ServiceNow Now Assist: What to Know About the Platform’s Gen AI Layer

What can happen when you use GenAI in your cloud-based workflows? You improve your chances of getting structure, speed, and intelligence in daily enterprise work. That’s the main idea behind ServiceNow Now Assist.

ServiceNow is already a mature, cloud-native platform that runs IT, HR, and customer service workflows. With Now Assist, you get an embedded generative AI layer, designed to work within your processes.

Since this platform now handles billions of workflow events every year, exploring Now Assist can help you understand how its dedicated AI agent operates at this scale. Scroll below for all the key details.

Understanding ServiceNow Now Assist

ServiceNow is a cloud-based enterprise workflow platform. It brings different teams, applications, data, and workflows together within a unified environment.

Now Assist builds on this foundation by bringing generative AI capabilities directly into these workflows. It’s the generative AI layer built into the platform that helps you work faster inside enterprise workflows.

Get these facts straight:

• It isn’t a separate tool.
• It’s a generative AI experience that includes task-specific skills and AI-powered capabilities.
• It works inside supported tickets, cases, searches, workflows, and apps.

Now the main question is, ‘How does ServiceNow Now Assist operate?’

• Now Assist is an AI capability embedded in the ServiceNow platform.
• As you know, ServiceNow has a structured data model (records, fields, workflow states, etc.).
• Now Assist uses relevant information from these records and other configured data sources as context for AI-generated output.
• So, when an agent opens a supported ticket and invokes a Now Assist capability, the AI can work with the relevant information without requiring the agent to switch to a separate application.

How Does Now Assist Process Information?

More happens behind the scenes than simply feeding a ticket to an AI model.

Now Assist combines ServiceNow’s workflow context, enterprise data, generative AI models, and predefined or customized AI capabilities to complete specific tasks.

Here’s how the process generally works:

1. Context collection

When a user invokes a Now Assist feature, the platform identifies the information relevant to that task. This could include incident details, case descriptions, work notes, conversation history, or relevant knowledge articles.

The available information depends on the feature, application, configuration, and the user’s access permissions.

2. Information retrieval

Some Now Assist experiences use Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to retrieve relevant information from configured enterprise sources.

Instead of relying entirely on an LLM’s pretrained knowledge, RAG supplies relevant information as additional context. This helps the model generate responses grounded in organizational knowledge and business information.

For example, when an employee asks about a company leave policy, an AI-powered search experience can retrieve relevant knowledge articles and use their content to formulate an answer.

3. AI processing and content generation

ServiceNow’s generative AI infrastructure passes the relevant context to an appropriately configured large language model (LLM).

The model processes the input and generates an output based on the task. Depending on the feature, this could be an incident summary, a suggested response, resolution notes, a knowledge article, or other content.

4. Output within the workflow

The generated result is presented within the relevant ServiceNow experience. Users can review, refine, and use the output according to the feature’s available controls.

This keeps AI assistance close to the actual business process rather than making employees move between multiple applications.

Understanding Now Assist Skills and AI Agents

Another important distinction is that Now Assist doesn’t rely on one generic AI function for every task.

It uses task-specific generative AI capabilities called Now Assist skills. These skills perform specific activities, such as summarizing incidents, generating responses, or creating content. You can also build customized generative AI skills for business-specific requirements using ServiceNow’s skill-building capabilities.

AI agents take things a step further.

While a generative AI skill typically handles a focused task, an AI agent can use configured tools, reason through a request, and coordinate multiple steps to achieve a broader objective.

For example, a summarization skill can generate a concise incident summary. An appropriately configured IT service management AI agent could go further by investigating an issue, retrieving relevant information, and initiating permitted actions as part of an incident-resolution process.

These capabilities operate within configured permissions, tools, and governance controls. AI agents don’t automatically receive unrestricted access to enterprise systems or data.

Features of ServiceNow Now Assist

Now Assist brings a variety of AI capabilities to ServiceNow workflows. Below, you’ll find 10 such features worth exploring.

1. Summarization

Simply put, Summarization is the process of compressing data into a structured, clear overview. This data can comprise the following:

• Work notes
• Chat transcripts
• Multiple handoffs
• Updates

ServiceNow Now Assist automatically generates concise, context-aware summaries of:

• Incidents (ITSM)
• Cases (CSM)
• Chat interactions
• Change requests
• Work notes

This summary helps agents understand history fast without reading every line.

