The ServiceNow AI Search application provides a modern, user-friendly search engine for ServiceNow Service Portal, ServiceNow Now Mobile, and ServiceNow Virtual Agent. Thanks to its intelligent query features, users can quickly find the information they need. This AI-powered search tool scans multiple sources to deliver answers and remarkable results, helping users achieve their goals faster.

Whether you are searching for data on the platform, managing inventory, or dealing with people-related tasks, AI Search has you covered. It offers a user-friendly admin interface that enhances use cases without compromising security. Additionally, through machine learning, it continuously analyzes user search behavior to improve the ranking of relevant results, and it provides analytics for monitoring purposes.

Harnessing AI-Powered Search to Tackle Key Business Challenges

In the fast-paced world of modern business, meeting the ever-increasing demands of both clients and employees has become a pivotal challenge. The expectation is clear: immediate access to the necessary information, without the hassle of sifting through complex portals or navigating knowledge bases. Unfortunately, this search process often leads to frustration and a reliance on support or colleagues for help. Such a scenario is far from ideal, as it results in a less-than-pleasant experience for all parties involved. Furthermore, it places a heavy burden on agents who are bombarded with repetitive and mundane inquiries, disrupting their workflow. To overcome these hurdles and enhance operational efficiency while elevating employee and customer satisfaction, businesses must turn to intelligent solutions.

AI-Powered Search: A Game-Changer for ServiceNow

The demand for quick and effortless access to essential information is universal, whether you are a client or an employee. ServiceNow’s AI Search not only meets this expectation but surpasses it by offering both employees and customers an exceptional search experience akin to what they encounter in their everyday online interactions. Powered by natural language understanding (NLU) and machine learning, ServiceNow’s AI Search intuitively comprehends user intent, delivering consistently relevant results that empower users to take immediate action right from the search results interface.

In the digital age, search has evolved from a simple information retrieval tool into a pivotal catalyst for productivity and seamless workflows in innovative, highly efficient organizations across various industries.

Deep Dive into ServiceNow’s AI Search Architecture

The AI Search architecture empowers users to retrieve data from a variety of applications through the AI Search index, which stores information from Now Platform records as well as external sources. The search query functionality in the Now Platform leverages its technologies to enhance the overall search experience for users. Linguistic search query features are configured through search profiles, which define the settings and data sources for searches.

In a Now Platform-supported application, each search profile represents a unique search experience tailored for users. These profiles encompass one or more search sources that specify the type of content

users can search for within a given profile. They also encompass auto-correction terms, stop words, and synonym dictionaries used in searches associated with the profile. Additionally, Genius Result configurations are applied to profile-based searches, along with result improvement rules.

Administrators responsible for search engines create these search profiles, associate them with search sources, configure their settings, and subsequently make them accessible to users by publishing them. For detailed information on creating, configuring, and publishing search profiles, please refer to the section on search profiles.

Customize Search Configurations for Enhanced User Experiences

While traditional keyword searches rely on matching words or phrases within a query, AI-driven searches go beyond this by comprehending the meaning. It achieves this by interpreting contextual clues to understand user intent and provide valuable results. An example of semantic search can be seen in a restaurant search, where it not only offers contact information but also a map. Similarly, when searching for “tuition reimbursement” in a company’s employee portal, AI search returns articles providing guidance on how to initiate this process. Furthermore, the search experience can vary based on factors such as the user’s location, language, department, tools, and more. Additionally, essential features like autocorrection and autocomplete swiftly deliver precise answers, minimizing inconvenience.

You can enhance search capabilities across your organization by deploying AI Search as the search engine for various departments, including Customer Support, Management, Mobile, Service Gateway, and Virtual Assistant. Search configurations for Now Platform applications are managed by search administrators, and each configuration is associated with a specific search profile that defines the application’s search experience. Administrators can customize the application’s behavior in the following ways:

• Enable or disable auto-correction for search queries to address typos.
• Allow users to refine search results by configuring navigation tabs and facet filters.
• Control the number of Genius Result cards and search suggestions displayed for a particular search.
• Specify the maximum number of search results shown on each results page.

For more in-depth information on setting up and optimizing AI Search in supported Now Platform applications, refer to the documentation on Search application configurations and the guide on enabling and configuring AI Search in Now Platform applications.

It is worth noting that search relevancy is automatically improved through machine learning, which learns from users’ behavior to predict the most relevant answers.

AI Search configuration diagram

AI Search prominently highlights top responses to search queries as actionable Genius Result cards, which can be easily configured using trigger conditions and answer types.

ServiceNow’s AI Search Benefits

The advantages of ServiceNow AI Search encompass several search features designed to assist users in finding the information they seek:

• Advanced Search Queries: Users can perform precise searches by specifying ordered terms and expressions. The search also allows for Boolean operators to control query logic and employs wildcard operators to match a wide range of indexed terms.
• Query Language Guide: For a comprehensive understanding of supported query language syntax and operators, users can refer to the AI Search query language guide.
• Auto-Complete Suggestions: AI Search enhances the search experience by providing suggestions within the input field as users compose their queries. These suggestions include real-time and popular search inquiries, as well as passages from the user’s search history. Search administrators can configure auto-complete suggestion settings in the AI Search application.
• Language Sensitivity: AI Search supports natural language search by expanding query terms to match various inflections and forms. It offers language-specific lemma normalization for English, French Canada, French, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Traditional Chinese. Unicode normalization is applied to all Now Platform languages.
• Lemma and Unicode Standardization: Lemma and Unicode standardization are linguistic elements that function without requiring user configuration. Additional details on standardization behavior can be found in the documentation.
• Synonym Management: Users can expand search query terms by configuring language-specific synonym dictionaries for terms with equivalent meanings or usage. This feature provides a more intuitive search experience. Search administrators can set up synonyms and synonym dictionaries, supported for English, French Canada, French, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Traditional Chinese.
• Stop Words Management: AI Search offers the capability to configure language-specific dictionaries of frequently used terms that reduce search relevance. This feature enhances search precision by removing frequently occurring terms and replacing them with configurable stop words. These stop words are excluded from user search queries to eliminate irrelevant results. Supported languages for stop words include English, French Canada, French, German, and Spanish.
• Typo Correction: The search function can automatically correct misspelled search query terms by replacing them with correctly spelled terms found in indexed content. Users are presented with typo corrections above the search results, but they always have the option to perform a new search using their original query terms.
• Auto-Correction Configuration: The handling of grammatical errors through auto-correction is a feature that can be customized by search administrators. Details on configuring available auto-correction terms can be found in the documentation, and this feature is supported for English, French Canada, French, German, and Spanish.

Service portals and virtual agents can seamlessly integrate AI search, which provides intelligent and actionable information precisely where users need it. AI Search can effortlessly access your ServiceNow data within the Now Platform, ensuring a personalized and consistent user experience across desktop, web, and mobile platforms. It rapidly provides the most precise and pertinent results, anytime and anywhere, by leveraging your existing service catalog, knowledge base articles, and Now Platform data.