Skill inputs and triggers for Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM)
Summarize
Summary of Skill inputs and triggers for Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM)
Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM) enables configuration of skill inputs and triggers to control how and when AI-driven skills operate within ServiceNow. Inputs specify data sources like tables and fields used by a skill, while triggers define events that initiate skill actions. Multiple AI model providers such as Now LLM Service, Azure OpenAI, and Google Gemini can be leveraged through the AI Control Tower and Now Assist Admin console.
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Skill Inputs and Triggers Details
Various ITSM skills have predefined inputs and triggers, which in this release are not customizable by users but are essential for skill functionality:
- Incident Sentiment Analysis Skill: Uses incident table fields like short description, description, priority, and state to analyze sentiment (positive, neutral, negative) and trends.
- Suggested Steps Generation Skill: Clusters incidents based on short description and filters to suggest resolution steps using similar incidents from the past 6 months.
- Major Incident Email Content Recommendation Skill: Utilizes multiple incident-related fields and additional tables like Task SLA and Collaboration chat to generate email content with Gen AI variables.
- Chat Summarization Skill: Triggered by events such as Virtual Agent handoff, quick actions by live agents, or chat wrap-up, and controls summary display formats.
- Chat Reply Recommendation Skill: Activated manually by agents to generate reply suggestions with configurable Now Assist icon properties and actions.
- Sidebar Discussion Summarization Skill: Generates summaries via quick action triggers with display options for bulleted lists.
- Incident Summarization Skill: Generates incident summaries triggered by assignment changes with inputs including description, work notes, and comments, tailored by incident state.
- Incident Assist Skill: Provides incident-related topics like similar incidents, expert consultation, and caller asset retrieval within the Now Assist panel.
- Resolution Notes Generation Skill: Produces resolution notes for incidents based on incident fields and can be user-triggered or automatic.
- Incident Activity Response Recommendation Skill: Suggests responses for work notes or comments with specific trigger actions like summarizing or posting responses.
- Knowledge Article Generation Skill: Drafts knowledge articles from incident data including resolution notes and work notes when incidents are resolved or closed.
- Change Request Summarization Skill: Summarizes change requests using inputs from the changerequest table, including fields like risk, impact, and implementation plan, with triggers based on change states.
- Change Request Risk Explanation Skill: Explains change risks using inputs such as risk conditions, blackout plans, and similar change requests.
Practical Application for ServiceNow Customers
By understanding the predefined inputs and triggers for each Now Assist skill, customers can effectively configure and optimize AI capabilities within their ITSM processes. These configurations enable automated sentiment analysis, incident and change summarization, chat assistance, and content generation that enhance service delivery and agent productivity. Leveraging AI model provider options and the AI Control Tower ensures flexibility and control over AI-driven insights.
Customers should use the Now Assist Admin console to set skill-level preferences and refer to AI Control Tower configuration controls to manage which AI models and options are available. Knowing which inputs and triggers are associated with each skill helps in aligning Now Assist functionality with organizational workflows and improving incident resolution, communication, and knowledge management.
Get a quick overview of the skill inputs and triggers for Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM). By configuring the inputs or triggers for a skill, you can determine how and when a skill is used.
Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM) overview
Depending on the selected skill, you can configure the inputs or triggers. These settings determine how and when a skill is used. An input identifies the data that is used for a skill, such as the table and fields that are used to generate an incident summary. A trigger initiates an action, such as when the system generates a chat summary.
You can use Now LLM Service, Now LLM Long Term Stable models (LTS), Azure OpenAI, Google Gemini or Anthropic Claude on AWS as the AI model provider for all Now Assist skills and AI agents. Use the Configuration Controls in AI Control Tower to define which options are available, then set the skill-level preferences in the Now Assist Admin console. For more information, see Large language models on the ServiceNow AI Platform®.
Incident sentiment analysis skill
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Incident [incident] |
| Input fields |
|
| Output | Description |
|---|---|
| Sentiment values |
|
| Sentiment trend |
|
| Sentiment reasoning | Reasons for providing the sentiment value. |
| Scheduled job name | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Sentiment analysis scheduled job (incident) | True | Refreshes sentiments based on the trigger frequency. |
Suggested steps generation skill
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Incident [incident] |
| Input field | Short description The skill uses this field to cluster incidents based on similar incidents closed in the past. |
| Conditions | Filter conditions to generate the suggested steps. Similar incidents closed within the last 6 months are used by default to create the incident clusters. |
Major Incident email content recommendation skill
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Incident [incident] |
| Input fields |
|
| Additional fields |
|
In addition to the tables and fields listed in the table above, the tables and fields listed in the following table are also used as inputs for prompts to generate Major Incident email content recommendation.
| Table | Fields |
|---|---|
| Task SLA [task_sla] |
|
| Incident [incident] |
|
| Collaboration chat [sys_cs_collab_message] | Payload Note: You must manually select the Collaboration chat table as an input data so that this field is used an input for the prompt. For information on choosing input data, see Customize a Now Assist for IT Service Management (ITSM) skill. |
Chat summarization skill
For the chat summarization skill, select the triggers that determine when a chat summary is generated. You can also select the properties that control how a chat summary is displayed.