Depending on the ServiceNow application and summarization skill, the AI can use relevant record details, selected fields, work notes, additional comments, and conversation history to generate these summaries. The exact info available varies by feature and configuration.

How Summarization Works?

Now Assist processes the relevant information available to the summarization skill, such as record details, work notes, and configured input fields. It then identifies important discussions, actions already taken, current status, and pending blockers. Finally, it produces a concise, human-readable summary without requiring manual tagging.

Depending on the configuration, you can generate summaries when an agent invokes the feature or through supported automated triggers.

When Do You Need This?

You want faster handovers, reduced resolution time, and better documentation. In short, enterprises can use this Now Assist feature for managing multiple teams and long-running tickets.

2. Conversational Virtual Agent (CVA)

This feature is an AI-powered chatbot functionality. Now Assist enhances ServiceNow Virtual Agent with generative AI capabilities, making interactions more conversational and context-aware. The artificial intelligence in ServiceNow performs the following actions:

• Responds in natural language
• Pulls data from the knowledge base and workflows
• Handles multi-turn requests (like ordering items or service requests)
• Improves self-service and case deflection
• Connects users with relevant Gen AI skills, AI agents, and supported workflows

Basically, you can think of this feature as a handy virtual teammate (that never needs coffee). It supports natural language understanding, provides actionable answers, and keeps a fluent track of context.

What Now Assist in Virtual Agent Doesn’t Do?

ServiceNow Now Assist can’t completely replace agents. You need human intervention to handle unclear or intricate situations.

Generative AI can also produce inaccurate or fabricated responses, even when connected to enterprise knowledge sources. The quality of its answers depends on the available information, configured knowledge sources, and the underlying model. Human review remains important for sensitive or complex requests.

When Do You Need This?

If you have HR or employee portals with repetitive queries, CSMs with recurring questions, or high-ticket volume. This Now Assist feature is helpful for guided self-service.

For example, employees can use a conversational virtual agent to find HR policies, submit service requests, or get answers to common IT support questions without waiting for a human agent. This can help you manage repetitive queries and allow support teams to focus on more complex issues.

3. AI-Enhanced Search

Simply put, AI-enhanced search understands the context of your query and provides actionable information from the records.

It helps users find relevant information across configured enterprise data sources, including knowledge articles and records. As a result, this feature can provide summarized, conversational answers rather than simply displaying a list of links.

With this feature, you get relevant, actionable answers rather than a list of articles or links. Notably, this ServiceNow Now Assist trait works across portals, internal search, and Virtual Agent contexts.

Why This Feature Matters?

You don’t need to explore several articles or tickets. With AI-enhanced search, you can prevent wasted time and reduce frustration.

Consider an IT employee searching for a solution to a recurring login issue. They can receive an AI-generated answer based on relevant knowledge articles, rather than manually opening multiple search results.

When Do You Need This?

Let’s say your support team is waiting for self-service adoption to take off. In such cases, this feature can deliver maximum value.

It can also help when your employees need to find information across large knowledge bases, internal web portals, and enterprise records. For global organizations, language support can be useful where the relevant AI Search and Now Assist configurations support the required languages.

4. Content Creation & Editing

Now, with Now Assist, you can generate and enhance written content inside ServiceNow. You can use AI to create:

• Emails
• Work/resolve notes
• Knowledge base articles
• Case responses

Agents don’t have to write everything manually. They can generate drafts, summarize, or clarify current text.

These capabilities can also help agents adjust the tone, improve clarity, and create more relevant responses based on the context of a particular task. For example, an agent handling a customer complaint can use AI-generated response suggestions to draft a clear and professional reply.

How Does This Work?

When a user invokes a content-generation skill, Now Assist uses the relevant information supplied to that skill. Depending on the task, this may include ticket details, work notes, case information, or existing text. It also helps generate context-aware content, so agents don’t have to start every response from scratch.

You can then review or edit the generated content within the relevant ServiceNow workflow.

What Are the Limitations?

