Table of Contents
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Blog Summary
- ServiceNow Virtual Agents are conversational AI platforms designed to identify and solve problems using automated chats.
- Unlike ServiceNow chatbots, ServiceNow Virtual Agents are known to help the end user by understanding the problem with the help of NLU and LLM models, building a connection.
- Using self-service automation with virtual agents, organizations get to serve their customers and clients 24/7 without them being stuck in long waiting queues.
Imagine raising an IT ticket and getting an instant response without waiting for a technician. If you can instantly think of this, then you have definitely worked with Virtual Agents. For ServiceNow professionals, understanding virtual agents is important because it shapes how to handle requests for IT, HR, and customer service teams.
Virtual agents are AI software programs that regulate human conversation and solve user issues with the help of natural language processing.
In this blog, we will be focusing on what ServiceNow Virtual Agent is, how they work, benefits, and implementation best practices. For professionals, we will also be discussing the required skills and career scope.
What is a ServiceNow Virtual Agent?
Servicenow virtual agents are AI software programs or conversational AI platforms that are designed natively on the Now platform to identify and solve simple, regular requests using automated chats. This eliminates the need for human involvement for basic tasks. The self-service automation process using virtual agents can be accessed through the Service Portal, ServiceNow mobile app, and different third-party channels.
Integrating virtual agents helps end users directly ask questions rather than filling forms or going through a hefty process. Users can ask a question, and virtual agents understand the request and move through a guided conversation by either resolving the issue immediately or handing it over to live agents.
The virtual agent service now comes in two versions:
- ServiceNow Virtual Agent Lite: It is available on the ServiceNow AI platform by default, with limited features. It is a trial version for ITSM standard users, ideal for testing before rollouts.
- ServiceNow Virtual Agent Professional: It is a professional subscription version that offers core functions to create and deploy virtual agents. It includes VA designer, NLU, chat widget, notifications, and analytics dashboard-like features.
Before we understand the given features in detail, let us move to a simple yet significant difference between a virtual agent and a Chatbot.
Virtual Agent vs Chatbot — What’s the Difference?
To remember: Every Virtual Agent is a Chatbot, but not every chatbot is a Virtual Agent! The difference is more important than you think.
| ServiceNow Chatbot | ServiceNow Virtual Agent |
|---|---|
| Standalone tool, outside core systems. | Built directly on the Now Platform data and workflows. |
| Follows scripted decisions and takes actions just as it answers FAQs. | Doesn’t just answer questions, but checks user history, creates records, triggers workflows, and moves to a live agent (if needed) with full context. |
| Chatbots point to forms to fill for issues like password reset or asset request. | It understands natural/conversational language rather than asking users to choose from fixed form options like a chatbot. |
Unlike ServiceNow Chatbots, Virtual Agents are designed to act on tasks as they are directly embedded in the records and workflows.
How Does ServiceNow Virtual Agent Work?
Virtual Agent in ServiceNow works on a given set of core building blocks, including:
- Topic: It is a predefined draft or flow that guides the user from initial request to the solution. ServiceNow establishes pre-built topics for recurring ITSM, HR, and CSM issues. Admins can also create custom ones using Virtual Agent Designer without heavy logic.
- Natural Language Understanding: NLU models are created in a way that they can recognize what users want and the specific details of the requests without needing any specific menus.
- LLM Topic Discovery: ServiceNow has recently layered generative AI into Virtual Agent using Otto, which uses LLMs instead of traditional NLU. This helps create a better understanding for bots to improve case and incident rates.
- AI agents and multi-intent handling: ServiceNow virtual agents can now reason across multiple assets in one conversation. It helps resolve queries that touch more than one intent at a time.
- Escalation to live agents: When any issue or request is too complex to automate, Virtual Agent hands off the complete conversation and context to human agents in the chat. It eliminates the need for the user to repeat themselves.
- Analytics: Conversational analytics dashboard tracks how topics perform, like deflection rates, drop-off points, and common fallback moments. It allows admins to refine the experience.
Benefits of ServiceNow Virtual Agent
For business owners implementing it or students learning, there are various ServiceNow Virtual Agent features and benefits that one must know.
- Quick solution at low cost: By automating recurring requests, the need for human agents is reduced, and solutions are given instantly, reducing time and support costs.
- 24/7 service: Due to limited dependency on human agents, there are no fixed times to connect. Users can get their issues resolved on their own schedule.
- High deflection rates: Conversation flows designed with NLU or LLM topic discovery ensure that minor issues get solved without even becoming a ticket.
- Consistency: Users get accurate, on-brand responses without differences due to changes in agents.
- Governed Data: Virtual agents run on the Now platform, adhering to the same environment as ServiceNow data. This ensures data safety, unlike third-party tools.
- Free Human Agents: When agents spend less time on recurring, similar issues, they get to focus on high-value, complex tickets.
Skills You Need to Build a Virtual Agent
Creating a Virtual Agent in ServiceNow is an easier process due to the drag-and-drop interface of the platform. However, there are still a few things one must learn before starting to build and maintain the agents.
- Platform Fundamentals: It is important to understand the ServiceNow Now platform for roles like virtual_agent_admin or admin.
- Virtual Agent Designer: You must be comfortable with drag-and-drop conversations along with branching logic, loops, and topic blocks.
- Scripting: For advanced understanding and flows apart from the no-code canvas, one must know JavaScript and GlideScript.
- NLU model: Training a natural language understanding model is an important skill, as it helps create understanding to define intent and confidence thresholds.
- Generative AI/ LLM familiarity: It is very important as ServiceNow is shifting towards Otto-powered topic discovery.
- Analytics literacy: It gives the ability to read dashboards to find drop-off points and improve deflection rates.
Career Scope with Virtual Agent Skills
Virtual Agent skills in ServiceNow come under a larger bracket of the growing ServiceNow ecosystem. Certified developers with certain skills tend to earn in six figures, and that increases based on experience and geographical factors.
For professionals building Conversational and virtual agent skills, the specific opportunities are:
- Virtual Agent/ Conversational Interfaces Developer: They create and maintain topics, NLU, and integrations.
- ServiceNow AI/ GenAI consultant: Organizations look for professionals who understand platform and generative AI design as Otto and LLM-based topic discovery is growing.
- Platform Administrator with Virtual Agent Specialization: They own governance, rollout strategy, and analytics.
- Solution/ Technical Architect: It is a senior, more experienced role where professionals design how Virtual Agents fit in ITSM, HR, and CSM changes.
Conclusion
ServiceNow Virtual Agents are not usual chatbots, but a native serviceNow conversational AI layer that solves tickets rather than just answering queries. Faster resolutions, secure, low-cost, and free human agents make it a perfect choice for organizations working with end users.
For professionals in ServiceNow, it is a future-proof skill set as generative AI is becoming a huge part of the ServiceNow ecosystem. So if you are also looking to understand the skills to implement Virtual Agents and design conversations with real data, start learning ServiceNow Virtual Agent use cases today.
Shrey Sharma is the Founder of S2 Labs and a 2019 Salesforce MVP. He's trained 50,000+ students into Salesforce careers and runs Salesforce Hulk, the largest Salesforce-focused YouTube community. He's been a featured speaker at Salesforce community events worldwide, and his mission with S2 Labs remains simple: real mentorship, hands-on projects, and a clear path from classroom to career.
