\(Legacy\) Virtual Agent and NLU Workbench integration
Virtual Agent administrators can access and update their NLU models from within the Virtual Agent Designer user interface.
Starting with the Brazil release, Natural Language Understanding is being prepared for future deprecation. It will be hidden and no longer activated on new instances but will continue to be supported. For details, see the Deprecation Process [KB0867184] article in the Now Support knowledge base.
Note: If you have Now Assist in Virtual Agent, you can continue to use your existing NLU topics and migrate them into new LLM topics using the topic migration feature within Virtual Agent Designer. For more information on topic migration, see Migrate NLU topics to LLM topics.
Integration setup tasks, roles, and details
As Virtual Agent administrators create and configure their conversation topics, they must first create their NLU model and its associated intents in the NLU Workbench. This action requires they use the NLU Workbench and the admin or nlu_admin role.
In addition, they must also complete the following tasks in Virtual Agent General Settings.
- Enable NLU.
- Select the NLU service provider.
- If using language-specific NLU models, enable the languages for those models.
Virtual Agent administrators must also apply their NLU model to a conversation topic by completing the following tasks in Virtual Agent Designer:
- In Topic Properties, select the NLU model, the NLU intent, and the topic switching behavior.
- For input controls used in the topic flow, set the NLU properties for entity extraction.
Optionally, admins can activate Dialog Acts to enable Virtual Agent to respond flexibly when users make a modification in mid-conversation. Currently available response types are Modify, Affirm, and Negate, based on the last 5 exchanges in the conversation. Dialog Acts can be configured for English only, in Topic Properties. For more information see (Legacy) Dialog Acts for Virtual Agent.
After the NLU model is complete and associated with a Virtual Agent conversation topic, administrators with the virtual_agent_admin or admin role can do the following from within the Virtual Agent Designer user interface.
- Update NLU intent utterances.
- Train, test, and publish the NLU model.
For more information, see Natural Language Understanding (NLU) topic discovery in Virtual Agent.
Publishing topics from Virtual Agent
When your model is published in the NLU Workbench, it's ready to use in Virtual Agent Designer. When editing a topic, click the Properties tab to select a model and intent to map to that topic.
[Omitted image "nlu-va-integrationT3.png"] Alt text: Natural Language Understanding section of the Properties tab of Virtual Agent Designer.
When you click Publish, the model and intent are mapped to that topic and published seamlessly.
Publishing a topic with a mapped intent fails for the following reasons:
- Model isn't trained, or training is in progress.
- The last trained model is already published with a VA topic.
- The intent is not enabled in the model.
--- title: \(Legacy\) Virtual Agent and NLU Workbench integration description: Virtual Agent administrators can access and update their NLU models from within the Virtual Agent Designer user interface. locale: en-US canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/intelligent-experiences/nlu-service/virtual-agent-nlu-model-builder-integration.html release: brazil product: NLU Service classification: nlu-service topic_type: concept last_updated: "2026-09-10" reading_time_minutes: 2 breadcrumb: [\(Legacy\) Natural Language Understanding, Machine learning and natural language capabilities, Enable AI Experiences] --- # \(Legacy\) Virtual Agent and NLU Workbench integration Virtual Agent administrators can access and update their NLU models from within the Virtual Agent Designer user interface. Starting with the Brazil release, Natural Language Understanding is being prepared for future deprecation. It will be hidden and no longer activated on new instances but will continue to be supported. For details, see the [Deprecation Process \[KB0867184\]](https://support.servicenow.com/kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KB0867184) article in the Now Support knowledge base. **Note:** If you have Now Assist in Virtual Agent, you can continue to use your existing NLU topics and migrate them into new LLM topics using the topic migration feature within Virtual Agent Designer. For more information on topic migration, see [Migrate NLU topics to LLM topics](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/brazil/markdown/conversational-interfaces/migrate-nlu-llm.md). ## Integration setup tasks, roles, and details As Virtual Agent administrators create and configure their conversation topics, they must first create their NLU model and its associated intents in the NLU Workbench. This action requires they use the NLU Workbench and the admin or nlu\_admin role. In addition, they must also complete the following tasks in Virtual Agent **General Settings**. - Enable NLU. - Select the NLU service provider. - If using language-specific NLU models, enable the languages for those models. Virtual Agent administrators must also apply their NLU model to a conversation topic by completing the following tasks in Virtual Agent Designer: - In **Topic Properties**, select the NLU model, the NLU intent, and the topic switching behavior. - For input controls used in the topic flow, set the NLU properties for entity extraction. Optionally, admins can activate Dialog Acts to enable Virtual Agent to respond flexibly when users make a modification in mid-conversation. Currently available response types are Modify, Affirm, and Negate, based on the last 5 exchanges in the conversation. Dialog Acts can be configured for English only, in Topic Properties. For more information see [\(Legacy\) Dialog Acts for Virtual Agent](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/brazil/markdown/conversational-interfaces/c_dialog-acts.md). After the NLU model is complete and associated with a Virtual Agent conversation topic, administrators with the virtual\_agent\_admin or admin role can do the following from within the Virtual Agent Designer user interface. - Update NLU intent utterances. - Train, test, and publish the NLU model. For more information, see [Natural Language Understanding \(NLU\) topic discovery in Virtual Agent](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/brazil/markdown/conversational-interfaces/va-NLU.md). ## Publishing topics from Virtual Agent When your model is published in the NLU Workbench, it's ready to use in Virtual Agent Designer. When editing a topic, click the **Properties** tab to select a model and intent to map to that topic. \[Omitted image "nlu-va-integrationT3.png"\] Alt text: Natural Language Understanding section of the Properties tab of Virtual Agent Designer. When you click **Publish**, the model and intent are mapped to that topic and published seamlessly. Publishing a topic with a mapped intent fails for the following reasons: - Model isn't trained, or training is in progress. - The last trained model is already published with a VA topic. - The intent is not enabled in the model.
| title | \(Legacy\) Virtual Agent and NLU Workbench integration |
| description | Virtual Agent administrators can access and update their NLU models from within the Virtual Agent Designer user interface. |
| locale | en-US |
| canonical_url | https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/intelligent-experiences/nlu-service/virtual-agent-nlu-model-builder-integration.html |
| release | brazil |
| product | NLU Service |
| classification | nlu-service |
| topic_type | concept |
| last_updated | 2026-09-10 |
| reading_time_minutes | 2 |
| breadcrumb | \(Legacy\) Natural Language UnderstandingMachine learning and natural language capabilitiesEnable AI Experiences |