Exploring Agent Chat

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Exploring Agent Chat

    Agent Chat allows live agents to directly engage with end users through a chat interface. It begins with AI-powered virtual chat, enabling requesters to initiate conversations and escalate to live agents as needed. Agents can communicate with requesters, create incident or case records, and transfer chats to other agents or queues. The chat operates via a persistent widget accessible on any portal page, ensuring continuous interaction. Assignment rules help route chats to the most suitable agents based on availability and expertise, enhancing efficiency.

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    Key Features

    • Agent Whisper: Enables private conversations between agents or chat managers without the requester’s awareness.
    • Chat Surveys: Conducts pre-chat and post-chat surveys to gather preliminary information and measure requester satisfaction.
    • Chat Transcript Downloads: Requesters can download transcripts of their chat conversations for record-keeping or reference.
    • Dynamic Translation: Supports multi-language conversations between agents and requesters.
    • Agent-Initiated Messaging Interface: Allows agents to start conversations on messaging apps preferred by requesters.
    • Agent Routing: Uses Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) to route chats intelligently, based on agent availability, queue length, and skill set.
    • Link Unfurling: Automatically previews links shared during chats, improving context and information sharing.
    • Cross-channel Conversation History and Sentiment: Agents have real-time access to conversation history and message-level sentiment across channels for more informed interactions.

    Important Notes

    Starting with the Quebec release, legacy Agent Workspace is deprecated and no longer supported, so customers should transition to the updated workspace for Agent Chat capabilities.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Enhances user engagement by providing seamless, real-time chat support with AI and live agents.
    • Improves agent productivity through intelligent routing, reusable response templates, and private agent collaboration.
    • Enables richer, more informed interactions with features like chat surveys, transcript downloads, and cross-channel insights.
    • Supports global operations with dynamic language translation and multi-channel messaging options.

    Agent Chat enables live agents to interact directly with end users through chat. Your end users can chat with a live agent to ask questions and receive information.

    Agent Chat overview

    The chat system starts with virtual chat, which is an autonomous chat powered by artificial intelligence. The requester can then ask to chat with a live agent using Agent Chat. Using Agent Chat, agents can communicate with requesters, create incident or case records, or transfer chats to another agent or queue.

    Agent Chat uses a persistent widget for chat conversations on any portal page of the portal that you're using. You can establish assignment rules to enable chat conversations to reach the best agent available who has the capacity and skills to handle the job or the agent can transfer the chat to another agent. Agents can use response templates to enable reusable, consistent messages to requesters.

    Virtual chat conducts a survey before and after the Agent Chat. The pre-survey gets preliminary information about the requester to aid in the chat session. The post-chat survey gets feedback on the requester's satisfaction with the agent who helped.

    Note:
    Starting with the Quebec release, legacy Agent Workspace is no longer deployed, enhanced, or supported. For details, see the Deprecation Process [KB0867184] article in the Now Support Knowledge Base.

    Agent Chat benefits

    Benefit Feature Users
    Agents and chat managers have a conversation without the requester knowing. Agent Whisper Agents, chat managers
    Gather important information from end users through conversational questionnaires. Chat surveys Agents
    Download a transcript of the conversation between the agent and the requester. Chat transcript downloads for requesters Requester
    Carry out a conversation in another language. Dynamic Translation for Agent Chat overview Agent, requester
    Initiate conversations with requesters on a messaging app of the requester's choice. Agent-Initiated Messaging Interface Agent, requester
    Read a summarization of the chat (this is available only if you have Now Assist installed). Agent

    Routing chats

    Requesters start chats with virtual chat. When they request to chat with a live agent on Agent Chat, their request goes into a queue controlled by Advanced Work Assignment (AWA), which routes chats to different agents based on availability, queue length, and expertise.

    Unfurling links

    If an agent or requester enters a link during an Agent Chat conversation, the links are "unfurled" or displayed with a preview of the website's content. Links in Agent Chat conversations are unfurled in the same manner as Virtual Agent. For more information, see Using link unfurling in Virtual Agent.

    Cross-channel conversation history and cross-channel message-level sentiment

    Agents can see cross-channel conversation history and cross-channel message-level sentiment in real time when an agent is having a live conversation with a requester in the chat panel in Agent Chat. For more information, see Getting work from chats.