Using language detection and dynamic machine translation in Virtual Agent NLU and LLM standard chat conversations

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated March 6, 2025
  • 9 minutes to read
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    Summary of Using language detection and dynamic machine translation in Virtual Agent NLU and LLM standard chat conversations

    This feature enables ServiceNow Virtual Agent to enhance multilingual chat experiences by combining language detection with dynamic machine translation. It allows users to interact in their preferred language, even if that language is not professionally localized or supported in topic discovery. Language detection identifies the user’s language on their first utterance and can prompt to switch the conversation language or switch it automatically based on configuration.

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    This capability is particularly useful for supporting languages beyond those professionally localized (e.g., Spanish and French) by dynamically translating unsupported languages (e.g., Dutch or Danish), ensuring a smooth and inclusive chat experience.

    Key Features

    • Language Detection: Detects the language of the first user utterance and can prompt users to switch the conversational language accordingly.
    • Fallback Languages: Supports fallback language assignment for locale-specific codes (e.g., Mexican Spanish falls back to Spanish) to maintain conversational continuity.
    • Dynamic Machine Translation: Translates Virtual Agent conversations dynamically when no professional localization is available, using cached translations to optimize performance and reduce calls to external translation services.
    • Integration with NLU and LLM Conversations: Language detection applies to the initial utterance only; conversations continue in the chosen language. Dynamic translation covers both NLU and LLM standard chat conversations.
    • Translation Storage and Refresh: Translated texts are temporarily stored and refreshed every 24 hours to ensure up-to-date translation quality aligned with platform updates.
    • Selective Use: Dynamic translation can be disabled for languages with professional translations to maintain accuracy.
    • Support for Guest Users: Language detection requires resumable guest sessions enabled; otherwise, guest user language detection is not supported.
    • Agent Chat Considerations: For consistent multilingual support, dynamic translation should be enabled for both Virtual Agent and live Agent Chat to avoid communication confusion.
    • Supported Channels: Available on ServiceNow chat widget, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Workplace from Facebook, and Facebook Messenger. Not supported on ServiceNow mobile client, WhatsApp, LINE, Twilio SMS, Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri.

    How It Works

    • On the first user message, language detection triggers and may prompt the user to switch languages.
    • If the user accepts the switch, the conversation language updates and remains active for that session and subsequent sessions restarted via the chat widget.
    • If the user declines, the conversation continues in the preferred or default language without further prompts for that session.
    • Dynamic translation applies to any untranslated content, translating both user inputs and Virtual Agent responses in real-time.
    • If a language is unsupported or not enabled for dynamic translation, the conversation defaults to the user’s preferred or system default language.
    • Language detection occurs once per conversation; mid-conversation language changes are not recognized.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Improves accessibility and user satisfaction by allowing conversations in users’ preferred or native languages.
    • Extends Virtual Agent language coverage beyond professionally localized languages without requiring immediate translation efforts.
    • Reduces manual localization overhead by leveraging machine translation, while allowing phased professional localization.
    • Provides flexibility to support complex locale-specific language codes through fallback configurations.
    • Ensures seamless multilingual experience across multiple communication channels supported by ServiceNow Virtual Agent.
    • Maintains translation accuracy by allowing disabling of dynamic translation for fully localized languages.

    Configuration and Next Steps

    To implement language detection and dynamic translation, enable these features in your ServiceNow instance according to your deployment needs. Configure fallback languages for locales as appropriate, and selectively enable or disable dynamic translation based on your localization status. Consider enabling dynamic translation for Agent Chat to provide consistent multilingual support for live agents and customers.

    For further guidance, consult ServiceNow documentation on activating languages, enabling dynamic translation, and localizing Virtual Agent conversations.

    Enable a combination of language detection and machine translation for Virtual Agent to improve the chat experience for diverse users. You can designate fallback languages for locales or dynamically translate languages that are not professionally localized or are not supported in topic discovery.

    Chat users are more comfortable having conversations in their preferred language. Their preferred language is set in the user's profile language preference. For example, Virtual Agent greets users in the preferred language specified in their user profile. But if a user responds in another language, Virtual Agent can detect the change. Depending on your user experience, users either receive a prompt regarding whether they'd like to switch the conversational language to the detected language or the conversational language updates automatically to the detected language. After the language is switched to the detected language, that language becomes the conversation's language for the remainder of the conversation. But in many cases users don't have control over their preferred language, particularly if they are guest users.

