ServiceNow GenAI Overview: FAQs, Features, Use Cases, and Limitations

ServiceNow GenAI capabilities bring the organization closer to its goal of providing a “platform of platforms”. However, the platform’s AI capabilities are not limitless.

A comprehensive understanding of ServiceNow’s GenAI—its strengths and limitations—is essential for organizations seeking to realise the full potential of AI in the enterprise. 

This post will explore what ServiceNow GenAI can do, what it cannot do, and how organizations can replicate ServiceNow data externally, for use in third-party AI solutions and building custom AI models.

Table of contents

1. A Guide to ServiceNow GenAI: FAQ
2. Summary: What ServiceNow GenAI Can, and Cannot Do
3. Replicating ServiceNow Data to Do More With AI
4. Why Perspectium is the Best ServiceNow Data Replication Solution for AI Use Cases

A Guide to ServiceNow GenAI: FAQ

To help you gain a deeper understanding of ServiceNow GenAI, here’s an FAQ addressing its features, benefits, and limitations.

1. What Is GenAI?
2. How Does GenAI Differ to AI?
3. Does ServiceNow Support AI or GenAI?
4. What Is the ServiceNow Generative AI Controller?
5. What Is ServiceNow Now Assist?
6. What GenAI Use Cases Does ServiceNow Support?
7. What Are The Best Practices for Successfully Leveraging ServiceNow GenAI?
8. Are There Regulatory or Ethical Concerns Associated With ServiceNow GenAI?
9. What Does ServiceNow Do To Ensure AI Is Used Ethically and Responsibly?
10. Should Other AI Solutions Be Used In Conjunction with ServiceNow GenAI?

What Is GenAI?

GenAI – or Generative AI – refers to AI that uses large language models (LLMs) to create new content such as text or code. 

How Does GenAI Differ to AI?

AI is far more general, referring to a range of capabilities that include predictive intelligence, natural language understanding, and machine learning algorithms that automate workflows and provide insights.

While traditional AI is analytical and task-driven, Generative AI is creative and context-aware, opening new possibilities for user interactions and automation. 

Does ServiceNow Support AI or GenAI?

ServiceNow provides some scope for both AI and GenAI. The platform can leverage machine learning and AI to optimize ticket routing, direct users to helpful information without them needing to contact support, and more.

The platform also supports GenAI via its Generative AI Controller and Now Assist features.

What Is the ServiceNow Generative AI Controller?

The ServiceNow Generative AI Controller allows organizations to integrate with with large language model AI solutions, such as OpenAI and Azure OpenAI. Much like the platform’s Integration Hub, these integrations are created using Spokes.

What Is ServiceNow Now Assist?

Now Assist is a collection of LLM-enabled features aimed at increasing productivity. It provides targeted use cases for groups including ServiceNow administrators, developers, agents and more. Example Now Assist features include:

• Generating Summaries: Extracting key insights from case histories or chat logs.
• Search Enhancements: Delivering more accurate search results using natural language understanding.
• Text-to-Code: Assisting developers by generating script snippets or recommending code completions.

What GenAI Use Cases Does ServiceNow Support? 

ServiceNow supports AI use cases including:

• Optimizing Service Desks: Machine learning can be used to analyze historical data, ticket context, and user input to recommend the most appropriate service desk or agent. GenAI also supports this optimization with auto-generated case summaries. 
• Generating Knowledge Base (KB) Articles: GenAI can analyze existing support manuals, ticket data, and usage patterns to generate draft KB articles. This accelerates knowledge management processes by reducing manual effort, ensuring consistency in documentation and updating content based on evolving user needs.
• Enhancing Knowledge Finding and Encouraging Self-Help: ServiceNow GenAI supports self-help initiatives by using natural language understanding to deliver more accurate search results, and recommending relevant KB articles or FAQs to users. This empowers users to resolve issues independently, reducing reliance on IT support.
• Performance Analytics: GenAI allows ServiceNow users to interact with Performance Analytics via natural language. 

What Are The Best Practices for Successfully Leveraging ServiceNow GenAI?