Right now, it can’t verify facts independently. Also, you need a human reviewer to gauge the accuracy before publishing content.

AI-generated content may include inaccurate details, miss important context, or need adjustments. Human review is quite important before sending customer-facing responses or publishing knowledge articles.

5. Code & Flow Generation

With this feature, developers and creators can turn text descriptions into code snippets or workflow steps.

ServiceNow Now Assist supports application development, code generation, and workflow automation. Developers and creators can use natural-language prompts to generate code suggestions and create supported app components.

To access it, you need to use one of the following:

• App Engine Studio
• Flow Designer
• Creator modules

The exact development environment depends on the capability and ServiceNow release. For instance, Workflow Studio supports flow generation, while AI-assisted code generation works within supported script editors. Now Assist also provides application development capabilities through supported ServiceNow development environments.

Basically, this ServiceNow Now Assist offering saves time for manual coding. Also, it reduces any backlog as your teams can deliver quick solutions.

What Are the Main Capabilities?

AI-assisted development covers several activities, from generating code suggestions to building workflows and application components. The table below provides a brief explanation of the main capabilities:

Key Capability	What It Does
Text-to-Code	Converts plain-language instructions into working code snippets or configuration blocks.
Workflow/Flow Auto-Generation	Generates structured workflows with triggers, conditions, and task assignments from prompts.
Catalog Item & App Component Creation	Builds service catalog items, forms, UI actions, and app modules from simple text descriptions.
Rapid Prototyping	Allows teams to quickly test and iterate ideas without manual coding.

These capabilities can help developers move from an initial idea to a working application or workflow quickly. Still, you should review and test the generated code before deployment.

When You Should Use It?

Use this feature if you have repetitive workflows and need fast internal app delivery. Also, if your team banks on low-code development, this Now Assist feature can prove more than useful.

It’s helpful when developers need to speed up routine scripting, build approval workflows, generate application components, or create Service Catalog items. You can reduce repetitive work while retaining control over application logic and deployment with this ServiceNow Now Assist feature.

6. Custom AI Skills

With this addition, you can build your own generative AI capabilities inside ServiceNow. If you feel the default AI features aren’t enough, this offering can augment your platform to the next level.

Using Now Assist Skill Kit, your developers can create custom generative AI skills tailored to specific business processes. They can define prompts, specify the information a skill receives, and add tools or data retrievers to provide additional context.

Here are the main benefits of using custom AI skills:

• You can create workflow-specific AI skills
• Custom skills can plug into existing ServiceNow flows, apps, or Virtual Agent conversations
• You can create entirely new automation or guidance capabilities

Overall, think of this feature as an in-built custom AI development ability.

Once created, you can test, evaluate, and publish custom skills in supported ServiceNow experiences. You can also integrate them into automated workflows.

What Are the Challenges?

Again, you can’t eliminate human oversight. You need proper and accurate data to train the AI model. In addition, there is always a risk of increasing complexity when custom skills overlap.

7. Multilingual Support

In ServiceNow Now Assist, you can interact in your preferred languages. In colloquial terms, you speak your mother tongue, and the platform understands you and responds in the same language. But there’s a small catch. The selected AI model should support this attribute.

Whom does this feature prove extremely useful to?

Global enterprises with a diversified workforce. In fact, you can break linguistic barriers and onboard skilled agents regardless of language expertise.

How Does it Work?

Now Assist supports two multilingual approaches:

• Native translation: A multilingual AI model processes your query directly in its original language and responds in that language
• Dynamic Translation: The platform translates the input into English before sending it to the AI model, then translates the generated response back into your preferred language

If you enable both options, native translation takes priority for languages supported by the selected model. Dynamic Translation can provide additional language coverage where native support is unavailable. However, language availability and translation quality depend on the AI model provider and configuration.

When Do You Need This?

You have a multinational team and a global IT support staff. If you have shared service centres with multi-regional support, this feature can be handy.

It helps employees and support agents interact with ServiceNow in their preferred languages. This makes self-service and internal support more accessible across geographically distributed teams.

8. Responsible AI & Governance Features

These features ensure Now Assist operates within defined enterprise controls. Using different components, you can monitor, control, and govern the use of generative AI in ServiceNow.