The following table lists the triggers that determine when a chat summary is generated and how a chat summary is displayed.
| Trigger | Description |
|---|---|
| Virtual Agent to Live Agent handoff | Chat summary that is generated when the chat handoff is done from Virtual Agent to a live agent. |
| Quick action | Chat summary that is generated when the live agent performs the /summarize quick action. |
| Chat wrap-up | Chat summary that is generated when the live agent ends the chat. The Chat Summary field is updated for the interaction. |
| Short description | Short description field that is updated for the interaction when the live agent ends the chat. |
| Task creation | Short description and Description fields that are auto-populated on the task record when a task is created. |
The following table lists the property for the chat summarization skill.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Bulleted list | If selected, the chat summary is displayed as an unordered list. |
Chat reply recommendation skill
For the chat reply recommendation skill, select the triggers that determine when a chat reply recommendation is generated.
The following table lists the triggers that determine when a chat reply recommendation is generated.
| Trigger | Description |
|---|---|
| User triggered | Chat reply recommendation that is generated when the agent manually triggers the skill. |
The following table lists the fields for the Now Assist icon for the chat reply recommendation skill.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Button Props | Trigger button properties, for example:
|
| Refine Actions | Action options shown when the Refine button is selected, for example:
|
| Recommendation Dialog Props | Recommendation dialog window properties, for example: headerLabel. |
| WWNA Component ID | Component ID that supports the Now Assist icon, for example: agent-chat. |
| Default Preset Action | Default action when the trigger button is selected with no text in the chat window. |
| Table | Table used for the interaction. |
| Timeout Error Message | Error that displays after a timeout. |
| Preset Actions | Action options shown when text is entered in the chat window and the trigger button is selected, for example:
|
Sidebar discussion summarization skill
For the Sidebar discussion summarization skill, select the triggers that determine when a Sidebar discussion summary is generated.
The following table lists the triggers that determine when a Sidebar discussion summary is generated.
| Trigger | Description |
|---|---|
| Quick action | Sidebar discussion summary that is generated when the live agent performs the /summarize quick action. |
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Bulleted list | If selected, the Sidebar discussion summary is displayed as an unordered list. |
Incident summarization skill
The incident summarization skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when an incident summary is generated.
In this release, you can't modify a skill's input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
| Trigger | Description |
|---|---|
| Assign modal | Open assign modal during save action when assignment group or assigned to is changed. |
The following table lists the inputs for the incident summarization skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Incident [incident] |
| Input fields |
|
| Input template states |
|
The following table lists the descriptions for the incident summarization skill.
| Description | Mandatory for input state |
|---|---|
| Issue |
|
| Key Actions Taken |
|
| Resolution |
|
| Affected CIs and Impacted Services |
|
| Service Level Agreement |
|
| Child Incidents |
|
Incident assist skill
The incident assist skill includes the incident topics to be available in the Now Assist panel.
In this release, you can't modify a skill's input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
- Find similar resolved incidents
- Consult on-call experts from support groups
- Retrieve caller's assets
- Retrieve caller's recent incidents
Resolution notes generation skill
The resolution notes generation skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when the resolution notes are generated for an incident.
In this release, you can't modify a skill's input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
| Trigger | Description |
|---|---|
| User triggered |
If selected, user input is required before resolution notes are generated. Otherwise, resolution notes are generated automatically by default when certain conditions are met. |
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Refine Actions | Action options shown when the Refine button is selected, for example:
|
The following table lists the inputs for the resolution notes generation skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Incident [incident] |
| Input fields |
|
Incident activity response recommendation skill
The Incident activity response recommendation skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when a response is generated in the work notes or comments in an activity stream.
In this release, you can't modify a skill's input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
The following table lists the triggers that determine when and how the activity response for an incident are generated.
The following table lists the inputs for the Incident activity response recommendation skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Incident [incident] |
| Input fields |
|
| Trigger actions | The default trigger actions are as follows:
|
Knowledge article generation skill
The knowledge article generation skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when the knowledge article draft is generated for an incident.
In this release, you can't modify a skill's input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
The following table lists the inputs for the knowledge article generation skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | Incident [incident] |
| Input fields |
|
| State |
|
Change request summarization skill
The change request summarization skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when a change request summary is generated.
In this release, you can't modify a skill's input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
The following table lists the inputs for the change request summarization skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | change_request |
| Input fields |
|
| Input template states |
|
The following table lists the descriptions for the change request summarization skill.
| Description | Mandatory for input state |
|---|---|
| Objective |
|
| Plan |
|
| Risk |
|
| Affected CIs |
|
| Impacted services |
|
| Close notes | Closed |
| Incidents caused by change | Closed |
Change request risk explanation skill
The change request risk explanation skill includes the inputs that identify the table and fields that are used when the change risk explanation is generated.
In this release, you can't modify a skill's input data source. The data source contains the tables and fields that the skill relies on.
The following table lists the inputs for the change request risk explanation skill.
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Input table | change_request |
| Input fields |
|