    Guest conversations do not support language detection if resumable guest sessions are not enabled. This is why language detection and dynamic machine translation can improve the chat experience, particularly if you have conversations that have not been localized in some languages. For example, your organization may routinely localize into Spanish and French, but you may also want to support Dutch and Danish. You can enable Dynamic Translation on your ServiceNow® instance for those languages.

    You can use language detection to support custom or locale-specific language codes as well. For example, NLU topic discovery doesn't support Mexican Spanish (es-mx), but it does support Spanish (es). You can designate Spanish as the fallback language for Mexican Spanish, ensuring that these users have a good customer experience.

    Virtual Agent conversations can be dynamically translated. Virtual Agent uses platform translations and if no platform translations are found, then Dynamic Translation is used instead. If some conversations have been professionally translated, you should disable dynamic translation for those specific languages. Expert translations of your NLU models, keywords, and topics may be more accurate and of higher quality than machine translations. Prior to making a dynamic translation call, the Text Translations for Dynamic Translation [sys_cs_dynamic_translation_text] and Message [sys_ui_message] tables are checked to see if the text has been previously translated or already has a localization record. A dynamic translation call is only made if no translation exists in either table. After a dynamic translation call is made and that text is translated, that translated text is stored in the Text Translations for Dynamic Translation [sys_cs_dynamic_translation_text] table for future use. This table is cleared every 24 hours to ensure that the most up-to-date translations stored in the Message [sys_ui_message] table are being referenced. Storing previously translated text results in fewer dynamic translation calls to third-party translation services. For more information about localizing Virtual Agent conversations, see Localizing Virtual Agent conversations.

    You can use Dynamic Translation during the localization process as well. If you are localizing conversations with professional linguists, you can enable Dynamic Translation while some topics and strings remain untranslated. When your deployment in that language is complete, you can disable Dynamic Translation, since professional translations are likely more accurate.

    Video link Virtual Agent Academy: Dynamically translate languages in Virtual Agent Watch this video for a demonstration of using Virtual Agent with Dynamic Translation.

    Note:
    You can use language detection independently of Dynamic Translation.

    Language detection and Dynamic Translation process in Virtual Agent NLU and LLM standard chat conversations

    When you enable language detection and Dynamic Translation for Virtual Agent for other languages, a variety of diverse users gain access to your Virtual Agent chat environment.

    Language detection for NLU and LLM conversations are enabled in the same location. For more information on enabling language detection, see Enable Dynamic Translation for languages in Virtual Agent. Dynamic Translation for NLU and LLM conversations are enabled in different locations. For more information on enabling dynamic translation, see Enable Dynamic Translation for languages in Virtual Agent and Enable translation for Now Assist applications.

    Language detection is only applicable to the first utterance entered into the conversation. Conversational language switching cannot occur mid-conversation. Language detection prompts users with a question regarding whether they'd like to switch the conversational language during Virtual Agent NLU or LLM standard chat conversations.

    When language detection is turned off, no conversational language switching can occur.

    The default system language sets all users’ default session language. That user's default session language is what sets the conversational language. It is also the preferred language in your NLU model, if NLU is enabled. When a user types an utterance that is not recognized as the system language, the results depend upon your configuration for that language.

    The following examples show how a conversational language can be impacted depending upon the language detection and dynamic translation settings:

    Note:
    If you create exclusion rules for Dynamic Translation, those excluded terms are honored during Dynamic Translation. For more information about the Exclusion Framework, see Exclusion Framework in Dynamic Translation.
    Table 1. Language detection and Dynamic Translation configuration settings and results
    Language configuration Results in Virtual Agent NLU or LLM standard chat conversations
    Language detection and Dynamic Translation are not configured. For unlocalized conversations, the language the topics appear in is dependent on the language they were authored in. Typically, the default system language is used for topics and topic discovery.
    Language detection is enabled, but not Dynamic Translation

    Language responses can show up differently depending on whether localization was done or not for those topics. The conversation language may continue in the detected language based on whether localization records for those topics were previously included. If localization records are not provided, the conversation language would continue in the preferred conversational language.

