Prerequisites
- ServiceNow Washington DC release or later
- Now Assist entitlement in your contract (verify with your ServiceNow account team)
- Admin role on your instance
- Pro or Enterprise Plus licence tier (some capabilities require higher tier)
Step 1: Activate the base plugin
Navigate to System Applications > All Available Applications > All. Search for "Now Assist" and activate Now Assist Platform (com.sn_now_assist). This is the base plugin required for all Now Assist features.
Step 2: Activate feature-specific plugins
Each Now Assist feature area has its own plugin:
- Now Assist for ITSM:
com.sn_now_assist_itsm - Now Assist for Developers:
com.sn_now_assist_developers - AI Search:
com.sn_unified_search - Now Assist for HR:
com.sn_now_assist_hr
Step 3: Configure AI Model connections
Navigate to Now Assist > Administration > AI Model Configurations. ServiceNow instances connect to Microsoft Azure OpenAI by default. Verify the connection is active and the entitlement is validated.
Step 4: Enable specific capabilities
For each Now Assist feature, navigate to its specific configuration page and enable it. For ITSM, navigate to Now Assist > Settings > ITSM and enable Incident Summarisation, Resolution Notes, etc. individually.
Step 5: Assign the Now Assist role
Users need the now_assist_user role to access Now Assist features. Assign this role to agents who should have access to AI-generated summaries and suggestions.
Testing activation
Open an existing incident with several work notes. You should see a "Summarize" button in the incident header. Click it — if Now Assist is correctly activated, a summary generates in a few seconds.