Support teams are always on the lookout for ways to make life easier and keep users happy. Let’s be honest, in today's world, automation isn't just a nice-to-have; it's essential for staying sane. ServiceNow, a big name in ITSM, has its own answer: the ServiceNow Virtual Agent. But is it the right tool for your team?
This guide will give you the full picture. We’ll walk through what the ServiceNow Virtual Agent does, how it gets its information, and some of the real-world limitations you should know about. We'll help you figure out if it’s a good fit and point you toward some simpler, more powerful alternatives that can plug right into your existing ServiceNow setup without all the heavy lifting.
What is the ServiceNow Virtual Agent?
At its core, the ServiceNow Virtual Agent is a chatbot built to handle the simple, repetitive stuff that clogs up your support queue. It lives inside the ServiceNow platform and is designed to give users 24/7 help for tasks like checking a ticket’s status, ordering something from the service catalog, or digging up an answer from the knowledge base.
For companies that shell out for the higher-tier licenses, the Virtual Agent gets a brain boost with Natural Language Understanding (NLU) and Generative AI (GenAI) through a feature called Now Assist. This just means it gets better at figuring out what users are actually asking for and can give more natural-sounding answers.
ServiceNow will tell you the main perks are fewer phone calls, more productive agents, and instant answers for common questions. When it’s all set up and running smoothly, it frees up your human agents to tackle the tricky problems that actually require a person.
Key features of the ServiceNow Virtual Agent
ServiceNow has packed its Virtual Agent with a bunch of tools to help you build and manage automated chats. Here’s a look at the main features.
Conversation designer
This is ServiceNow’s visual tool for building out chat workflows, or what they call "topics." It’s a drag-and-drop interface where you can map out how a conversation should flow, defining what the user says, what the bot does, and what happens next. ServiceNow also throws in some pre-built templates for IT, HR, and customer service, which you can tweak for your own needs. Just a heads-up, customizing them can get complicated pretty quickly.
Generative AI and NLU capabilities
If your company has a "Pro" license or better, the Virtual Agent uses NLU to understand what people mean, even if they use slang or make a typo. It’s a definite step up from basic bots that just look for keywords.
Spring for a "Pro Plus" or "Enterprise Plus" license, and you unlock Now Assist. This adds generative AI to the mix, letting the bot pull answers together from different sources and handle conversations that don't follow a straight line. It's powerful stuff, but remember that these features are locked away in the most expensive plans.
Integrations and channels
You can put the Virtual Agent to work in a few different places, like the ServiceNow Service Portal, Employee Center, and the native mobile apps. It also connects with popular tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack, so your team can chat with the bot right where they already work.
One of the most important features is the live agent handoff. When the bot gets stuck, it can pass the conversation and all the context over to a human agent, so the user doesn't have to start from scratch.
Analytics and reporting
ServiceNow gives you a Conversational Analytics dashboard to see how your Virtual Agent is doing. You can track things like how many conversations it's having, how many tickets it's deflecting, and which topics are most popular. This helps you spot where you can make improvements and understand what your users are looking for.
How the ServiceNow Virtual Agent sources its knowledge
A chatbot is only as smart as the information it can access. The ServiceNow Virtual Agent mostly pulls from knowledge you already have inside ServiceNow, but getting it to look elsewhere requires some extra (and often expensive) add-ons.
Native knowledge: ServiceNow Knowledge Management
The bot's main brain is the ServiceNow Knowledge Management module. It uses AI Search to find and serve up relevant articles. For this to work well, your knowledge base inside ServiceNow needs to be pristine and up-to-date. If your articles are old, incomplete, or just plain wrong, the bot’s answers will be too, and you'll end up with frustrated users.
External knowledge: Integration Hub and connectors
But what about all the useful info your team has stored outside of ServiceNow? For documents in places like Confluence, SharePoint, or Google Docs, you have to use ServiceNow's External Content Connectors.
This isn't something that comes out of the box. It requires a Workflow Data Fabric license (which used to be called Integration Hub Pro), and that means spending a good chunk of extra money. It also makes the setup a lot more technical and can take weeks or even months to get working properly. Without this add-on, the Virtual Agent is stuck in a silo, completely unaware of all the great knowledge your teams have built up elsewhere.
Limitations and considerations of the ServiceNow Virtual Agent
While it looks powerful on paper, the ServiceNow Virtual Agent comes with a few real-world challenges you should know about before you jump in.
Confusing licensing and paywalled features
One of the biggest hurdles is the licensing. The features you get depend entirely on which ServiceNow subscription you have, and all the best stuff is hidden behind a paywall.
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Virtual Agent Lite, which comes with the Standard plans, is pretty bare-bones. You can't create your own topics, there’s no NLU (it only understands specific keywords), and it comes with just a couple of pre-built IT topics. It’s not really suitable for any serious automation effort.
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To get must-have features like NLU and the ability to build custom topics, you have to upgrade to a Pro or Enterprise plan. For the fancy generative AI from Now Assist, you need an even pricier Pro Plus or Enterprise Plus license. These costs can add up fast and make it tough to budget for.
A long and difficult setup
Even though ServiceNow offers a "guided setup," getting the Virtual Agent up and running is anything but plug-and-play. The process means turning on multiple plugins, setting up NLU models, and possibly taking on a huge project to connect external knowledge sources. This usually calls for a ServiceNow specialist and a lot of time, pushing back the moment you actually see any value from it by months.