Here are the vital components of this offering:

• Now Assist Guardian: Monitors the use of AI features
• Now Assist Data Kit: Helps curate, generate, and manage datasets that you can use to develop and check custom AI skills
• Now Assist Analytics: Offers visibility into metrics and feature adoption

This way, you can ensure high compliance and audit readiness.

Why This Feature Matters?

You need visibility before allowing AI into critical systems. This Now Assist attribute adds enterprise trust. Guardian can also help identify and mitigate certain AI-related risks, while Data Kit and Analytics support better evaluation and monitoring. However, these capabilities don’t eliminate hallucinations, data leakage, or every possible policy violation. You still need broader security controls, access management, and human oversight.

Where It Delivers High Value?

Regulated industries (finance, healthcare, government), large enterprises with strict compliance requirements. Also, if you want to deploy AI across multiple teams or regions, this feature can prove crucial.

For example, if you’re rolling out Now Assist across your IT and customer service teams, you can use Guardian to apply configured safety guardrails. Next, you can use Data Kit to evaluate custom AI skills, and Analytics to understand feature adoption and performance.

9. LLM Flexibility and Third-Party Model Integration

The best part of ServiceNow Now Assist is that it doesn’t rely on one generic AI model. It uses the following:

• Third-party LLMs from supported providers
• Configurable model-provider integrations for supported AI skills and agents

You can also use this platform with models like Microsoft Azure OpenAI, OpenAI APIs, IBM WatsonX, Google Gemini, etc.

ServiceNow shifted the default model configuration towards third-party providers, including Google Gemini and OpenAI GPT. ‘Now LLM’ is no longer the default model for AI skills and agents.

What It Doesn’t Do?

The only limitation right now is that Now Assist doesn’t pick the model by default. You need to configure the LLM and define data access rules, model boundaries, and usage policies.

When To Use This?

If you have existing cloud or AI partnerships, this feature can prove helpful. Regulated industries needing strict data control can benefit from it as well. All in all, if you want workflow-specific AI, this Now Assist feature can empower you in the long run.

Enterprise Use Cases of ServiceNow Now Assist

Now, let’s move on to the utility section. Below, we’ll explain how Now Assist can help you in different scenarios.

1. Incident & Case Summarization (ITSM + CSM)

In large organizations, incidents and customer cases don’t stay small.

A single ticket can involve:

• Multiple agents
• Several handovers
• Long chat transcripts
• Days or weeks of work notes

By the time a new agent or escalation team steps in, they’re staring at several pages.

This scenario leads to:

• Wasted time reading instead of resolving
• Repeated questions to users
• Inconsistent resolution notes

Now Assist generates concise, context-aware summaries within supported incident and case management experiences. It uses relevant record details and activity information to help agents understand the issue, actions taken, and outstanding next steps.

It can summarize:

• The issue reported
• Key actions already taken
• Current status
• Unresolved blockers

Agents don’t need to dig through the entire activity stream. The summary gives them the signal.

Bottom line: ServiceNow Now Assist summarizes tickets, chat transcripts, and work notes into clear, actionable overviews. So, it helps agents quickly understand context, reduce handover friction, and resolve issues faster.

2. Intelligent Virtual Agents & Self-Service

Enterprise support teams face repetitive, low-complexity requests like:

• Password resets
• VPN access issues
• Software requests
• HR policy questions
• Status checks on existing tickets

These requests don’t require deep expertise, but they consume a massive amount of agent time. Traditional chatbots don’t help much because they rely on rigid scripts and fail on anything slightly nuanced.

Now Assist powers conversational virtual agents that can:

• Understand natural language requests
• Pull answers from knowledge bases and workflows
• Guide users through multi-step self-service tasks
• Escalate to humans when required

For example:

• User: I need access to Jira
• Virtual Agent:
  • Checks role and eligibility
  • Triggers the access request workflow
  • Informs the user of approval status

Once you configure the required integrations, eligibility checks, and approval workflows, the request can progress without requiring an agent to handle every step manually. Basically, ServiceNow Now Assist enables intelligent Virtual Agents that handle routine support requests through natural language conversations.

3. Knowledge Base Authoring & Management

Most enterprise knowledge bases suffer from the following issues:

• Outdated articles
• Slow content creation
• Reactive knowledge generation

The price?

