Imagine you need something from your company’s IT department, or perhaps you have a question. Sometimes it can be tricky to find the right form, the correct online shop, or the exact answer. This is where ServiceNow’s new smart AI, called Generative AI (GenAI), comes in. It’s designed to make things much easier and quicker for everyone.
Understanding What You Mean: Catching Your ‘Intent’
The first step is for the computer to understand what you actually want. ServiceNow utilises a technology called Natural Language Understanding (NLU). Think of NLU as the computer ‘listening’ very carefully to your words.
We train this NLU system with lots of examples of how people ask for things. For example, if you type “I need a new laptop” or “my computer isn’t working,” the system learns that these phrases mean you want ‘a new device’ or ‘technical support’. We also teach it essential words and details to help it understand better.
Newer, highly advanced AI models, known as Large Language Models (LLMs), provide even more assistance. They can take your question and look at lots of information to give you a clear, helpful answer, like when Now Assist gives you ‘Genius Results’ that quickly tell you what you need to know.
Guiding You to the Right Place: Finding Your Way
Once the system understands what you mean, it becomes your smart guide. It doesn’t just guess; it knows exactly where to send you.
Now Assist has features like ‘Multi Turn Catalogue Ordering’. This means that if you want to order something complicated, the AI can have a conversation with you, asking simple questions to ensure you get exactly what you need, rather than having to fill out a confusing form by yourself.
If you ask a question to the Virtual Agent (that’s the chatbot), it understands your ‘intent’ and sends you directly to the correct form or person. So, if you say “I need to reset my password,” it won’t make you search; it will take you straight to the password reset page.
Even when you search for something, AI Search is now much smarter. It understands the meaning of your words, not just the words themselves. This means you get much better search results that are precisely what you’re looking for, guiding you to the right help articles or services quickly. We also use a ‘Knowledge Graph’ which connects all the information, making the guidance even more precise.
How the Smart AI Works: The Role of LLMs
These smart AI models, or Large Language Models (LLMs), are the real power behind these features. ServiceNow has its own specialised large language model (LLM), called NowLLM, which is explicitly trained on all the information within ServiceNow. This makes it very good at understanding and helping with company tasks.
We can also connect other large language models (LLMs), such as those from OpenAI or Google, using a technology called the Generative AI Controller. This enables us to utilise different smart AIs for various tasks.
These LLMs do many things: they can summarise long conversations or documents, write new help articles or notes about problems, and even turn your simple words into computer code for our technical teams. Most importantly, they make the guidance accurate by finding the right information and explaining it clearly and directly to you.
Dealing with Tricky Questions: Making Sense of Confusion
Sometimes, what you ask might be a bit confusing, or you might change your mind during a chat. ServiceNow’s AI is built to handle this.
Our AI Agents are designed to handle complex situations. They remember what you’ve said before, so they understand the whole conversation, not just the last thing you typed. If your question isn’t clear, the AI can politely ask you more questions to get the whole picture. This way, you always get the right help, even if you started with a vague idea.
How We Keep It Good: Always Improving
ServiceNow is very serious about ensuring its AI is always helpful, fair, and accurate. We adhere to strict guidelines for responsible AI use.
We have an exceptional team that examines how AI works. If the NLU system ever misunderstands someone, our experts review it and teach the system to do better next time. This is called the ‘NLU Expert Feedback Loop’. We also watch how people use the AI and check its performance using ‘Now Assist Analytics’. This constant checking and learning means our smart AI is continually improving at understanding you and guiding you accurately.
Easier Help for Everyone
In simple terms, ServiceNow’s intelligent AI utilises its understanding of language and powerful AI models to determine what you need. Then, it guides you directly to the correct form, help, or information. This makes getting help from your company quicker, easier, and much less frustrating. It’s all about giving you the best service, simply.