Now Assist for Vulnerability Response release notes

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated February 2, 2026
  • 7 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Now Assist for Vulnerability Response Release Notes (Zurich)

    Now Assist for Vulnerability Response, part of ServiceNow's vulnerability management suite, enhances vulnerability analysts’ and remediation owners’ ability to autonomously track, monitor, and remediate vulnerabilities using generative AI capabilities. Starting with Zurich Patch 12, this application is renamed and enhanced asServiceNow Otto for Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM). While Now Assist for Vulnerability Response will no longer be installed on new instances, it remains supported during this transition. Customers retain their entitlements and access to existing features.

    Show full answer Show less

    Key Features

    • Generative AI Skills: Automatically identify duplicate vulnerable items, recommend preferred remediation solutions, and generate contextual risk insights to help prioritize critical vulnerabilities.
    • Agentic Workflows: Automate vulnerability exposure assessments and remediation status analysis to track SLAs, identify gaps, and allocate resources effectively.
    • Natural Language AI Interaction: Vulnerability managers and analysts can interact with AI agents via natural language to retrieve host and application vulnerability data in both USEM and legacy workspaces.
    • Custom API Connectors: Use AI-assisted automation to build API connectors within the Security Posture Control workspace, enabling integration with external security tools and enhanced asset data import.
    • Granular Role Management: New detailed roles allow precise control over read/write access to remediation compliance insights, improving security and governance.

    Important Changes and Upgrades

    • Default Activation of Skills: Some generative AI skills are now enabled by default for new installations and unconfigured upgrades, ensuring quicker adoption of AI capabilities.
    • Role Configuration for AI Agents: Additional role assignments are required to enable agentic workflows and AI agents to execute properly, supporting secure operation.
    • Usage Measurement Update: AI usage tracking shifted to a 365-day burn-down model resetting at contract anniversary, providing more accurate usage metrics.
    • Plugin Upgrade Behavior: Upgrading activates default skills unless previously deactivated, but customers retain control to disable unwanted skills post-upgrade.
    • Dependency Management: Updating ServiceNow Otto for USEM automatically updates related dependency applications to ensure compatibility.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Accelerate vulnerability remediation with AI-driven insights and automated workflows.
    • Improve decision-making with AI-recommended remediation solutions and approval impact analyses.
    • Enhance security posture visibility through AI-generated summaries and risk prioritization in the Security Exposure Management Workspace.
    • Streamline integrations with security tools via AI-assisted custom API connector creation.
    • Maintain secure and compliant access controls with granular role assignments for AI and workflow execution.

    Activation and Availability

    ServiceNow Otto for Unified Security Exposure Management is available through the ServiceNow Store. Customers should request installation via the Store and review the documentation for configuration details, role assignments, and upgrade guidance to fully leverage enhanced AI capabilities.

    The ServiceNow® Now Assist for Vulnerability Response application can help your vulnerability analysts and remediation owners track, monitor, and remediate vulnerable items autonomously with generative AI skills. Starting with Zurich Patch 12, the ServiceNow® Now Assist for Vulnerability Response application was enhanced and updated in the Zurich release and is called ServiceNow Otto for Unified Security Exposure Management.

    Now Assist for Vulnerability Response highlights for the Zurich release

    Starting with Zurich Patch 12, Now Assist for Vulnerability Response is being prepared for future deprecation. It will be hidden and no longer installed on new instances but will continue to be supported. For details, see the Deprecation Process [KB0867184] article in the Now Support Knowledge Base. The change is reflected in the name of ServiceNow® products, including Now Assist for Vulnerability Response which is called ServiceNow Otto for Unified Security Exposure Management with these enhancements. See Now Assist in Unified Security Exposure Management for more information. Your entitlements remain unchanged. Check your entitlements to determine your access to specific features.

    Zurich Patch 5
    • Review changes to Now Assist usage measurement. See the "Changed in this release" section below.
    • Retrieve host (Vulnerability Response) and Application Vulnerability Response (AVR) data with the Retrieve VR Data agentic workflow.
    • The Retrieve VR Data agentic workflow is supported in the Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) and legacy Vulnerability Response workspaces.
    Zurich Patch 4
    • Some Now Assist skills are now turned on by default.
    • Use generative AI to help you build custom API connectors in the Security Posture Control workspace.
    • Additional role configuration required for agentic workflows and AI agents included with your applications.
    Zurich Patch 1
    • Help analysts identify and remove duplicate host vulnerable items.
    • Help analysts resolve remediation tasks with preferred vulnerability solutions from third-party vendors.

    Zurich Early Availability: Help your vulnerability managers and analysts to resolve remediation tasks, assess your exposure to vulnerabilities, and analyze metrics for remediation targets. Chat with AI agents in natural language from the Now Assist panel.

    Important:
    ServiceNow Otto for Unified Security Exposure Management is available in the ServiceNow Store. For details, see the "Activation information" section of these release notes.

