A guide to ServiceNow AI search configuration

ServiceNow is a beast of a platform for managing IT and customer service. One of its big promises is AI Search, designed to give your employees and customers a search experience that feels less like a clunky internal tool and more like Google. When people can find what they need fast, it solves problems and keeps support tickets from piling up.

But here’s the million-dollar question: what does it actually take to get AI Search working?

While it’s a powerful feature, the ServiceNow AI Search configuration can be a real headache. It often demands a lot of technical know-how and a serious time commitment. This guide will walk you through the basics of setting it up, point out some common bumps in the road, and show you a much simpler way to get the job done (and maybe even get better results).

What is ServiceNow AI Search?

Think of ServiceNow AI Search as the platform's new, smarter brain. It’s built to replace the old Zing search engine, using natural language processing (NLP) to figure out what people are really asking for.

Instead of just looking for matching keywords, it tries to understand the intent behind a search. This means it can dig up more relevant, useful answers right inside ServiceNow. Some of its key tricks include:

• Understanding context: It uses semantic search to grasp the meaning behind your words. So, if you search for "laptop issue," it knows to look for articles about "computer problems" or "notebook repairs," not just exact matches.

• Giving direct answers: For certain searches, it uses "Genius Results" to show you an answer or an action directly, like pulling up a colleague's contact card or a specific item from the service catalog. No more clicking through a bunch of links.

• Searching across the platform: It can index and search through different parts of ServiceNow, from Knowledge Base articles ("kb_knowledge") to Service Catalog items ("sc_cat_item") and user profiles.

• Working where you work: It’s integrated into different ServiceNow apps like the Service Portal, Now Mobile, and the Virtual Agent.

The whole idea is to give users one intelligent search bar to find everything they need without having to navigate a maze of menus. But getting to that promised land depends entirely on how you set it up.

How to approach ServiceNow AI Search configuration

Setting up ServiceNow AI Search isn't as simple as flipping a switch. It’s a process with a few different layers, where you have to define what gets searched, how it gets searched, and what the results look like. Based on ServiceNow's own documentation and what users have shared, it boils down to three main stages.

1. Indexed sources

First things first, AI Search needs to know where your information lives. This is done by setting up Indexed Sources. You essentially point the system to the tables you want it to crawl. ServiceNow comes with default settings for the Knowledge Base and Service Catalog, but if you want to include other data, like the "interaction" table, you’ll have to do it manually.

The backend interface for ServiceNow AI configuration, where administrators set up sources and search behavior.

The process looks something like this:

• You head over to "AI Search > AI Search Index > Indexed Sources".

• Create a new record and pick the table you want to add.

• Set up filters to tell it which records to include or ignore.

• Kick off a full table index, which can take a while if you have a lot of data.

This is a powerful feature, but it assumes you know your ServiceNow data structure inside and out. And what happens if your knowledge isn't neatly tucked away in ServiceNow tables? If it’s scattered across Confluence, Google Docs, or buried in old Slack threads, you'll have to set up separate (and often tricky) External Content Connectors.

2. Using search profiles

Once your content is indexed, you need to define how the search actually behaves for the user. This is done through Search Profiles. A profile is a bundle of settings that controls things like:

• Search Sources: Which of your indexed sources should this profile actually search?

• Synonyms & Stop Words: You can create custom dictionaries to help the search understand your company's lingo.

• Typo Handling: How should the search engine deal with spelling mistakes?

• Genius Results: Which of the direct-answer "Genius Results" should be active?

You might end up creating different profiles for different portals. For example, your internal IT portal search might behave differently from your external customer-facing portal, and each one needs its own setup.

3. Customizing results

Finally, you link your Search Profile to a Search Application Configuration. This is what tells a specific application, like the Service Portal, to use AI Search with the profile you just built.

This is also where you get into the nitty-gritty of customizing the results page with filters and sort options. But this is where things can get complicated, fast. Let's say you want to customize the result cards to show specific fields, like who a ticket was "opened for." According to users on the ServiceNow community forums, this often means you have to dive deep into the platform’s backend, messing with things like the Entity View Action Mapper (EVAM) framework. It's not exactly user-friendly and usually requires a developer.

