Improving the user experience with AI Search

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 6 minutes to read
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    Summary of Improving the user experience with AI Search

    ServiceNow’s Virtual Agent integrates with the AI Search application from the ServiceNow AI Platform® to enhance user interactions by providing relevant search results within chatbot conversations. AI Search serves as a fallback when Virtual Agent cannot match user queries to existing topics and enables topic authors to embed search capabilities directly into conversation flows using the Run AI Search topic block.

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    How Virtual Agent Uses AI Search

    • Run AI Search Topic Block: Allows topic designers to generate and display search results during conversations.
    • AI Search Fallback Setup Topic: Automatically triggers search results when no relevant intent or topic is found for a user query.
    • Default AI Search Configurations: Predefined settings in Virtual Agent control the sources indexed (such as catalog items and knowledge base articles), search profiles determining the types of results shown, and Entity View Action Mapping (EVAM) configurations that define how results and Genius Cards are presented.

    These configurations are managed within the Virtual Agent Designer's chat experience settings, which specify how AI Search operates during conversations.

    When AI Search Fallback is Used

    • When topic discovery cannot find matching topics for a query.
    • When topic discovery returns too many matches and cannot identify the best topic.
    • When users select “Ask something else” after topic suggestions, prompting AI Search to rerun with the new input.

    Disabling the AI Search Fallback setup topic causes Virtual Agent to use a generic fallback topic instead.

    AI Search Results Presentation

    • Genius Result Cards: High-confidence matches are displayed as cards showing relevant Q&A snippets, catalog items, or people information.
    • List Output: Users can request more results, which are shown as categorized lists including knowledge articles, catalog items, people, and other sources like Microsoft SharePoint or OneDrive.

    Administrators can customize result titles and increase the number of displayed results via system properties and EVAM templates. The default Virtual Agent search application includes Q&A and Catalog Genius Results but excludes People cards unless configured with the Employee Service Center search profile.

    Portals and Link Handling

    Links in AI Search results open automatically in configured portals, which can be set using default or custom URL mappings to ensure seamless navigation for users.

    Customization and Activation

    • Custom AI Search Experiences: Administrators can create tailored search application configurations to deliver search results relevant to specific business applications within conversations.
    • Activation: AI Search must be requested and activated for your instance to enable its use within Virtual Agent. Once activated, default AI Search configurations become available, and the AI Search Fallback setup topic controls the experience.

    Custom AI Search experiences can be defined by creating or modifying search application configurations and applying them in chat experiences or topic blocks to refine the search results presented to users.

    Virtual Agent uses the ServiceNow AI Platform® AI Search application to return search results in bot conversations as a fallback when there are no relevant topics to display to end users. Virtual Agent also provides a Run AI Search topic block that topic authors can use to generate search results in a topic.

    How Virtual Agent uses AI Search

    The AI Search application, which is included with the ServiceNow AI Platform, provides relevant search results for queries and uses Machine Learning to continuously improve search results based on end-user selections. To learn more about AI Search, see AI Search.

    In addition to normal search results, AI Search can display Genius Result cards that show relevant catalog items, questions and answers (Q&A), and people (user) information. To learn more, see Genius Results.

    Catalog Genius Results and Q&A Genius Results are automatically activated in the base system.

    Virtual Agent uses AI Search to provide the following:
    • The Run AI Search topic block, which calls the AI Search application in a conversation. Topic designers can add this block as a topic node, to generate and display search results in a conversation. For details about the Run AI Search block and other topic blocks provided with Virtual Agent, see Virtual Agent pre-built topic blocks.
    • The AI Search Fallback setup topic that generates search results for end users when Virtual Agent can't determine an intent and topic or the keyword to display the appropriate conversation for user requests.
    Virtual Agent provides base system (default) AI Search configurations that determine how search results are generated and displayed:
    • Search application configuration that defines:
      • Index sources - Data sources to be used for search, such as catalog items or knowledge base (KB) articles.
      • Search profile - Index source to be used and the type of results to show in Genius Result cards.
    • Entity View Action Mapping (EVAM) configuration that defines how search results and Genius Results are displayed.

    The Virtual Agent search configurations are part of the default chat experience set in Virtual Agent Designer, through the Custom Greetings and Setup feature. Use this feature to specify the context for running Virtual Agent. The chat experience defines the setup topics used in Virtual Agent conversations and the search configuration that controls the AI Search experience. The AI Search Fallback setup topic controls the AI Search experience. For details, see Setting up chat experiences for Virtual Agent users.

