AI Desktop Actions Design workspace

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated November 9, 2025
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of AI Desktop Actions Design workspace

    The AI Desktop Actions Design workspace is an interactive, no-code environment within ServiceNow’s AI Desktop Actions that allows users to create, configure, and test desktop automation workflows. It enables recording and manual capturing of user interactions across multiple desktop applications to automate business processes efficiently. Access to this workspace depends on user roles: AI Agent Admins can create and test desktop actions, while Now Assist panel users can trigger and run these automations.

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    Key Features

    • Home page: Serves as the central interface for creating, managing, and monitoring desktop actions. Users can search, edit, and track their own actions or all actions available on the instance.
    • Onboarding wizard: Guides first-time users through creating and activating their first desktop action, with options to skip or disable the wizard.
    • AI-assisted recording: When recording steps, AI generates anchors and screen context to improve automation accuracy. Users can retry AI analysis if needed.
    • Design tab: Provides a visual canvas where users add screens, anchors (reference points for UI elements), and steps (such as clicks, text inputs, or OCR reading) to build automation sequences.
    • Capture options: Users can either auto-capture steps by recording interactions or manually capture screens and add anchors and steps.
    • Testing: Includes the ability to run tests on the entire desktop action or individual screens within the Execution workspace before activation.
    • Activation and publishing: After testing, users can activate desktop actions to publish them as tools in AI Agent Studio for use by AI agents.
    • Properties panel: Allows configuration of details for screens, anchors, and steps to enhance stability and accuracy of automations.

    Practical Use and Benefits

    ServiceNow customers can leverage the Design workspace to automate repetitive, multi-application desktop tasks without coding, improving efficiency and reducing manual errors. The integration of AI-generated anchors and the ability to visually configure workflows helps create robust automations adaptable to UI changes. Testing capabilities ensure reliability before deployment, and activation enables seamless integration with AI Agent Studio, empowering AI agents with new automation tools.

    The Design workspace is an interactive environment within AI Desktop Actions that enables you to create desktop actions by recording and configuring user interactions with desktop applications. The workspace provides a visual canvas where you can design multi-screen automation workflows that capture business processes across different applications.

    Important:
    Access to the Design workspace and Execution workspace depends on the user’s role.
    • When users with the AI Agent Admin (sn_aia.admin) role sign in from their desktop, they can access the Home page and Design workspace to create desktop actions. When they test a desktop action, the Execution workspace launches automatically.
    • When users with the Now Assist panel user (now_assist_panel_user) role trigger an automation from the Now Assist panel, the Execution workspace launches automatically to run the desktop action.

    You don’t open the Execution workspace directly. It launches automatically when you test or run a desktop action.

    AI Desktop Actions home page

    The home page provides an intuitive interface to help you quickly create, track, and manage your desktop actions. You can easily find and manage your existing desktop actions and monitor their status.

    Figure 1. AI Desktop Actions home page
    AI Desktop Actions home page with Create desktop action UI action, search and filter options, and cards of existing desktop actions.

    When you log in to AI Desktop Actions, the home page is the first screen you see. The home page lets you interact with various functionalities.

    Create desktop action
    You can create desktop actions by manually capturing steps or auto-capture steps through recording.
    Search and manage actions
    You can search for specific actions and manage them directly from the home page.
    My Actions and All Actions
    My Actions tab shows only the actions published by the logged in user. All Actions tab shows list of all actions available on the instance the logged in user is connected to.
    Desktop action cards
    Configured desktop actions with details, such as created date, user who created, applications added, and activation status.
    Edit desktop actions
    You can modify a desktop action by selecting the Edit option for each card. Any changes you make are saved and reflected on the home page.
    First-time user onboarding
    When you open AI Desktop Actions for the first time, an onboarding wizard guides you through steps to create and activate a desktop action.
    Select Skip intro to bypass the onboarding wizard and go to the home page. Select the Don't show this again option to prevent the wizard from appearing the next time you open the app. After completing the onboarding wizard, select Get started to start creating desktop actions.
    Access to profile and documentation
    A dedicated section enables you to view your profile information, access product documentation, and check the product version.

    What AI generates after recording

    When you use record with AI option, AI badge, AI analysis retry option, and screen context are shows in the properties panel for each screen. If you aren't satisfied with the results, you can regenerate anchors and screen context by selecting Retry .
    Figure 2. AI badge for screens in the properties panel
    AI badge, retry option, and screen context for screens in the properties panel.
    An AI badge appears for each anchor generated using AI.
    Figure 3. AI badge for anchors in the properties panel
    AI badge for anchors in the properties panel.

    AI Desktop Actions Design tab

    The Design workspace provides a no-code environment for creating, managing, and testing your desktop actions. You can either auto-capture or manually record a series of steps you perform on your computer, such as clicking buttons, entering text, selecting from drop-down, or interacting with different applications. You can then save this sequence as a reusable desktop action.

    Figure 4. Design tab
    AI Desktop Actions Design tab that shows interface elements like Design, Details tabs, Screens and steps panel, and a captured currency converter screen with numbered annotations.
    No. Element Description
    1 Design tab Enables you to design your desktop actions by adding screens, anchors, and steps.
    2 Details tab Enables you to add details to your desktop actions, such as name, description, and applications that this desktop action interacts with. You can also review the inputs and outputs of this desktop action.
    3 Screens and Steps panel Shows all the captured screens and added anchors and steps in a sequence the desktop action must perform them. You can drag and move these items to change the order. You can also run a screen-level test by selecting the Run screen test icon .
    4 Properties panel Enables you to configure the properties for screens, anchors, and steps.
    5 Capture options Provides two options for capturing interactions with applications that you want to automate.
    • Auto-capture steps: Automatically records the steps that you perform for the task that you want to automate.
    • Manual capture screens: Enables you to capture the screens manually, insert anchors, and add steps that you want to automate.
    6 Captured screen The application screen that you captured.

    You can delete any screen by selecting the Delete icon from the Screens and steps panel.
    7 Anchor An anchor is a reference point on the screen that helps the automation identify and interact with a nearby UI elements. During execution, the system uses computer vision to locate the anchor and then identifies the UI elements at a related distance from the anchor. Anchors improve the stability and accuracy of steps when the target element’s location may shift or when the UI layout varies across sessions.

    You can delete any anchor by selecting the Delete icon .
    8 Step A step in your automation. The following types of steps are supported:
    Inputs
    • Set Text
    • Click
    • Mouse Click
    • Send Keys
    Outputs
    • Get Text
    • Get Table
    • OCR Read Text

    You can add a step by selecting the Add step icon from the Step control menu. You can delete any step by selecting the Delete icon .
    9 Test Enables you to test the desktop action in Execution workspace before you activate it. You can also test individual screens to quickly identify and troubleshoot issues. Run the test by entering the required inputs manually.
    10 Save Enables you to save the desktop action after you have configured the required fields.
    11 Activate Option to activate the desktop action so that it can be published to AI Agent Studio. You can add the activated desktop action as a tool to AI agents.
    Note:
    After activation, save the desktop action to make it available as a tool in AI Agent Studio.
    12 Screen capture options
    • Re-capture screen - Re-capture new screen to replace the existing screen.
    • Add anchor - Add anchor on the captured screen.
    • Delete screen - Delete the captured screen. All the associated anchor and steps are deleted.