Key features and common challenges

ServiceNow AI Search has some impressive capabilities, but digging through user forums and documentation shows that getting them to work right can be a real struggle. Let's look at a few of its standout features and the headaches that can come with them.

Genius results: A common configuration challenge

Genius Results are one of the most appealing features. They’re meant to give people direct answers and actions instead of just a list of links. For example, searching for a colleague’s name could bring up their profile card with all their contact info.

Sounds great, right? But customizing them is a well-known pain point.

In one Reddit thread on r/servicenow, a user described a frustrating hunt just to get the link on a result card to point to the right URL.

Reddit

Limiting and personalizing results

Even something that sounds simple, like limiting the number of search results, can turn into a puzzle. Another user shared their struggle to cap results at 10, trying to edit widget options and schemas to no avail. The setting was actually buried in the "Search Application Configuration," which isn't the first place you'd think to look.

The platform is getting better, and the latest Xanadu release adds features for boosting results based on a user’s context (like their country or department). But this still relies on you manually creating rules to make it happen.

The testing and simulation gap

One of the biggest worries with any complex system is safely testing your changes. While ServiceNow gives you a "Search Preview" tool, it’s mostly for you, the admin, to check results. There isn't a great, built-in way to see how your new setup will perform against thousands of real questions from your users before you go live. This often means you only find out something is broken after your users do.

This is where a dedicated AI platform like eesel AI really shines. It has a powerful simulation mode that lets you test your AI on thousands of your past tickets. You can see exactly how it would have answered, get solid forecasts on its resolution rate, and tweak its behavior in a safe environment before a single customer ever interacts with it.

A simpler approach to configuration

The headaches with ServiceNow AI Search configuration often come from the fact that it's a platform-native tool. It's designed to be powerful inside its own world, but that focus can lead to complexity, a steep learning curve, and a lack of flexibility.

Understanding the pricing

So, how much does ServiceNow AI Search cost? That’s a good question. ServiceNow doesn’t put a price tag on AI Search itself. It’s bundled into the broader ServiceNow AI Platform, which usually comes with their Pro or Enterprise packages for ITSM, CSM, or other products. To get it, you’ll have to talk to their sales team about your license, which typically means a hefty annual contract and no transparent, public pricing.

The alternative: A flexible AI layer

For teams that want enterprise-level search and automation without the heavy lift, a better option is often an AI platform that simply plugs into the tools you already use.

eesel AI was built for exactly this. Instead of a complex, months-long project, you can be up and running in minutes. Here’s how it’s different:

• Genuinely Self-Serve: You can sign up, connect your helpdesk (like ServiceNow, Zendesk, or Jira Service Management), add your knowledge sources (like Confluence or Google Docs), and launch an AI agent without ever having to talk to a salesperson.

• Unified Knowledge: eesel AI instantly pulls together knowledge from all your connected sources. It even learns from your past tickets to understand your company's tone and common solutions from day one.

• Total Control, Simple Interface: You don't need to be a developer to change how the AI works. A simple prompt editor lets you shape its personality, and you can create custom actions or tell it to only answer questions on certain topics with just a few clicks.

Supercharge your ServiceNow experience

ServiceNow AI Search is a solid tool if your team is all-in on the ServiceNow ecosystem and you have the dedicated resources to manage it. But for many, its complex setup, steep learning curve, and platform-first focus are significant hurdles.

If you're looking for a powerful, modern search experience that works across all your tools, not just one, you need something built for flexibility and simplicity.

eesel AI offers a smarter path. By connecting directly with ServiceNow and all your other knowledge sources, it delivers more accurate answers and powerful automations without the configuration nightmares. You get all the perks of advanced AI search, plus a fully customizable workflow engine, in a tiny fraction of the time.

Ready to see what a truly self-serve AI platform can do? Try eesel AI for free and launch your first AI agent in the next few minutes.