    Important information for upgrading ServiceNow Otto for Unified Security Exposure Management to Zurich

    The following Now Assist skills for ServiceNow Otto for Unified Security Exposure Management are activated by default.
    • Recommend preferred solution for VIT (VR)
    • Vulnerable item de-duplication (VR)
    • Approval Recommendation (VR)(USEM)
    • Security Exposure Management (SEM) Insights (VR)(USEM)
    • SPC Setup Connector (Security Posture Control)
    Note:

    Upgrading the Now Assist plugins activate any designated skills that were previously untouched by the customer.

    • If you have the plugins installed but never touched the configuration (never activated the skill nor adjusted associated roles) of a skill, any Default On skill will be activated on a per skill basis upon upgrading.
    • If you have previously toggled a skill from active and then back to inactive or have updated any roles for that skill, that skill remains inactive upon upgrading.
    • You maintain full control over deactivating individual skills at any time after activation.

    When you update the ServiceNow Otto for Unified Security Exposure Management application, the dependency applications are automatically updated.

    For more information about required applications for ServiceNow Otto for Unified Security Exposure Management, see Supporting information for Unified Security Exposure Management AI skills and agents.

    New in the Zurich release

    Zurich Patch 5
    Retrieve Vulnerability and exposure data with generative AI
    Chat with an AI agent using natural language to retrieve host (Vulnerability Response) and Application Vulnerability Response (AVR) data in the Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) and legacy Vulnerability Response workspaces.
    Zurich Patch 4
    Role configuration required for agentic workflows and AI agents
    Agentic workflows and AI agents included with your 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 will not execute. See the documentation for the agentic workflow or AI agent for the specific roles you must add.
    Create a custom API service graph connector in the Security Posture Control (SPC) workspace
    Use generative AI to help your developers create SPC API connectors quickly with the Connector builder framework module in the SPC workspace. With a Now Assist skill that is included with the ServiceNow Otto for Unified Security Exposure Management application, your developers have the option to automate steps in the Connector builder framework.
    • Automate the steps for selecting API templates, populating request and header parameters, and response field mapping.
    • Use your custom API connector to integrate with security tools and import asset data that is based on the unique requirements of your environment.
    • Help your cybersecurity teams monitor your overall security posture and identify assets that are missing key security tools with the API connectors that you build.

    See Creating your own API connectors in Security Posture Control for more information and the required applications.

    Generate insights to prioritize risks
    Use generative AI to provide contextual summaries, actionable recommendations, and quick links in the Security Exposure Management Workspace, helping you prioritize critical risks and accelerate remediation.
    Generate recommendation for approval impact analysis
    Use generative AI to provide on-demand recommendations to approve or reject a request directly from the Exception Change Approval record. This features enables approvers to make fast, consistent decisions while reducing manual analysis effort.
    Zurich Patch 2
    Granular roles
    The sn_vul_ai.write_rem_insights and sn_vul_ai.read_rem_insights granular roles have been added and are inherited by the sn_vul.vulnerability_admin and sn_vul.vulnerability_analyst roles automatically. These roles provide you with more control over read and write access for the records on the Remediation Compliance Insights [sn_vul_ai_remediation_insights] caching table. The VR.System role also inherits these granular roles so background job execution for the workflow can occur.
    Zurich Patch 1
    Identify duplicate vulnerable items with generative AI
    Use generative AI to identify duplicates for your active host vulnerable items that are imported by your vulnerability scanners. Use generative AI reasoning with Now Assist to help your analysts differentiate between primary vulnerability items (VITs) and those VITs that are duplicates. Close duplicate VITs and move their associated detections automatically to the primary VIT records.
    Identify preferred vulnerability solutions with ServiceNow Otto for Unified Security Exposure Management
    Use generative AI to analyze available remediation options pulled from integrated third-party products like Red Hat, Tenable for Vulnerability Response, or internal solution management systems. Evaluate each option against the specific configuration item context, for example, the OS version or software version, and get recommendations for the most viable fix for implementation.
    Zurich Early Availability
    Using agentic workflows

    The assess vulnerability exposure agentic workflow enables vulnerability managers to determine your exposure to vulnerabilities.

    • Determine your exposure to the most current Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) known vulnerabilities in your environment. Assess their potential impact to your configuration items (CIs) and business services.
    • Identify assets with Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs).
    • Determine the number of active VITs that correspond to CVEs. Create watch topics for VIT remediation.

    The analyze vulnerability remediation status agentic workflow helps vulnerability managers to monitor and assess remediation target compliance.

    • Track Service Level Agreement (SLA) compliance - Understand how effectively your organization is meeting remediation goals for vulnerabilities based on your SLAs.
    • Analyze missed SLAs by severity, assignment group, and configuration item (CI) class. Pinpoint gaps in remediation by categorizing overdue VITs based on severity, assignment groups, and CI classes to enable targeted interventions and smarter resource allocation.

    Changed in this release

    Zurich Patch 5
    Changes to Now Assist usage measurement
    Starting with Australia Early Access, AI 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: AI Usage - Overview & New Measurement Logic.
    Zurich Patch 4
    Some generative AI skills are turned on by default
    The new default behavior works as follows:
    • New customers: When you install an AI product, designated skills are turned on automatically.
    • Existing customers who are upgrading (starting with Australia Early Access): 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.

    Activation information

    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. Install ServiceNow Otto for Unified Security Exposure Management by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. 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.