To make the most of Generative AI in ServiceNow:

• Start Small: Pilot specific use cases to measure effectiveness before scaling.
• Customize Thoughtfully: Use the Generative AI Controller to tailor solutions to your business needs.
• Integrate: Combine ServiceNow’s AI with third-party tools for advanced analytics and functionality.
• Monitor Outputs: Regularly review AI-generated content to ensure accuracy and relevance.
• Train Users: Provide training to teams on leveraging AI tools effectively.

Are There Regulatory or Ethical Concerns Associated With ServiceNow GenAI?

Yes. ServiceNow’s AI capabilities must be used in accordance with relevant regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA and other privacy regulations.

Organizations should consult legal and compliance teams when deploying GenAI in regulated industries.

Further, employees should be trained on the importance of human oversight and how to use AI responsibly. An over-reliance on AI can lead to both false positives and negatives influencing decision making or mistakenly actioning undesired – and even harmful – processes. 

In articles about the platform’s AI capabilities, ServiceNow often includes a disclaimer encouraging scrutiny of AI-generated content.

What Does ServiceNow Do To Ensure AI Is Used Ethically and Responsibly?

ServiceNow aims to deliver responsible and ethical AI by clearly documenting where AI is in use and providing guidance as to how AI capabilities should be used responsibly.

A “sparkle icon” denotes that the content is AI-generated and users can hover over the icon for information regarding the source of AI-generated content.  

The organization also states that it includes a diverse team and uses varying data sets within AI to mitigate bias.

Should Other AI Solutions Be Used In Conjunction with ServiceNow GenAI?

ServiceNow’s AI capabilities are vast, but not limitless. The solution already supports integrations with other AI solutions to help expand the potential of AI on the platform.

These include an integration with Microsoft Copilot, and the Generative AI Controller supported integrations with OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Aleph Alpha, IBM WatsonX, and Google Cloud.

Besides this, there are many third-party tools that provide their own AI capabilities, including specialist solutions that serve more narrow functions such as reporting, analytics and business intelligence.

Such solutions provide AI capabilities that are refined for a particular discipline and often go beyond what a more generalised solution like ServiceNow can provide. 

Replicating ServiceNow data to these platforms can enhance AI capabilities. Organizations can also replicate ServiceNow data externally to train their own AI models. 

Summary: What ServiceNow GenAI Can, and Cannot Do

What ServiceNow GenAI and AI Can Do

ServiceNow’s GenAI capabilities are built to enhance user experiences, automate workflows, and improve efficiency across enterprises. Here are some of the platform’s key GenAI features:

1. Assistive Capabilities with Now Assist

ServiceNow’s Now Assist uses large language models (LLMs), such as the Now LLM and Azure OpenAI integrations, to offer features like:

• Summarization: Summarizing case histories and chat conversations for faster insights.
• Notes Generation: Automatically creating case or incident notes based on interactions.
• Text-to-Code: Generating script snippets to simplify development.
• Search Enhancements: Improving search relevance with natural language understanding.

2. Generative AI Controller

The Generative AI Controller empowers organizations to integrate third-party AI models like OpenAI, Google Gemini, and Azure OpenAI into the ServiceNow platform. With this integration, organizations can:

• Build custom GenAI functionalities tailored to their specific needs.
• Leverage capabilities like code generation, sentiment analysis, and content summarization.

3. AI-Driven Insights

ServiceNow’s AI features go beyond GenAI to include predictive intelligence, natural language query, process mining, and task intelligence. These capabilities allow users to:

• Automate repetitive tasks, such as ticket routing.
• Identify trends and inefficiencies in workflows.
• Simplify reporting and analytics by generating insights in plain language.

4. Support for Knowledge Management

GenAI can assist in maintaining a dynamic knowledge base by generating articles from support tickets, documentation, and user manuals. This ensures that users can find accurate and updated information without extensive manual curation.

5. Performance Analytics and Dashboard Enhancements

ServiceNow GenAI enhances performance analytics with features like:

• Text-to-analytics: Allowing users to request reports or widgets via natural language.
• Summary generation: Highlighting key insights from dashboards.
• Export functionality: Simplifying the creation of presentations from dashboards.

What ServiceNow GenAI Cannot Do

While ServiceNow GenAI offers impressive capabilities, it has limitations—particularly when compared to purpose-built AI platforms optimized for external data digestion and advanced analytics. Here are some areas where ServiceNow GenAI falls short, along with examples of advanced use cases better handled by external tools:

1. Comprehensive Data Analysis and Visualization

ServiceNow’s analytics capabilities are inherently tied to its platform. Third-party AI-enabled tools like Tableau and Power BI often excel in providing advanced reporting, analysis and data visualization. The insight they provide is often more comprehensive as they are able to use and reflect a wider range of data sources.

