Use AI capabilities in custom applications

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated June 5, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Use AI capabilities in custom applications

    ServiceNow’s AI Platform offers powerful generative and agentic AI capabilities that accelerate the development and enhancement of custom applications. By integrating AI, developers can streamline creation, testing, and runtime workflows, improving productivity and reducing time-to-value for their custom apps.

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    Key Features

    • Now Assist for Creator: Provides generative AI skills to simplify and expedite application development in non-production environments. Users can create new apps, forms, UI, tests, and code by describing their needs in natural language, enabling faster build and iteration cycles.
    • Generative AI Skills in Now Assist for Creator:
      • App generation: AI-generated tables, experiences, and roles from text prompts.
      • App summarization: Generates concise descriptions of app functionality.
      • Code generation: Produces scripts and code snippets from prompts.
      • Form generation: Creates forms based on natural language descriptions.
      • Test generation: Automates test case creation from simple descriptions.
      • UI generation: Designs user experiences using natural language input.
    • Now Assist for App Engine: Enables embedding AI agents and skills into custom applications at runtime. Available with an App Engine Enterprise Plus license, it allows developers to either leverage pre-built AI agents or build custom agents tailored to unique workflows using Skill Kit and AI Agent Studio.
    • Runtime AI Agent Use Case: For example, an AI agent in a retail inventory app can analyze reported issues, identify recurring defects, suggest resolutions, draft communications, and escalate urgent cases—streamlining operations and improving response times.

    When and Where to Use AI Capabilities

    • Development and Testing: Use Now Assist for Creator generative AI skills to rapidly build and test applications in non-production instances.
    • Application Enhancement: Use Now Assist for App Engine to add AI agents and skills during development and testing, enhancing app capabilities before deployment.
    • Runtime Usage: After deployment, end users leverage AI agents and skills embedded in the applications to improve productivity and workflow efficiency.

    Key Outcomes

    • Accelerated application development with AI-assisted creation of apps, forms, UI, code, and tests.
    • Enhanced custom applications with AI agents that automate repetitive tasks and provide actionable insights.
    • Improved end-user productivity through AI-driven workflow optimizations post-deployment.
    • Flexible AI integration options tailored to organizational workflows and licensing entitlements.

    Expedite development and enhance custom applications using the generative and agentic AI capabilities available on the ServiceNow AI Platform.

    When developing custom applications on the ServiceNow AI Platform, you can use different tools to create and enhance your custom applications with AI capabilities, helping to expedite the development process and improve productivity.

    Now Assist for Creator

    Now Assist for Creator includes generative AI skills that can make developing on the ServiceNow AI Platform more efficient. Using natural language, you can describe what you want to create, such as a new application using the app generation skill in ServiceNow Studio, or a new form for an application using the form generation skill in Creator Studio. Now Assist for Creator empowers you create, modify, and enhance custom applications and user experiences easily, helping to accelerate development and reduce time-to-value.

    The Now Assist for Creator generative AI skills that you can use when building custom applications are listed in the following table.

    Table 1. Now Assist for Creator generative AI skills for building custom applications
    Skill Description
    App generation Generate simplified apps with AI-generated tables, experiences, and roles tailored to your text prompts.
    App summarization Summarize what an app does using generative AI.
    Code generation Get help writing scripts quickly with AI-generated code based on text or code prompts.
    Form generation Create forms by describing what you want using natural language.
    Test generation Automate test creation from simple descriptions with AI-powered test generation.
    UI generation Create experiences by describing what you want using natural language.

    For more information about Now Assist for Creator, see Now Assist for Creator.

    Now Assist for App Engine

    Now Assist for App Engine enables you to enhance custom applications with AI agents and skills that application users can leverage at runtime. You can use the Now Assist AI agents and skills that are available with an App Engine Enterprise Plus license. Or you can build custom AI agents and skills using Now Assist Skill Kit and AI Agent Studio that are customized for your application's unique workflow.

    For example, let's say that you built a custom application for a sporting goods retail company in ServiceNow Studio. The app enables store employees to manage in-store product inventory and report issues, such as defective merchandise. When an issue is reported, the app automatically notifies the appropriate teams that are responsible for resolution, including product quality assurance, supply chain, and vendor relations. With Now Assist for App Engine, you could create an AI agent in AI Agent Studio that handles some of the time-consuming tasks that fulfiller users of the app would otherwise have to do manually. The AI agent could check whether similar issues have been reported with the product at other store locations, identify recurring product defects, and suggest next steps based on past resolutions. It could even draft a summary of the issue for vendor outreach or escalate urgent cases to the appropriate team, helping to streamline operations and reduce resolution time.

    To learn more about the AI capabilities available with Now Assist for App Engine, see Now Assist for App Engine.

    When and where to use AI capabilities

    You can use both Now Assist for Creator and Now Assist for App Engine when developing custom applications. How and where you implement AI capabilities depends on your organization's workflow and the custom applications that you’re developing.

    Now Assist for Creator is primarily used when developing, enhancing, or testing custom applications in non-production instances. Creators and developers can use the Now Assist for Creator skills to quickly build applications and application elements, which are then deployed to production instances.

    The AI capabilities available with Now Assist for App Engine are also used when developing custom applications in non-production instances. Creators and developers can use the generative and agentic AI capabilities available with their App Engine Enterprise Plus license to enhance their applications with Now Assist AI agents and skills. Or they can create custom skills and agents that are unique to their app's workflow. Once the applications are deployed to production instances, application users can then leverage the agents and skills to help streamline their workflows and improve efficiency.

    Table 2. When to use AI capabilities during the application development life cycle
    Persona Benefit Stage in the application life cycle AI capability
    Developer Build and test applications and application elements quickly with generative AI skills. Development, testing Now Assist for Creator
    Developer Enhance custom applications with base system AI agents and skills, or build custom AI agents and skills. Development, testing Now Assist for App Engine
    Requester, fulfiller, custom application user Leverage AI agents and skills in custom applications at runtime to help improve productivity and efficiency. Release, post-release Now Assist for App Engine