• Self-service fails
• Users open tickets for issues that already have solutions
• Agents solve the same problems repeatedly

Here, Now Assist can help agents generate knowledge articles using information from resolved cases. It can use relevant case details, comments, and work notes to create an initial draft that agents can review, edit, and publish.

This helps you turn completed support cases into reusable knowledge resources instead of creating every article from scratch.

You can even update existing articles when patterns change.

Bottom line: ServiceNow Now Assist helps enterprises generate and maintain knowledge base articles by analyzing real incidents and resolution notes. By turning recurring issues into structured KB drafts, it accelerates knowledge creation and improves self-service outcomes.

4. AI-Enhanced Search

Enterprise search has some common issues. Here are the most prominent ones:

• Users don’t know the right keywords
• Search returns long lists of irrelevant articles
• People click multiple links and still don’t get answers

So even when knowledge exists, it’s hard to access at speed.

ServiceNow Now Assist upgrades search from keyword matching to intent understanding. With it, you can:

Ask questions in natural language

• (Example: Why can’t I connect to VPN?)
• Search without knowing the exact terms or article titles

In return, AI Search retrieves relevant information, while Now Assist can use supported generative AI capabilities to provide summarized, context-aware answers. This reduces the need to manually explore multiple search results.

Bottom line: Now Assist enables AI-enhanced search that understands natural language queries and delivers context-aware answers instead of keyword-based results.

5. Workflow & Process Guidance

The bigger the company, the greater the chance of uneven knowledge base execution. Some common workflow issues are:

• New agents don’t know the next step
• Decisions depend on tribal knowledge
• Priority, assignment, or escalation varies by person
• Best practices exist, but are inconsistent

So, problems like SLA breaches, inconsistent outcomes, and unnecessary escalations arise.

Now Assist provides real-time guidance inside active workflows.

As agents work on a ticket or case, Now Assist can:

• Generate suggested next steps based on relevant case information and similar resolved cases
• Help agents understand existing records and identify possible resolution approaches
• Surface relevant knowledge and contextual information through supported AI skills

This assistance is available within supported workflows and record experiences. It helps agents make informed decisions without having to search manually for every piece of information. In other words, this is a practical example of assistive AI.

Bottom line: Now Assist provides in-context workflow and process guidance by suggesting next steps, priorities, and escalation paths as agents work on tickets and cases.

6. Developer & App Builder Assistance

Enterprise IT teams are always short on development bandwidth. They have long backlogs for internal apps and automation. Also, simple workflow requests pile up behind complex projects.

What’s more? Business teams want quick solutions without writing code, and developers spend time on repetitive setup. Sounds familiar, right?

Now Assist can work as a solution here.

Using supported ServiceNow development environments, such as Workflow Studio and script editors, developers and creators can:

• Describe what you want in natural language
• Generate workflow logic, code snippets, service catalog items, etc.

ServiceNow Now Assist helps developers and app builders by converting natural language prompts into workflows, code snippets, and app components within the ServiceNow platform.

Bottom line: You can speed up low-code development, reduce backlogs, and enable faster delivery of internal automation.

7. AI-Generated Insights, Feedback & Summaries

Enterprises like yours have unstructured data. This information can be in the form of survey responses, feedback forms, post-call transcripts, ticket comments, etc.

So, you end up spending hours manually reviewing text and missing vital trends.

Now Assist offers supported generative AI skills that can summarize conversations, analyze case information, identify recurring themes, and generate useful insights from relevant business data.

Depending on the application and configuration, these capabilities can help enterprises:

• Summarize customer feedback and case interactions
• Identify recurring issues and sentiment patterns
• Extract important information from conversations and records
• Generate concise summaries to support operational reviews

However, it can still miss context. So, ensure you review the information before taking the final call.

Bottom line: All in all, Now Assist can help analyze supported business records and interactions to generate concise summaries and insights. You can thus spot trends, reduce analyst workload, and make faster decisions.

Implementing ServiceNow Now Assist

Now that we understand what ServiceNow Now Assist can do and the real enterprise use cases, let’s look at how you can implement it.

