Deploying Virtual Agent topics in other channels
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Summary of Deploying Virtual Agent topics in other channels
ServiceNow Virtual Agent allows you to deploy conversational topics and topic blocks across multiple chat channels. Channels represent the chat interfaces or applications where Virtual Agent interacts with end users. These include default native channels like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Workplace, Facebook Messenger, and web or mobile clients, as well as custom channels created via conversational custom chat integrations for third-party messaging providers such as Skype or SMS.
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Specifying Channels for Topics
When creating or editing a topic or topic block in Virtual Agent Designer, you can specify the chat channels where the topic will run using the Additional channel support field on the Topic Properties page. This field lists custom channels configured for your instance through custom chat integrations. This enables you to tailor topics to run appropriately on different chat clients.
Note that the updated Virtual Agent Designer interface, which includes the Now Assist Topics skill, provides enhanced capabilities for managing channels and topics. If this skill is not enabled, you will see the legacy UI.
Designing Conversations for Multiple Channels
Virtual Agent Designer includes built-in guardrails that validate the controls used in your conversation flows against the selected channels. If a control is not supported in a specified channel, warning messages display in both the Topic Properties and Flow tabs. These warnings help you identify and modify unsupported controls, ensuring your topics function correctly across all targeted channels.
You can also branch conversation flows to use different controls depending on the channel, allowing flexible, channel-specific experiences within a single topic.
Managing and Viewing Available Channels
To view channels configured in your instance, you can use the Supported Channels filter on the Topics page in Virtual Agent Designer or examine the Messaging Channels [syscschannel] table. If no custom channels are configured, the filter will not appear.
Default channels include web chat, mobile clients, and built-in messaging integrations for Slack, Microsoft Teams, Workplace, and Facebook Messenger. Custom channels like SMS or Skype require creation through conversational custom chat integrations.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
- Deploy Virtual Agent topics seamlessly across multiple chat platforms, enhancing user reach.
- Use built-in validation to ensure conversations work correctly in all selected channels, reducing deployment errors.
- Customize conversation flows with channel-specific logic to optimize user experience per chat client.
- Easily manage and monitor available chat channels and their compatibility with your topics.
When creating a topic or topic block, you can specify the chat channels in which the topic or topic block will run. During conversation design, Virtual Agent Designer provides built-in guardrails to help you tailor your conversations to those channels.
In Virtual Agent, a channel is a chat interface or application in which Virtual Agent interacts with end users. Default channels are the chat applications natively supported by Virtual Agent, such as the Slack, Microsoft Teams, Workplace, and Facebook Messenger applications, and the web and mobile clients. Virtual Agent also supports custom channels created through the conversational custom chat integrations feature, which enables third-party applications (other chat providers) to work in Virtual Agent.
For example, admins can build a custom conversational chat integration for a specific messaging provider, such as Skype. Admins also define the controls that can be used in topics that run in these channels. For details about creating channels for chat providers and specifying the controls used in a channel, see Creating conversational custom chat integrations in Virtual Agent.
Specifying channels in your topics or topic blocks
When you create or edit a topic or topic block, you can specify the applicable channels in the Additional channel support field of the Topic Properties page. Applicable channels are the custom channels created for your instance through the conversational custom chat integrations. Use this field to specify chat clients in which the topic or topic block will run.
During conversation design, Virtual Agent checks the various controls used to build the conversation flow to confirm that the control is valid for the channels in which the topic or block will run.
Design checks for specified channels during conversation design
- Properties tab (Topic Properties page)
In the following example, Skype and SMS are the additional channels in which the topic will run. The banner message identifies the controls that are not supported on the channels for the topic. As you develop the conversation flow, you can revise your conversation so that it does not use any of the specified controls for your selected channels.
Figure 2. Topic Properties tab with defined channels - Flow tab (Virtual Agent Designer canvas)
In the following example flow, the banner message identifies the controls that are not supported for the specified channels. The property sheet for the affected nodes also displays a message indicating that the control is not supported. For example, when you highlight a particular node (control) in the flow, the associated property sheet for the node indicates that the control is not supported in the Skype and SMS channels.
If you have controls that cannot be used, you can branch the flow so that you can continue building the flow with the controls that are supported.
Figure 3. Topic Flow tab with channel warnings
Finding the channels available in your instance
The default channels in Virtual Agent are the web chat and mobile clients and also the Virtual Agent messaging integrations for the Slack, Microsoft Teams, Workplace, and Facebook Messenger messaging applications. In the previous example, SMS is an available chat channel that was created for your instance through a conversational chat integration. When you choose a channel, the Topics page lists your topics (cards) by channel type. For more information, see Creating conversational custom chat integrations in Virtual Agent.