With ChatGPT setting the business world abuzz, companies from different sectors are riding the wave of AI, in the hope of powering up their operations.  

ServiceNow, of course, was on the front-foot of this trend. With its unswerving mission of optimising the way businesses work, ServiceNow has taken the plunge to infuse its top-notch ITSM product suite with cutting-edge Generative AI technology, to help customers get further cost-savings and productivity enhancements.

What is Generative AI and How is ServiceNow Using It?

Generative AI, or Gen AI for those in the know, is the cool kid on the (AI) block.  

Traditional AI focuses on executing a task intelligently, with a designated system responding to inputs according to how it was trained with existing data. Forbes has illustrated it as: Traditional AI is like a chess master who’s memorised all the moves from a giant playbook, I.e., the database. When it plays against a human, it’s not inventing new strategies on the fly, but picking the best move from its preloaded knowledge.  

In other words, Artificial Intelligence is a broad machine-based application mimicking human intelligence, often trained by methodologies such as machine learning, and primarily used to analyse data and make predictions. 

Generative AI is relatively new to the AI family. Although a prototype of Gen AI was introduced to the world as early as the 1960s when chatbots first appeared, it did not truly emerge until 2014 when Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) burst onto the scene. This algorithm that set the foundation of Gen AI is capable of whipping up entirely new images, videos, and audios.

Paired with the lightning-speed progress of language models, Gen AI has unlocked the creative genie within and is able to compose engaging text, paint photorealistic images, and even write computer code like a pro. Open AI’s ChatGPT is a prime example of this AI creativity revolution.  

ServiceNow’s Gen AI Implications 

ServiceNow has upped its game with the introduction of “Now Assist”, a brand-new Generative AI experience to turbocharge your workflows. It aims at accelerating productivity for agents and employees, increasing agility for developers and platform administrators through optimised time to value and transforming experiences for customers and all stakeholders. 

With the new technology revealed in the Vancouver release, let’s see how the Gen AI marvel is making waves in the ServiceNow ecosystem:

• Agent Assist: This feature dishes out smart human-like synthesis based on context and troubleshooting done by previous Virtual or Live Agents. Your staff can save some time from sifting through mountains of information before tackling the issue and quickly pick up where the last left off.  

• Route and Prioritise: It automatically categorises and routes requests to the appropriate team, therefore, reducing the need for incident analysis on a case-by-case basis. 

• Conversational Exchanges: ServiceNow’s Virtual Agent engages in conversations with customers on behalf of your organisation. This enables customers to self-serve and access information right when they need it, deflecting the number of cases and minimising manual intervention. Rest assured that the quality of your customer experience will still be maintained as the Virtual Agent is equipped with a natural human language model. 

• Content Creation: The ability to create content doesn’t limit to generating intelligent search results for easily accessible resources, but also work notes and knowledge base articles to promote information sharing. 

• Text to Code: For developers, this new function provides you with intelligent code suggestions, streamlining the resolution of repetitive coding issues and helps boost overall productivity. 

Here’s the cherry-on-top of the entire Gen AI experience: Damien Davis, Senior Director of Product Management for ServiceNow’s ITSM Business Unit, suggested to Unifii that the tech is about to revolutionise how we handle incident notes and post-incident reviews. 

With Now Assist in the picture, it can auto-generate resolution code and notes when an incident gets fixed or closed, including but not limited to automatic field updates and visualised audit trail of events. This means your team can kiss those mundane admin tasks goodbye and say hello to smoother incident resolution practices. 

Post-incident reviews will become a breeze, serving up actionable insights to optimise workflows, all while saving you precious time. It’s a win-win situation.

Now Assist: Real World Impact

The AI lighthouse of ServiceNow ITSM is set to revolutionise the game. All these tailor-made abilities can be seamlessly integrated into your Now Platform, ready to shake up industries across the board. 

Take healthcare, for instance, where Damien sees Gen AI as a game-changer. The technology will extend patient support beyond the hospital walls. Thanks to Content Creation and Conversational Exchange features, Now Assist can suggest actions for patients' post-treatment, based on the professional medical knowledge it has been trained on and the comprehensive patient data stored on the secured platform, filling the gap in care that was once hindered by limited capacity. 

In the world of retail or hospitality, auto-generated knowledge articles will come to the rescue for common store challenges. On-site employees get the information they need in a flash, making for faster resolution and happier customers.  

For financial organisations, the convenience of smart post-incident reporting and a visualised audit trail will be a helping hand to auditors, making compliance in banking and financial services a walk in the park. Gen AI is here to make a difference, no matter your industry.

Quality Assurance

When it comes to adopting new technologies, the proof is in the pudding. ServiceNow knows that quality matters most and has prioritised it throughout the project.  

That’s why they’ve enabled customers to flexibly pick a language model of their choice through the Generative AI Controller, whether it’s the heavy-hitter GPT-4 from Open AI, Microsoft’s Azure AI, or ServiceNow’s very own creation developed in partnership with Nvidia and Accenture.  

You might lean towards the ServiceNow model though, as suggested by Damien, because of how it’s trained in the ways of ServiceNow domain knowledge, meaning that it’ll be a perfect match for your ITSM suite. Plus, it keeps your data in-house, so no worries about it wandering off to third-party models and risking data leaks. 

Regarding data security, ServiceNow takes a human-centered approach. Your data will be locked down in their own, well-secured platform with central governance. Gen AI features will be rolled out in a controlled phase release, with prescriptive UX guidelines and reviews, to ensure smooth implementation and minimise errors. It’s all about quality and security. 

Keep in mind, Now Assist is still in its early stages, which means a few hiccups along the way are par for the course. The model’s performance is directly linked to its training database and user input. It’s a smart move to closely monitor the content it generates, especially during the initial deployment phases.

Future of ServiceNow ITSM with Generative AI

ServiceNow isn’t stopping here with Gen AI. They’ve got big plans up their sleeves. Picture this: AI auto-recognising photos from a field engineer and establishing what is wrong with a malfunctioning machine. It’s like magic, right? Now, these features might not be here today, but trust me, there’s a whole lineup of functionalities on the way and they’ll be making their grand entrance very soon. 

Exciting news: further details and pricing information are now available with the Vancouver release. If the above has you buzzing with anticipation and you’re eager to see how Gen AI can transform your ITSM strategy, reach out to us. Our consultants are ready to chat and help you find a tailored solution for your organisation. Let’s make magic happen together.