1. Assess Business Needs

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2. Identify Use Cases

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3. Prepare Data & Knowledge Base

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4. Configure Now Assist Features

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5. Integrate with Workflows & Systems

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6. Pilot & Validate Outputs

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7. Train Users & Stakeholders

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8. Monitor, Govern & Iterate

Need a quick explanation of each step? Read the pointers below:

1. Assess Business Needs

• Understand pain points, priorities, and departments that benefit most.

2. Identify Use Cases

• Map Now Assist features to real workflows (e.g., incident summarization, virtual agents).

3. Prepare Data & Knowledge Base

• Clean up KB articles, tickets, and historical records to improve AI output.
• Review data access permissions and ensure that the information available to AI features is relevant for the intended use cases.

4. Configure Now Assist Features

• Enable and configure the relevant Now Assist capabilities, such as summarization, AI Search enhancements, supported workflow assistance, custom skills, and multilingual experiences. Availability depends on your ServiceNow products, subscriptions, and configuration.

5. Integrate with Workflows & Systems

• Connect AI outputs to ServiceNow workflows, approvals, and business processes.

6. Pilot & Validate Outputs

• Test with a small user group; refine summaries, search, and AI recommendations.
• Evaluate output accuracy, relevance, access controls, and user feedback before expanding deployment.

7. Train Users & Stakeholders

• Show agents, managers, and admins how to leverage AI effectively.

8. Monitor, Govern & Iterate

• Use analytics dashboards, guardrails, and feedback loops to optimize continuously.

(If you want, we can write a separate blog on the detailed implementation process. Just connect with us or drop your comment after the blog.)

ServiceNow Now Assist Benefits

ServiceNow Now Assist has the potential to drive measurable efficiency, smarter workflows, and faster decision-making. The table below provides a quick overview of the main advantages.

Benefit	Description
Faster Ticket Resolution	Reduces time spent reading and analyzing cases
Improved Self-Service	Virtual Agents handle routine queries effectively
Enhanced Knowledge Management	Helps generate and improve knowledge article drafts
Workflow Guidance	Suggests next steps and enforces best practices
Developer Productivity	Generates code snippets and workflows for rapid app delivery
Actionable Insights	Summarizes supported records and interactions for strategic decisions
Multilingual Support	Enables global teams to interact in their preferred language, where supported
Governance & Compliance	Provides tools to monitor AI usage and support responsible AI governance
Accessibility	Supports voice and hands-free interactions for diverse users
Flexibility	Custom AI skills and third-party LLM integration

To Sum Up

ServiceNow Now Assist brings generative AI directly into enterprise workflows. This layer transforms how you can handle incidents, cases, knowledge, and automation.

From summarizing tickets to guiding processes, enhancing search, and empowering developers, it offers several benefits. By using Now Assist, you can speed up operations, reduce repetitive work, and enable data-driven decision-making.

Notably, its multilingual capabilities and governance tools can support AI adoption across teams, while helping you maintain oversight of your AI usage.

Now Assist performs best when the underlying workflows are structured correctly. If your processes aren’t clean, our ServiceNow process consulting practice redesigns them before you activate AI layers.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is ServiceNow Now Assist, and how does it work?

ServiceNow Now Assist is a suite of generative AI capabilities that embeds AI into workflows across supported ServiceNow products, including ITSM, CSM, HRSD, and Creator. It uses ServiceNow’s own and supported third-party large language models (LLMs), depending on the capability and configuration, to generate summaries, enhance search experiences, and assist with content and workflow creation.

2. Do I need a special license to use Now Assist?

Yes. Now Assist capabilities generally require an eligible Now Assist subscription or add-on, in addition to the relevant ServiceNow product licensing. The exact package and licensing requirements vary by product and capability.

3. Can ServiceNow Now Assist support multiple languages?

Yes. Now Assist supports multilingual experiences for selected capabilities and languages. Depending on the configuration and AI model, it can process requests in supported languages directly or use Dynamic Translation to translate input and output.

4. Is Now Assist secure and suitable for enterprise use?

Now Assist is designed for enterprise use and provides governance and security capabilities to help organizations manage generative AI. It operates within the ServiceNow platform’s security and access-control framework, but the protection of data and compliance with organizational requirements also depend on configuration, permissions, integrations, and governance policies.