ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent release notes

topic brazil Updated Sep 10, 2026 9 min read virtual-agent-rn.md
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The ServiceNow® Otto for Virtual Agent application uses large language models (LLMs) to create a natural-language conversational experience that can improve the success of your self-service workflows. See the following sections for release notes by version.

About ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent

  • Use a conversation designer to build and test conversations without scripting or advanced skills.
  • Empower users to self-serve with AI agents, enhanced or premium chat with AI Search, conversational catalog skills, and more.
  • Seamlessly transfer the entire conversation history and context to the right human agent so they can quickly address any escalations and resolve user issues.

See Virtual Agent for more information.

Important: For Now LLM Service model updates for each release, see Model provider updates.

Activation and other requirements

Note: ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent is available in the ServiceNow Store. For details, see the following activation information.

  • Activation information

    Virtual Agent is available with activation of the Glide Virtual Agent plugin (com.glide.cs.chatbot) if you have the admin role. For details, see Activate Virtual Agent. Once activated, you can install ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store to view all the available apps, and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

  • Upgrade information

    You can upgrade ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent from the ServiceNow Store.

  • Browser requirements

    Virtual Agent supports various browsers, including Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. For more information, see Browser support.

  • Additional requirements

    ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent requires at least one ServiceNow Otto product or the Requestor Agents - Foundation plugin.

Accessibility and localization

  • Localization information

    Dynamic Translation is supported for non-streaming ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent conversations. For more information, see Dynamic Translation in Virtual Agent.

Parent Topic:Conversational Interfaces release notes

November 2026

The ServiceNow® Virtual Agent application provides user assistance through a conversational interface to help users obtain information and perform common work tasks. Virtual Agent was enhanced and updated in the Brazil release.

What's new

  • New features for premium chat

    These features were added to premium chat:

    • Switch between multiple interactive views in a single ServiceNow Otto conversation by using the drop-down list in the interactive view header. Return to a knowledge article, catalog form, or other content you opened earlier without searching for it again.
    • Preview files in the interactive view when ServiceNow Otto generates them, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, and PDF. Review a file's content before you download it, without leaving the conversation.
    • Ask a follow-up question about specific content by highlighting text in a ServiceNow Otto response and selecting Ask a follow-up. The highlighted text appears as a quote above the input bar and doesn't carry over when you start or switch to a different conversation.
    • Download generated files that use plain Microsoft Office templates, with no ServiceNow branding applied. Share or edit downloaded Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files without removing extra formatting first.
    • Download a generated file directly from the chat by selecting the download icon on the attachment in a ServiceNow Otto response.

What's changed

  • Configure assistants overview

    Existing and newly created assistants now run on the latest version of Agentic Orchestrator (v2), and administrators don’t need to take further action.

October 2026

The ServiceNow® Virtual Agent application provides user assistance through a conversational interface to help users quickly obtain information and perform common work tasks. Virtual Agent was enhanced and updated in the Brazil release.

What's new

  • Cancel live agent request

    In premium chat, select the Cancel button on the banner while a live agent request is in process to cancel the request. After the request is cancelled or the live agent connects to the chat, the banner disappears from chat.

  • Configure voice settings for a chat assistant

    Turn voice dictation on or off for an assistant on the Voice experience page. For ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent assistants, voice dictation is only available for premium chat. For ServiceNow Otto panel – Platform assistant, voice dictation is available for all chat experiences.

    Note: Voice dictation was previously known as voice input, which was enabled from within Enable additional chat features.

  • Display your assistant on Platform or ServiceNow Studio

    For eligible new customers, premium chat is the default and the only available chat experience. If the assistant uses the Now LLM provider, the premium chat option isn't available.

  • Non-English language recognition for voice input

    When you speak in the default language selected in your profile, even if this language is non-English, your speech is transcribed into text in that same language.

  • Testing assistant conversations

    Measure the quality of your conversational assistant at scale with automated evaluations in Assistant Designer. Choose the metrics that define success for you, such as conversation success, conversation fluency, faithfulness, skill selection accuracy, and turn count. You can run them against your own test data set and ground truth.