Disconnected knowledge sources
As we touched on, the Virtual Agent can't see any information outside of ServiceNow unless you pay for and set up the Workflow Data Fabric. But here’s the bigger issue: it can't learn from the single most valuable source of knowledge you have: thousands of your already-solved support tickets. It only relies on formal knowledge base articles, which are often out of date or don't cover the weird, specific problems your users actually run into.
| Feature | ServiceNow VA Lite (Standard) | ServiceNow VA (Pro) | eesel AI (Business Plan) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom Topics | No | Yes | Yes, with a no-code editor |
| NLU | No (Keyword only) | Yes | Yes, learns from your data |
| Train on Past Tickets | No | No | Yes, automatically |
| External Knowledge | No | Requires separate license (Workflow Data Fabric) | Yes, 100+ one-click integrations |
| Simulation Mode | No | No | Yes, on thousands of past tickets |
| Setup Time | Days to Weeks | Weeks to Months | Minutes to Hours |
A simpler, more powerful alternative to the ServiceNow Virtual Agent
If all that complexity and hidden cost sounds like a headache, you’re not wrong. The good news is there are modern alternatives built to plug right into the setup you already have.
eesel AI is an AI platform that works with ServiceNow to bring all your knowledge together and give you powerful, easy-to-use automation tools. Instead of a months-long project, you can get it up and running in minutes.
With eesel's AI Agent, you can:
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Bring all your knowledge together instantly: Connect ServiceNow, Confluence, Google Docs, Slack, and over 100 other apps with one-click integrations. Most importantly, eesel AI automatically learns from your past ServiceNow tickets, so its answers are based on solutions that have actually worked before.
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Go live in minutes, not months: eesel AI is designed to be completely self-serve. You can set up your AI agent, connect your helpdesk, and start running simulations on its performance without ever having to sit through a sales call.
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Test before you launch: Use the simulation mode to test your AI agent on thousands of your past tickets. This gives you a realistic preview of your automation rate and lets you tweak answers before it ever interacts with a single user. It takes all the guesswork out of the process.
ServiceNow Virtual Agent pricing vs. transparent alternatives
ServiceNow's pricing is a bit of a mystery box; it’s not public and gets bundled into its expensive ITSM, CSM, and HRSD Pro and Enterprise packages. Key features like custom topics, NLU, GenAI, and external connectors are usually locked behind these big upgrades, which makes it hard to know what your total cost will be.
On the other hand, eesel AI has clear, predictable pricing based on the features you need and how much you use it, with no weird per-resolution fees. The plans are flexible, with monthly options you can cancel anytime, so you only pay for what you’re actually getting value from.
Get started with AI in ServiceNow today
The ServiceNow Virtual Agent can be a decent tool if you’ve got the budget for the top-tier licenses and the technical team to handle a complex rollout. However, its paywalled features and siloed approach to knowledge can be major dealbreakers for a lot of teams.
For anyone looking for a fast, flexible, and truly connected AI solution that plays nicely with your existing ServiceNow instance, eesel AI is a fantastic alternative. It gives your team all the power of automation without the overhead.
This video provides a comprehensive overview of the ServiceNow Virtual Agent, highlighting its key features and benefits for streamlining support and enhancing user satisfaction.
Ready to see what a truly connected AI can do for your ServiceNow setup? Try eesel AI for free or book a demo with our team.
Frequently asked questions
The ServiceNow Virtual Agent is a chatbot built within the ServiceNow platform to automate repetitive support tasks. It helps users get 24/7 assistance for things like checking ticket status, ordering from the service catalog, and finding answers in the knowledge base, ultimately freeing up human agents.
The ServiceNow Virtual Agent can leverage Natural Language Understanding (NLU) for better intent recognition and Generative AI (GenAI) via Now Assist for more natural conversations. NLU typically requires a Pro or Enterprise plan, while GenAI (Now Assist) is only available with the more expensive Pro Plus or Enterprise Plus licenses.
Primarily, the ServiceNow Virtual Agent draws information from your internal ServiceNow Knowledge Management module. To access external documents from tools like Confluence or SharePoint, you typically need to purchase and configure the Workflow Data Fabric license and External Content Connectors, which adds significant cost and complexity.
Despite ServiceNow offering a "guided setup," deploying the ServiceNow Virtual Agent is often complex and time-consuming, requiring multiple plugin activations and NLU model configuration. Integrating external knowledge sources further extends this process, potentially taking weeks or months and often needing a ServiceNow specialist.
The ServiceNow Virtual Agent's capabilities are heavily dependent on your ServiceNow license tier, with basic features in Standard plans and advanced AI locked behind Pro, Enterprise, or Plus licenses. This can lead to confusing and rapidly increasing costs, making it difficult to budget effectively as features are paywalled.
No, a significant limitation is that the ServiceNow Virtual Agent primarily relies on formal knowledge base articles within your ServiceNow Knowledge Management module. It does not automatically learn from the rich, practical solutions contained within your thousands of past, resolved support tickets.
Yes, alternatives like eesel AI are designed to plug directly into your ServiceNow instance, offering quick setup and integrated knowledge from over 100 apps, including past tickets. They aim to provide powerful automation without the extensive setup and hidden costs often associated with the ServiceNow Virtual Agent.
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Article by
Stevia Putri
Stevia Putri is a marketing generalist at eesel AI, where she helps turn powerful AI tools into stories that resonate. She’s driven by curiosity, clarity, and the human side of technology.