    If the detected language is a locale or other language code that has been configured with a fallback language, Virtual Agent asks the user if they want to switch the conversation to the fallback language.

    For example, if the detected language is Mexican Spanish (mx-es), and Spanish (es) has been designated as the fallback language, Virtual Agent asks: I have detected you are typing in Spanish. Would you like to switch the conversation to Spanish? (Yes/No)

    If the user selects Yes, the fallback language is used for topic discovery and topic display. This continues until the conversation ends.

    If the user selects No, Virtual Agent will not prompt them again during the conversation.
    Language detection and Dynamic Translation are enabled

    If the detected language is enabled for dynamic translation in Virtual Agent Chat Settings, Virtual Agent asks the user if they want to switch the conversation to the detected language.

    For example, the preferred conversational language is in English but the user types an utterance in Spanish. The user receives a prompt asking whether they'd like to switch the conversation to Spanish. The prompt reads, I have detected you are typing in Spanish. Would you like to switch the conversation to Spanish? (Yes/No)

    If the user selects No, Virtual Agent will not prompt them again during the conversation and the conversation continues in English.

    If the user selects Yes, the utterance is translated to the default language. The default language for NLU conversations is within the glide.sys.language system property. The default language for LLM conversations is within the com.glide.cs.llm.default.Language system property. All topic matches are translated dynamically into the user's conversation language and displayed. In this example, the conversation will now continue in Spanish and Virtual Agent expects the user to continue chatting in Spanish. After the conversation ends and the user restarts a new conversation by reloading their browser or initially navigating to a portal with no conversation in progress, the prior conversational language (Spanish in this example) continues.

    Figure 1. Example of a Virtual Agent LLM standard chat conversation using language detection
    Virtual Agent detects an utterance in Spanish and asks the user if they want to switch, in both English and Spanish.
    The language detection and dynamic machine translation process operates according to the following principles:
    • Language detection occurs only once per conversation, at the initial utterance.

      If a user tries to change the language in the middle of a conversation, Virtual Agent returns an I didn't understand message.

    • When the conversation has closed and restarted, the language used in the next conversation varies depending on how the user restarted the conversation. If the user restarted the conversation by reloading their browser, the preferred language is restored in the next conversation. If the user restarted the conversation by using the chat widget's restart feature, the previous conversational language is restored in the next conversation. Regardless of how a conversation has closed and restarted for NLU or LLM standard chat conversations, if a user did not accept to switch languages after a different language was detected in the previous conversation, the preferred language is restored in the next conversation.
    • If a user's detected language is the same as the preferred language, the user is not asked to switch languages.
    • If a user's detected language has no fallback language specified and dynamic translation is not enabled for it, the conversation continues in the preferred language.
    • If a user's detected language is not activated on the instance, the conversation continues in the preferred language. For more information, see Activate a language.
    Note:
    AI Search results are not translated.

    Dynamic Translation and Agent Chat

    If Dynamic Translation is enabled on Virtual Agent but turned off for Agent Chat, the live agent will see what the user sees. If the user started the conversation in another language and the conversational language switches, then the live agent will see the conversation in the user's detected language. This may cause some confusion for both the agent and the customer. To resolve this issue, consider turning on Dynamic Translation for Agent Chat as well. For details, see Configuring Dynamic Translation for Agent Chat.

    Supported languages

    For better results, install the ServiceNow language plugins for each language that uses dynamic translation. For a detailed list of language plugins, see Activate a language.

    You can enable dynamic translation for languages that are not currently supported on the ServiceNow platform. For details, see Enable Dynamic Translation for an unsupported language.

    Supported channels

    Dynamic Translation for Virtual Agent is currently supported in the following channels:
    • ServiceNow chat widget
    • Microsoft Teams
    • Slack
    • Workplace from Facebook
    • Facebook Messenger
    Note:
    The Virtual Agent topic test window may identify user utterances from Microsoft Teams or other adapters as sysparm_search_text. Dynamic Translation will translate this content as well.
    The following channels do not support Dynamic Translation for Virtual Agent:
    • ServiceNow mobile client
    • WhatsApp
    • LINE
    • Twilio SMS
    • Alexa
    • Google Assistant
    • Siri