2. Training AI Models Beyond ServiceNow Data

ServiceNow GenAI operates within the bounds of the platform and its data. For organizations looking to train or refine AI models with external data sources or multi-platform datasets, ServiceNow’s closed ecosystem can be restrictive. This limitation makes it less ideal for use cases such as large-scale predictive analytics, where a broad source of data is crucial.

3. Customization Flexibility

While the Generative AI Controller allows integration with third-party LLMs, the scope of customization is still limited by ServiceNow’s framework. Organizations with unique or highly specific AI use cases may find it more effective to build models outside of ServiceNow’s environment.

4. On-Premise Limitations

GenAI is not currently available for on-premise ServiceNow deployments, restricting organizations that require on-premise solutions due to regulatory or security concerns. This makes cloud-exclusive deployments a barrier for industries like healthcare or finance, where on-premise solutions are often mandatory.

5. Domain-Specific Optimizations

Purpose-built AI platforms often excel at leveraging domain-specific data to deliver hyper-relevant insights. While ServiceNow GenAI provides valuable generalist capabilities, it may not match the depth and granularity offered by specialized tools.

Replicating ServiceNow Data to Do More With AI

Given the limitations of ServiceNow GenAI, organizations seeking to maximize the value of their data should consider replicating it within external systems. Here’s why:

1. Integration with Third-Party, AI-Enabled Solutions

Many external, AI-enabled platforms are designed to ingest data from multiple sources, enabling advanced capabilities like:

• Multi-platform analytics: Consolidating ServiceNow data with data from other enterprise systems.
• AI-enabled reporting: Leveraging tools like Tableau or Power BI for deeper insights.
• Advanced predictive modeling: Using AI to forecast trends and identify opportunities.

By replicating ServiceNow data externally, organizations can unlock these benefits and overcome the limitations of ServiceNow’s native AI capabilities.

2. Training and Refining AI Models

Organizations that wish to build their own AI models need access to large, diverse datasets. Replicating ServiceNow data externally, allows the platform’s data to be used in:

• Training custom LLMs or other AI models on comprehensive datasets.
• Combining ServiceNow data with external data sources for richer insights.
• Enhancing the accuracy and relevance of AI predictions and recommendations.

3. Overcoming Platform Limitations

Replicating data externally eliminates restrictions imposed by ServiceNow’s ecosystem. Organizations gain the freedom to:

• Build and scale AI models without relying on ServiceNow’s configurations.
• Access data for use cases beyond what ServiceNow GenAI supports.

Why Perspectium is the Best ServiceNow Data Replication Solution for AI Use Cases

ServiceNow GenAI is a powerful tool for enhancing enterprise workflows, but its limitations highlight the need for external solutions in specific use cases.

Perspectium is the ideal solution for this ServiceNow data replication use case. The solution is purpose-built for ServiceNow, natively installed within the platform, and enables high throughput data replication with no impact to performance. The benefits of the Perspectium solution include:

1. High Throughput and Low Impact

Perspectium is designed to handle large volumes of data replication without compromising ServiceNow’s performance. This ensures that organizations can replicate data in real-time without disrupting day-to-day operations.

2. Optimized for ServiceNow

As a purpose-built, ServiceNow-native solution, Perspectium is tailored to ensure efficient data extraction, replication, and synchronization.

3. Fully Managed Solution

Perspectium is implemented and maintained by the Perspectium team, reducing the burden on internal IT and development resources. This allows organizations to focus on strategic initiatives rather than managing data replication processes.

4. Scalability and Flexibility

Perspectium’s scalability ensures that organizations can replicate data as their needs grow. Whether it’s a small-scale project or enterprise-wide data replication, Perspectium can handle it efficiently.

By adopting Perspectium, organizations can unlock new possibilities for innovation, ensuring their data drives greater business value without compromising platform performance.

Ready to take your ServiceNow AI strategy to the next level? Contact Perspectium today to learn how our data replication solutions can empower your organization’s AI initiatives.