Using AI agents in Virtual Agent topics

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Using AI agents in Virtual Agent topics

    Utilize AI agents in the Virtual Agent topics to automate tasks, such as retrieving information from Knowledge Base articles, enhancing user interactions. AI agents can be accessed through the AI Connector utility in the Virtual Agent Designer.

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    Key Features

    • AI Agent Custom Skills: Integrate custom skills to perform specific tasks when prompted.
    • AI Agent Marketplace: Explore additional AI agents available for installation on your instance.
    • Task Definition: Specify tasks by inputting values in the Task input mapping variable, such as retrieving a specific Knowledge Base article.
    • Output Mapping: Automatically defined properties that return data upon task completion, including execution plan details and messages.

    Key Outcomes

    By leveraging AI agents, customers can improve the efficiency of their Virtual Agent interactions, ensuring timely access to information and enhancing overall user experience. The output mappings provide clarity on task execution, helping users understand the results of AI agent activities.

    Use an AI agent custom skill to have it perform a task passed to it, such as compiling info on a KB article.

    Looking for an AI agent?
    • There might be AI agents installed with the Now Assist application that are not used in agentic workflows. To learn how to see all agents that are available on your instance, see Find AI agents.
    • To find agents that might not be installed on your instance, visit the AI Agent Marketplace on the ServiceNow Store.

    An AI agent performs a task that you pass to it inside the AI Connector utility in Virtual Agent Designer. For more information on the AI Connector utility, see AI Connector utility.

    For example, you can use the AI Agent in the AI Connector utility to get all data on a Knowledge Base article. The AI Agent provides the article if it is available or notifies you if it can't find it. The agent also provides data on the consolidation itself by way of its output mappings.

    To see which AI agents are installed on your instance, see Find AI agents.

    To use the AI agent, select it from the Skill type drop-down list in the AI Connector utility, then select the AI agent's type from the Select AI agent drop-down. For example, to have the AI agent consolidate a knowledge base article, select KB content consolidation AI agent.

    Define the task for the AI agent by placing a value in the Task input mapping variable. You can define a condition, or enter a script or command. For example, enter return KB00090; to have the AI agent retrieve that knowledge base article and consolidate its information into a reply in the Virtual Agent chat.

    The AI agent's output mapping properties are automatically defined when you select the AI agent type. All output mappings are returned in the chat when the AI agent completes the task.

    Select the AI agent and its task type inside the AI Connector utility.
    Table 1. AI agent output mapping properties
    Variable Description
    Execution plan ID ID number of the execution plan.
    Execution state Current state of the execution plan.
    Objective Intended task for the execution plan.
    State reason Reason for the execution plan's current state.
    Messages List of messages sent through the execution plan.
    Execution tasks List of tasks in the execution plan.
    Execution tools List of tools in the execution plan.

    When the AI agent performs its job, it generates the full plan showing the input and output mappings. Each plan shows the objective, all tasks performed for the objective, and any messages sent or tools used in the plan. All plans are listed in the Execution Plan [sn_aia_execution_plan_list] table.

    Execution plan for consolidating KB00090.