an admin, you can view and configure the Now Assist context menu (NACM) for an activity response using the Incident activity response generation skill.
Selecting the desired knowledge base and template for creating knowledge articles using the new interface: With this new interface, you can select the desired knowledge base and the template to create the article in Service Operations Workspace or Core UI.
Masking roles for controlled access to agentic workflows, AI agents, and skills: Mask roles to restrict access to agentic workflows, AI Agents, and skills, ensuring that users receive only the necessary permissions.
Suggest configuration items for a change request agentic workflow: Find and link applicable configuration items (CIs) to a change request from the Now Assist panel in a conversational and intuitive way using the Suggest configuration items for a change request agentic workflow.
Create outages for a change request agentic workflow: Associate outages with a change request in a conversational and intuitive way from the Now Assist panel using the Create outages for a change request agentic workflow.
Create standard change request agentic workflow: Create a standard, normal, or emergency change request in a conversational and intuitive way from the Now Assist panel using the Create standard change request agentic workflow.
Create standard change template proposal agentic workflow: Create a change template proposal record based on similar change requests in a conversational and intuitive way from the Now Assist panel using the Create standard change template proposal agentic workflow.
DEX issue diagnosis and resolution agentic workflow: Diagnose and resolve issues on DEX monitored devices through a structured process that includes diagnosis of the cause, a resolution plan with actionable steps, and documenting the resolution in the incident record.
Generate comprehensive release notes for a release in Digital Product Release: Automatically generate structured release notes for a release using the Generate Release Notes skill. This AI-driven capability compiles enhancements, features, incidents, and change records into structured notes with an executive summary and scope of work sections, reducing manual effort and ensuring consistency. You can edit the AI-generated draft as needed, then publish and share via link or PDF download.

Zurich Patch 1

Classify service and CI AI agent

Automatically assign the related service, service offering, and configuration item (CI) to an incident using the Classify service and CI AI agent in the Triage and categorize ITSM incidents agentic workflow.

Wrap-up and resolve incident agentic workflow

Generate resolution notes including root cause and resolution steps to resolve an incident, create or attach Knowledge Base (KB) articles, update duplicate incident information to the incident record. Attach Known Error (KE) articles when the resolution code is a known error. The agentic workflow has the following AI Agents:

Incident resolution details AI agent
Incident knowledge article AI agent
Incident known error article AI agent

IT Service Management AI agent collection assess conflicts for a change request agentic workflow

Autonomously identify conflict types and summarize the impacted schedules, CIs and services related to the change request using the Change conflict assessor AI agent.

IT Service Management AI agent collection assess quality of a change request agentic workflow

Assess the quality of a change request and generate suggestions to improve the quality as needed using the Change quality assessor AI agent.

IT Service Management AI agent collection explain SLA agentic workflow

View the detailed breakdown of the assignment and ownership relevant to the SLA for an incident, problem, case, or change request using the Explain SLA AI agent.

IT Service Management AI agent collection schedule a change agentic workflow

Find and schedule the optimum slots for change requests using the Schedule Change Request AI agent.

Setting the AI user as the Run as user in the Triage and categorize incidents agentic workflow

Create AI users for the identity type AI agent and assign roles to the AI user based on your needs. Run the agentic workflow as the AI user that determines the data access defined by the role.

Matching flow action access control roles with the agent roles for the Notify users with Twilio agentic workflow

When you update the agent role for the Notify users with Twilio agentic workflow, you must also update the corresponding access controls with those roles.

Matching flow action access control roles with the agent roles for the Manage Microsoft 365 group members agentic workflow

When you update the agent role for the Manage Microsoft 365 group members agentic workflow, you must also update the corresponding access controls with those roles.

Using the itil role to add or update work notes in the Now Assist panel

To add or update work notes in the Now Assist panel, the logged-in user must have the itil role.

UI changes

Coral theme: Coral is now the default theme for new portal, web, and mobile experiences with Next Experience or Core UI enabled. This theme provides a fresh look and feel, featuring brand-neutral illustrations to enhance your user experience. A dark theme option is available for web and mobile experiences.
Zurich Patch 4Changing the password reset topic to an AI agent: The Virtual Agent Password reset topic has been changed to a Virtual Agent AI agent. The agent guides the users with instructions to reset passwords using KB articles in their self-service portal.

Changed in this release

Zurich Patch 8
Renaming the Incident assist skill: The Incident assist skill has been renamed to [DEPRECATED] Incident assist.
Renaming demo voice AI agents: The voice AI demo agents have been renamed as primers.
Editing change request skills using Now Assist Skill Kit (NASK): Easily edit the change request risk explanation and change request summarization skill prompts and inputs directly in the Now Assist Skill Kit (NASK).
Role masking for change risk explanation skill: Enhance security for the change request risk explanation skill by enabling admins to limit roles that are inherited by the user.

Zurich Patch 7

Skills activated by default in Now Assist for ITSM

For new Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM) users, the following skills are activated by default:

Resolution notes generation
Knowledge generation
Chat reply recommendation

Virtual agent topics available as demo data

The Virtual Agent topics listed in this table have been renamed and are now available as demo data.


Existing name	Updated name
Add Comment To Incident	(DEMO) Add Comment To Incident-LLM
Approve Sysapproval Approver	(DEMO) Approve Sysapproval Approver-LLM
Change Password	(DEMO) Change Password (Template) - LLM
Check IT Ticket Status	(DEMO) Check IT Ticket Status (Template)
Close Incident	(DEMO) Close Incident-LLM
Explain change risk	(DEMO) Explain change risk
Mark Incident Unresolved	(DEMO) Mark Incident Unresolved-LLM
Open IT Ticket	(DEMO) Open IT Ticket (Template)-LLM
Reject Sysapproval Approver	(DEMO) Reject Sysapproval Approver-LLM
Reset Password	(DEMO) Reset Password (Template) - LLM
Resolve Incident	(DEMO) Resolve Incident-LLM
Unlock Account	(DEMO) Unlock Account (Template) - LLM
View And Add Comments	(DEMO) View And Add Comments-LLM

Changes to Now Assist usage measurement

Starting with Zurich Patch 5, Now Assist usage measurement is transitioning from a 365-day look-back model to a 365-day burn-down model, with usage resetting at the contract anniversary date. For more information, refer to KB KB2704710: Now Assist Usage - Overview & New Measurement Logic.

Configuration item details for suggest configuration items for a change request workflow

Provide details such as class, location, and environment to find configuration items (CIs) relevant to a change request while using the suggest configuration items for a change request agentic workflow from the Now Assist panel.

Zurich Patch 4

Role configuration required for agentic workflows and AI agents

Agentic workflows and AI agents included with Now Assist applications require additional security configuration. If you select Users with selected roles for your user access security controls for an agentic workflow or AI agent, you must add the installed roles, or they won't execute. Data access settings must also include these roles. See the documentation for the agentic workflow or AI agent for the specific roles you must add. After the roles are configured, users must have the specified role to invoke the agentic workflow or AI agent.

Some Now Assist skills are turned on by default

The new default behavior works as follows:

New customers: When you install a Now Assist product, designated skills are turned on automatically.
Existing customers who are upgrading (starting with Zurich Patch 4): Any previously unconfigured skill is turned on automatically (the skill was never configured and turned on, then turned off again). Previously configured skills that were turned on, then off, remain inactive.