In today’s world, automation and self-service is all around us. From self-order tablets at restaurants to self-checkout lanes at grocery stores and self-check in kiosks at airports, the ability to complete tasks without requiring additional human assistance is incredibly valuable, saving both time and resources.
For organizations utilizing ServiceNow as their IT Service Management (ITSM) platform, the ServiceNow Virtual Agent offers a powerful solution to streamline support and enhance the self-service experience for users.
What is the ServiceNow Virtual Agent?
The ServiceNow Virtual Agent is an intelligent conversational chatbot that provides 24/7 automated support. It enables users to resolve common IT service issues, submit new IT incidents/requests, and find information stored in knowledge bases.
Users can quickly get resolutions without waiting for human assistance. By handling routine inquiries and tasks, the Virtual Agent can reduce the volume of calls and lessen the workload of Service Desk agents, allowing them to focus on more complex issues. In other words, the Virtual Agent can act as a tier 1 level support, deflecting mundane tasks from the Service Desk.
Key features and benefits
Out-of-the-box conversation topics
ServiceNow provides out-of-the-box conversation topics that can quickly be tailored to an organization’s existing processes, resulting in immediate business value, such as:
- Open IT Ticket
- Password Reset
- Unlock Account
- VPN Connectivity
- Hardware Issues
Natural language understanding
The Virtual Agent comes with pre-built natural language understand (NLU) models, allowing the Virtual Agent to understand what the user enters into the chat and map it to specific topics, for example:
- “My account is locked”
- “I cannot connect to the VPN”
- “I need a new keyboard”
Custom NLU models can also be created and trained for terminology specific to the organization.
Topic recommendation analysis
The ServiceNow platform has machine learning capabilities that can analyze historical Incident data, identifying frequent issues within the organization and then recommend new topics for the Virtual Agent.
Multi-channel integration
The ServiceNow Virtual Agent can easily be integrated across multiple channels, including:
- Employee Center/Service Portal
- Intranet site
- Microsoft Teams
- Slack
- ServiceNow Now Mobile.
This ensures users can receive automated support easily, anywhere and anytime.
Transfer to live agent
In scenarios where users cannot resolve their issue with the Virtual Agent, a request can be made to reroute the chat to a live Service Desk agent. The agent can view the user’s chat logs with the Virtual Agent and provide further assistance.
Conversational Analytics
In addition to reporting capabilities available within the ServiceNow platform, the Virtual Agent comes with a built-in Conversational Analytics dashboard that provides insight on user interactions. This lets admins see data on how the Virtual Agent is performing, and allows them to optimize it further.
Example use cases
Below are two examples of how the ServiceNow Virtual Agent can provide users self-service options to resolve common issues, reducing the number of calls and repetitive tasks that the Service Desk receives.
Password reset
Without Virtual Agent: a user calls the Service Desk and talks with an agent because they require instructions on how to reset their password.
With the Virtual Agent: a user initiates a new chat, selects the Password Reset topic, and the Virtual Agent will guide them through the self-service password reset process.
Troubleshooting computer issues
Without Virtual Agent: a user calls the Service Desk and describes an issue they are experiencing on their computer. The Service Desk agent spends time trying to diagnose the issue and provide a solution.
With Virtual Agent: a user initiates a new chat and provides details of a computer issue. The Virtual Agent searches the knowledge base and suggests solutions.
