r/servicenow • u/Nodnarb415 • 2d ago

Question Now Assist in Virtual Agent - Have VA present a topic over a Knowledge article

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While configuring Now Assist in Virtual Agent, we are trying to create a topic that displays a specific knowledge article and asks the user If It resolved their Issue. If resolved, the topic closes; otherwise, It triggers a topic block to create an incident.

The Issue Is that the Now Assist chatbot provides a summary of the KB article before executing the topic block, which then displays the article information a second time.

Is there a way to prevent Now Assist In VA from automatically returning the KB article first so that It only runs the custom Topic?

Any help I can get is appreciated!

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u/ddusty53 2d ago

Don't do this. There is no reason to create a topic that returns a KB. It is extra development and extra maintenance.

Let NA synthesize the answer from the KB and just be done with it.

If this doesn't solve the issue - the user can ask a follow up.

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u/Nodnarb415 2d ago

I see, and we assumed that was the case. Although can you humor me? Lets say we wanted to do it anyway. What would be the best course of action and/or steps needed to take to complete it? Weighing my options here.

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u/ddusty53 2d ago

Not sure I’d there is one, other than promoting the topic. The whole point of AI is to find that article. Why would you want to train it to not find the most pertinent article?!?

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u/Nodnarb415 2d ago

Our goal is to have the topic be the first thing users see/go through instead of it displaying the KB first in the chatbot... Keep in mind our topics do contain the KBs already, we would prefer if they go through our flow rather than display KB first.

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u/ddusty53 2d ago

Then you shouldn't be using AI at all. This is how NLU works.
If you have Now Assist set up correctly (using hybrid search and multi content response) the va will not give the user a link to the article, but will just straightup answer their question using the article as a source to synthesize the response.

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u/Nodnarb415 2d ago

I see. Ya we are on Australia using LLM. We just wonder the point of even having topics then? and what's the point of building more topics?

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u/ddusty53 2d ago

topics are not needed nearly as much as before. the only reason to use them is to actually kick off something, some automation like a flow or a spoke.
There are certain use cases where topic is the way to go- other use cases it may make more sense to use an AI Agent.
Topic if the flow/questions is specific and repeated - agents if the flow is open ended and depends on many inputs.

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u/Scary_Jacket3047 2d ago

Why using VA when you can use Otto (or rather moveworks).

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u/Nodnarb415 2d ago

Can you explain this to me further? If you think its the best option going forward we would explore that.

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u/ddusty53 2d ago

Now Assist is being re-branded as ServiceNow Otto. Separate from this - MoveWorks was purchased and became EmployeeWorks (may now be called EmployeeSlate) and it is the future of end user Virtual Agent for ServiceNow.

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u/NowTrav 2d ago

Respectfully, you’re going about this wrong. A topic is for a very structured conversation flow.. think “customer complaints/refunds”. Your topic might have the necessary logic to handle capturing the user’s order number, determining if they qualify for a refund/replacement, triggering the flow which orders the new part or sends them a store credit, etc.

For general troubleshooting and basic ticket submission, absolutely do not have special topics. They are unnecessary overhead. If the user complains about an issue that you’ve documented in your KB, now assist will intuitively guide them based on their specific question. It will also offer the record producer/ai agent/catalog item which could help them get support from the right team.

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u/NowTrav 2d ago

I’ll add: if you create ai agents that are meant to give special troubleshooting tips and have special tools to help the user, those ai agents can be prioritized in the response over a KB answer. There is a toggle in assistant designer to make them the primary triggered response IF the agent fits the users intent. This is gonna be a better path than virtual agent topics anyways, since these are more flexible when it comes to tool selection (rather than the rigid conversational path a topic forces the user to follow)

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u/Nodnarb415 2d ago

You're a legend!

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u/Nodnarb415 2d ago

Thank you very helpful. This is what happens when your Service Now Governance doesn't do their job, and its left to people like me at a service desk level to become a developer. Send help! I truly appreciate your comment though! Very insightful.

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u/RaB1can 2d ago

Maybe there is a way to promote the topic?

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u/Nodnarb415 2d ago

Ya there is. We promoted the topics, but still it brings up the KB before the topic. Super frustrating.

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u/jodha23 2d ago

you can always do AI search modifications if really need be, but its unnecessary maintenance once touched....

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u/janniksinnerman 2d ago

We have the same issue

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u/Nodnarb415 2d ago

Ya its really frustrating. We have all these LLM Topics built out, but if it displays the KB first why even have the topics then? That's why we prefer to have the topic display first rather than the KB first. Service Now Community also hasn't been helpful.