Exploring Now Assist for CMDB

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Exploring Now Assist for CMDB

    Now Assist for Configuration Management Database (CMDB) leverages Agentic AI to streamline CMDB management tasks for ServiceNow customers. It enables natural language interactions to search, create, and remediate configuration items (CIs), diagnose Service Graph Connector (SGC) import issues, and improve CMDB data governance and health. This application supports enhanced accuracy, completeness, and reliability of CMDB data, which is essential for operational efficiency across IT service management processes.

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    Now Assist for CMDB is available starting with the Xanadu patch 3 release and supports LLM models such as Gemini and Claude.

    Key Features

    • Create configuration item agentic workflow: Facilitates CI creation through natural language input by verifying class, enforcing Identification and Reconciliation Engine (IRE) rules, checking for duplicates, and ensuring required attributes are present. This is especially helpful for adding physical CIs in operational technology environments.
    • Provide advice on CMDB governance agentic workflow: Guides data administrators and owners through improving CMDB data accuracy, completeness, and overall health to maintain trustworthy data.
    • Search CMDB agentic workflow: Allows natural language searches for CIs using various attributes, generating appropriate keyword, single-table, or multi-table queries that intelligently infer relationships.
    • Service Graph Connector diagnosis: Automates error diagnosis and recommendations for Service Graph Connectors, which integrate third-party data into the CMDB, helping administrators quickly resolve import set issues and maintain data consistency.
    • Duplicate CI remediator agentic workflow: Automates de-duplication tasks, providing transparent reasoning for AI decisions so administrators can review and update remediation steps.
    • CI summarization skill: Displays concise summaries of key CI information including discovery data, ownership, related incidents, alerts, problems, changes, security vulnerabilities, and associated service instances. This aids users in Incident, Change, and Event Management contexts.
    • Manage duplicate CIs skill: Offers guided remediation of duplicate CIs by presenting classes with duplicates, suggesting actions, enabling template creation and assignment, previewing remediation results, and identifying root causes to prevent future duplication issues.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Improves CMDB data integrity and trustworthiness through AI-assisted workflows and governance guidance.
    • Reduces manual effort and time in CI creation, searching, and duplicate remediation by using natural language and automated processes.
    • Enhances troubleshooting of data ingestion via automated diagnosis of Service Graph Connector issues.
    • Supports operational efficiency by providing quick access to comprehensive CI summaries during IT service management activities.
    • Enables proactive management of duplicate CI issues to maintain CMDB health and reduce future data inaccuracies.

    With the Now Assist for Configuration Management Database (CMDB) application, you can use Agentic AI to search the CMDB, summarize discovery, ownership and related information for a CI, and fix failed SGC import sets. You can also follow step-by-step guidance to help you remediate duplicate CIs, improve CMDB data accuracy, completeness, and health .

    Supporting information for Now Assist for CMDB

    Now Assist for CMDB is supported starting with Xanadu patch 3.

    Now Assist for CMDB supports the following LLM models:
    • Gemini
    • Claude

    Now Assist for CMDB

    Now Assist for CMDB provides the following abilities:

    Create configuration item agentic workflow

    Occasionally, you might need to create a CI manually. To help you, the Create configuration item agentic workflow accepts your natural language request and verifies that it understands which class the new CI should belong to. The workflow then checks Identification and Reconciliation engine (IRE) rules to determine the required attributes for the CI and requests that information. After you provide sufficient data, the workflow ensures that the proposed CI includes the attributes that you requested, complies with IRE rules, and is not a duplicate. The workflow then creates the CI.

    The Create configuration item agentic workflow is particularly useful for adding CIs to tables accessed by Operational Technology because users might add physical CIs while unaware of the need to manage CI data in the CMDB.

    To learn more, see Create a CI using Now Assist.

    Provide advice on CMDB governance agentic workflow

    Data governance can be an overwhelming task. The Provide advice on CMDB governance agentic workflow supports data admins and owners by methodically working through the many-faceted process of improving CMDB data accuracy, completeness, and health. The objective is to ensure that users can trust the data that they use for their work.

    To learn more, see Getting advice from Now Assist on CMDB governance.

    Search CMDB agentic workflow

    The Search CMDB agentic workflow enables you to search for CIs by specifying any of several attributes of the CI of interest. The workflow accepts your natural language request, verifies your search goal, and then generates a keyword search, a single-table search with dot walks, or a multi-table searches that involve relationship navigation, depending on the information you provided. The workflow can infer CI relationship data to generate an appropriate query.

    To learn more, see Use Now Assist to search the CMDB for CIs.

    Service Graph Connector diagnosis

    Service Graph Connectors are integrations that facilitate data ingestion from third-party sources into the CMDB. Errors in Service Graph Connectors can disrupt the flow of configuration item (CI) data resulting in inconsistencies between the actual state of CIs and their CMDB records.

    The Service Graph Connector diagnosis skill automates error diagnosis and recommendation generation, enabling CMDB installation administrators to identify and resolve the issues. This automation reduces manual effort and saves time in debugging Service Graph Connectors issues.

    To learn more, see the following topics:
    Duplicate CI remediator agentic workflow
    The Duplicate CI remediator agentic workflow completes the full range of de-duplication tasks. The workflow presents its reasoning for each step so CMDB administrators can review and update the AI decisions.
    CI summarization skill

    View a concise summary of key CI data. You can select the CI on a CI form, in a workspace page, or on any list view. The summary can include discovery data, ownership, and key related items such as open incidents, alerts, problems, upcoming change requests, and security vulnerabilities. Additionally, the summary lists the service instances that the CI is part of. Summary information is useful while working in applications such as Incident Management, Change Management, and Event Management.

    Summary information.

    To learn more, see View CI information with the Now Assist CI summarization skill.

    Manage duplicate CIs skill

    Duplicate CIs interfere with the integrity, reliability, and general health of CMDB. Resolve de-duplication tasks with support from the Now Assist Manage duplicate CIs skill. CMDB administrators follow step-by-step guidance to perform remediation, and can preview remediation results before applying a template. The manage duplicate CIs skill accelerates the work that you normally perform manually.

    In this example, the manage duplicate CIs skill presents a list of classes with duplicate CIs and suggests possible actions. You can select an option or enter the action text in your own words:
    • Review de-duplication tasks, create de-duplication templates, assign tasks to templates, and run the templates.
    • Preview the results of applying a de-duplication template before you decide to apply it.
    • Identify the root cause of duplications so that you can review the groups of de-duplication tasks that share a common cause and possibly avoid the issue in the future.

    Selecting duplicate CIs to remediate.

    To learn more, see Let Now Assist help you to manage duplicate CIs.