    Virtual Agent and Virtual Agent Lite use AI Search functionality. If you're a Virtual Agent Lite admin, you can deactivate setup topics such as the AI Search Fallback setup topic, but you can't change the Virtual Agent search configurations set in chat experiences, the Run AI Search topic block, nor the AI Search Fallback setup topic.

    In order to use AI Search in Virtual Agent, you must request it for your instance. For more information, see Activate AI Search for Virtual Agent.

    When Virtual Agent uses AI Search fallback

    Virtual Agent uses AI Search fallback in the following instances:
    • Topic discovery can't find any matching topics for the user query.
      Note:
      If you're using pre-built NLU conversations, such as ITSM Virtual Agent conversations, topic discovery finds the topics that match the keywords or intents provided with those conversations, before falling back to AI Search. If your users select Ask something else after suggested topics are displayed, Virtual Agent takes the additional input and reruns topic discovery AI Search to return relevant search results.
    • Topic discovery returns too many topics for the user query. In this case, Virtual Agent can't determine the best topic to display to the end user.
    • Topic suggestions are displayed to the user, but the user selects the Ask something else option.
    Note:
    If you deactivate the AI Search Fallback setup topic in a chat experience, the Virtual Agent runs the Fallback setup topic when it can't find a matching topic.

    What the AI Search results look like

    In Virtual Agent, the default chat experience or a custom chat experience determines the search experience, namely the search profile used and the format of the AI Search results displayed:
    • The search application specified in the Virtual Agent default or custom chat experience defines certain aspects of the search experience, such as the search sources (searchable content) and synonyms used to improve search recall.
    • The EVAM configuration for Virtual Agent controls the Genius card content presented in search results (Q&A, Catalog, and People). For information on how EVAM works, see Exploring Entity View Action Mapper.
    The default AI Search results include these items:
    Genius Result cards
    When AI Search generates a match (result) with a high confidence score, Virtual Agent displays a single Genius card with the result. The cards display information returned from AI Search:
    • Q&A - Provides an answer snippet from the Knowledge Base article determined as the top search result.
    • Catalog items - Returns the most relevant catalog item with the related entities (catalog item name and catalog item category).
    • People - Returns the relevant person with the related entities (name, department, city).
      Note:
      The default search application for Virtual Agent is configured to include Q&A (Knowledge Base) and Catalog results, but not People card results. The People card is not available with the default Virtual Agent search application. People card results are available if you're using the Employee Service Center (ESC) app and the ESC search profile, which can be specified in a Virtual Agent chat experience for ESC.
    Figure 1. Genius card examples
    Question and Answer genius card, Catalog item genius card, and People genius card
    List output
    After a Genius Result is returned, users can indicate what they would like to do next. If they choose the option Show me more on <search item>, Virtual Agent displays search results as a list output, which includes:
    • Knowledge articles
    • Catalog items
    • People
    • Other - Generic results determined by EVAM, for example results from Microsoft SharePoint or Microsoft OneDrive connectors

    Admins can edit the prefix of these search result titles by navigating to EVAM and searching for Virtual Agent templates. Select the template for the applicable search result type and update the value for the key attribute. Virtual Agent Catalog Search Template view, with prefix codeblock highlighted.

    Admins can expand the number of search results displayed up to 10, using the com.glide.cs.ai_search.max_regular_result property. In order for the search results to display as expected, the search result limit in the search application configuration should be greater than or equal to the com.glide.cs.ai_search.max_regular_result system property.
    Note:
    When admins specify 10 for the maximum regular results, 12 choice options display (10 results plus the actions “I need more help” and ”Ask something else”). However, the default total number of list options allowed on the chat widget is 10. In order for all 12 choices to display, the admin must adjust the com.glide.cs.picker_page_limit system property accordingly. For optimal user experience, fewer list options are recommended.

    Users can select a search result from the list and continue the Virtual Agent conversation. For example, when a user selects a catalog item from the search results list, Virtual Agent provides an option to request the item directly from the chat.

    The user selected Adobe Creative Cloud in the catalog. Virtual Agent asks, "What would you like to do now?" The user responds, "Request this item."The user selected Adobe Creative Cloud in the catalog. Virtual Agent asks, "What would you like to do now?" The user responds, "Request this item."

    Portals that display AI Search links
    Links in the Genius card and multi-link output search results are opened automatically in a portal that you can set in various ways. For example, you can use default or custom URL mappings to specify the portal in which links are opened. To learn more, see Configure URL navigation for chat links.

    Custom search experiences

    You can customize the AI Search experience in a conversation, for example to run searches that return results relevant to a particular business application. To control the AI Search results returned in a conversation, you can create a search application configuration that defines the search experience used by the AI Search topic block. For details, see Create a custom AI Search experience for Virtual Agent conversations.