What's changed

  • Enable additional chat features

    The Prioritize AI agents during skills discovery option is available when configuring additional chat features. Because all assistants now use agentic orchestration by default, AI agent skills are available during skills discovery. Turning on this option gives AI agents priority over other assets (such as knowledge bases and Q&A modules) when the assistant discovers skills. If your assistant has overlapping skills (for example, a knowledge base article and an AI agent that both answer the same question), this setting lets you decide which one is prioritized, so you can steer users toward the AI agent experience instead of a static article.

  • ServiceNow® Otto for Virtual Agent system properties

    The sn_nowassist_va.assistant_personalization system property is removed from the admin experience. This property previously let admins show or hide chat personalization options (agent persona, tone, and response length) when branding an assistant. By default, all settings are shown.

What's deprecated or removed

  • Agentic support page

    The Agentic support page has been deprecated for ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent and ServiceNow Otto panel - Platform. There is no loss of functionality previously provided by the Agentic support page. By default, all existing assistants operate in agentic mode. The Prioritize AI agents during skills discovery option is available when configuring additional chat features.

September 2026 | Early Availability

The September 2026 release deprecated Virtual Agent for NLU and keywords and added several features including upload file size improvements and embed enhanced chat capabilities.

What's new

What's changed

  • Role-based configuration is no longer stored or managed within Assistant Designer.

  • Upload files improvements

    Upload up to 10 files or 50 MB for the following file types: PDF native, PDF OCR, Word, PPTX, Excel, CSV, TXT, JPEG, PNG for premium chat in ServiceNow Otto for Virtual Agent and Otto panel.

  • Updated ServiceNow Otto processing animation

    View an updated ServiceNow Otto processing animation.

What's deprecated or removed

Plugin information

  • Plugins planned for deprecation

    Conversational Analytics (com.sn.conversational.analytics): Replace with Assistant Analytics.

    Conversational Integration with Alexa (com.sn.va.alexa): There is no replacement for this plugin.

    Conversational IVR with Amazon Connect (com.sn_va_amz.connect): There is no replacement for this plugin.

    Glide Virtual Agent Lite (com.glide.cs.chatbot.lite): Replace with Requestor Agents - Foundation (direct migration options), EmployeeWorks - User, EmployeeWorks for GovCloud - User.

    HR Service Delivery NLU Model for Virtual Agent Conversations (com.sn_hr_nlu_model): There is no replacement for this plugin.

    HR Service Delivery Virtual Agent Conversations (com.sn_hr_virtual_agent): There is no replacement for this plugin.

    IBM Watson integration (com.glide.cs.ibm.watson.assistant, com.glide.nlu.ibmwatson.intent.discovery, com.glide.cs.ibm.watson.assistant.topic, com.glide.cs.ibm.watson.assistant.topicV2): There is no replacement for these plugins.

    Intent Discovery (sn_nlu_discovery): There is no replacement for this plugin.

    Issue Auto Resolution (com.glide.cs.auto_resolution): There is no replacement for this plugin.

    Issue Auto resolution for HR (com.snc.hr.issue_auto_resolution): There is no replacement for this plugin.

    ITSM Virtual Agent Conversation Topics Lite (com.snc.itsm.virtualagent.lite): There is no replacement for this plugin.

    NLU Workbench-Advanced Features (com.snc.nlu.workbench.advanced): There is no replacement for this plugin.

    Topic Recommendations (com.sn_topic_recommend): There is no replacement for this plugin.

  • Renamed or changed plugins

    Conversational Integration with Apple Messages for Business (com.sn.va.abc.adapter): Deprecation of NLU functionality and migration to LLM support.

    Conversational Integration with AWS End User Messaging (com.sn_sms_aws_adapter): Deprecation of Virtual Agent NLU functionality and migration to LLM support.

    Conversational Integration with Facebook Messenger (com.sn.va.fb.messenger): Deprecation of Virtual Agent NLU functionality and migration to LLM support.

    Conversational Integration with LINE (com.sn.va.line): Deprecation of NLU functionality and migration to LLM support.

    Conversational Interfaces - Diagnostics (com.sn.ci.diagnostics): Deprecation of Virtual Agent NLU functionality. There is no replacement.

    Omnichannel Callback for Customer Service Management (com.sn_omnichannel_callback): Deprecation of NLU functionality and migration to LLM support.

    Virtual Agent NLU (com.glide.cs.chatbot): Deprecation of Virtual Agent NLU functionality. Migrate NLU topics to LLM.

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