Playbooks in Workflow Studio release notes
Summarize
Summary of Playbooks in Workflow Studio Release Notes (Zurich)
The ServiceNow® Playbooks builder within Workflow Studio empowers playbook owners to design multi-flow processes through a diagram or task board interface. The Zurich release introduces significant enhancements to improve playbook creation, execution, and management, enabling more dynamic and AI-powered workflows. Playbooks are available via the ServiceNow Store and require the latest Workflow Studio app to access new features.
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Key Features
- Enhanced Triggering Options: Activate playbooks without predefined triggers, set multiple triggers including scheduled ones, or trigger playbooks programmatically via APIs with input objects.
- AI Integration (Agentic Playbooks): Enable AI agents to autonomously or collaboratively complete activities during runtime. You can add existing AI skills as activities or integrate custom AI agents for specialized tasks.
- Child Variant Evaluation: Postpone evaluation of child variants until after specific activities, allowing more flexible process control.
- Decision Branching: Create decision nodes between stages to dynamically select the next stage based on runtime conditions, including parallel activities within branches.
- Playbook Summarization: Generate AI-powered summaries that outline stages, activities, triggers, and inputs for quick understanding without manual review.
- Permissions Management: Assign granular permissions for playbook authors (create, edit, view) and runtime users (view, add activities, restart, complete work in stages).
- LLM Selection: Choose from multiple large language models (NowLLM, OpenAI ChatGPT4-o, Gemini, Claude) for playbook generation and recommendations.
- User Experience Improvements: Enhanced navigation and interaction in diagram and board views, including better decision activity handling and rich text editing with pills and text combinations.
Activation and Upgrade Guidance
To leverage the Zurich updates, customers must upgrade to the latest Workflow Studio app from the ServiceNow Store. The Playbooks feature is part of Workflow Studio on the ServiceNow AI Platform and can be supplemented with the Now Assist for Creator app for playbook generation capabilities. Playbooks can be triggered programmatically or by configured triggers, providing flexible deployment options.
Accessibility and Localization
- Keyboard navigation and screen reader support are enhanced in Diagram view.
- Color contrast improvements meet WCAG standards.
- Note: OpenAI LLMs for playbook generation are not available in the APAC region.
Related Applications
- Workflow Studio: Integrates Workflow Studio, Action Designer, Integration Hub, and Decision Builder into a unified design environment for streamlined workflow authoring and monitoring.
- Flow Designer: Enables no-code automation of approvals, tasks, notifications, and record operations within Workflow Studio.
- Playbook Experiences: Allows customization of the playbook user interface tailored for agents.
The ServiceNow® Playbooks builder within the ServiceNow® Workflow Studio application enables playbook owners to create multiple-flow processes in a diagram or task board interface. The Playbooks builder was enhanced and updated in the Zurich release.
Playbooks highlights for the Zurich release
- Add permissions for playbook authors and runtime users.
- Activate a playbook without a trigger. Set multiple potential triggers for a playbook, or trigger a playbook on a schedule.
- Enable AI agents to complete activities without human intervention during runtime.
- Set child variants to evaluate later in a playbook.
- Create decision branches for stages.
See Exploring Playbook for more information.
Important information for upgrading Playbooks to Zurich
After you upgrade to Zurich, update the Workflow Studio application in the ServiceNow Store.
New in the Zurich release
- Set child variants to evaluate later in a playbook
- Instead of evaluating immediately after the trigger, set a playbook's child variants to be evaluated after a specific activity in the playbook.
- Agentic Playbooks
- Enable AI agents to assist users with activities during runtime.
- Add permissions for playbook authors
- Control which playbook authors can create, edit, and view playbooks in Workflow Studio
- Add permissions for runtime users
- Control whether runtime users can view a playbook, add optional activities, restart a playbook, and complete work within specific stages.
- Create decision branches for stages
- Add a decision node between stages to determine which stage to run next, based on runtime conditions.
- Set multiple triggers
- Configure a playbook to run based on any one of multiple triggers.
- Schedule when a playbook should trigger
- Configure a playbook to run based on a schedule.
- Choose your LLM for playbook generation and recommendations
- Choose between NowLLM, OpenAI ChatGPT4-o, Gemini, Claude for playbook generation and recommendations.
- Route users to stages based on decisions
- Send runtime users to a stage based off of the trigger record or input that users provide.
- Generate a playbook with a trigger
- Generate a playbook with both a trigger and activities.
Changed in this release
- Activate playbooks without a trigger
- Configure and activate playbooks without specifying triggers, so that playbooks are only triggered programmatically.
- Implement playbooks that are callable by a scriptable API
- Configure a playbook that executes with an input object instead of requiring the configuration of a trigger record reference and trigger conditions.
- Decision activity enhancements
- User experience improvements to decision activities:
- In the Board view, select the branch or Start rule icon on a decision activity card to see a list of dependent activities and branches, and to navigate to them.
- When a decision or one of its branch nodes is selected in Diagram view, the decision and all of its branches are selected, and the side panel opens.
- Add parallel activities within decision branches.
- Enter a combination of pills and text in an email body
- Enter a combination of text and multiple pills in any rich text / HTML editor container, such as an email body.
Deprecations
- now.assist.creator role
Activation information
The application comes with the Workflow Studio ServiceNow Store app. Workflow Studio is part of the ServiceNow AI Platform® and is available by default. Get the latest Workflow Studio features by downloading the latest Workflow Studio app in the ServiceNow Store, as well as related applications like the Process Automation Content and Process Automation Experience Demo applications. The application can be downloaded for patch fixes.
To use the playbook generation feature in Workflow Studio, download the Now Assist for Creator application.
Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.
Additional requirements
Download the latest Workflow Studio app in the ServiceNow Store to access the newest features.
Accessibility information
- In Diagram view, navigate between and configure stages and activities via keyboard.
- Set the action bar to always show in Diagram view. To learn more, see View all buttons without hover.
- In Diagram view, use a screen reader to help navigate the designer.
- Updated color contrast for activities to meet WCAG standards.
Localization information
Using OpenAI LLMs for playbook generation is not available in the APAC region.