ServiceNow Integration — Bot & AI Knowledge Guide

What the ServiceNow Integration Does

The ServiceNow integration connects your Velaro chat and IVR bots directly to your ServiceNow ITSM platform. Once connected, your AI workflows can create incidents, search the knowledge base, look up users and assets, manage service requests, and log work notes — all during a live conversation, without agent intervention.

This is most commonly used for:

• IT Help Desk IVR — callers describe issues, the bot creates tickets and reads back the incident number
• Employee self-service chat — search KB articles, check incident status, submit service catalog requests
• Agent-assist — pull CMDB or user data into the conversation sidebar for human agents

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Setup Steps

Step 1: Create an OAuth Application in ServiceNow (recommended)

1. In ServiceNow, navigate to System OAuth → Application Registry

2. Click New → Create an OAuth API endpoint for external clients

3. Set Name to "Velaro Integration" (or any label)

4. Leave the Redirect URL blank — Velaro uses client credentials flow, not authorization code

5. Click Submit and copy the Client ID and Client Secret shown on the saved record

6. Ensure your service account has the itil and rest_api_explorer roles

Why OAuth over Basic Auth: OAuth credentials can be revoked without changing the service account password. If you must use Basic Auth, create a dedicated service account — never use a personal account.

Step 2: Enter Credentials in Velaro

1. Go to Integrations → ServiceNow

2. Click Add Instance

3. Select OAuth 2.0 (or Basic Auth if required by your org)

4. Enter your Instance URL (e.g. https://mycompany.service-now.com)

5. Enter your Client ID and Client Secret

6. Click Test & Continue — Velaro verifies the connection immediately

7. Set a Display Name (e.g. "Production ServiceNow") and click Save & Finish

Step 3: Test the Connection

After saving, go to the Accounts tab and click Test on your instance. A green badge confirms the connection. A red badge means credentials have expired or the service account lacks the required roles.

Step 4: Enable AI Skills in Your Workflows

No per-workflow configuration is needed. All 35 ServiceNow tools are automatically available to any AI Bot node once a connection is saved and enabled. Add an AI bot node to any workflow and the bot will call ServiceNow as needed based on conversation context.

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All 35 Available AI Skills

Incidents (8 skills)

| Skill | When it triggers |

|-------|-----------------|

| servicenow_create_incident | User reports a new IT issue and wants to file a ticket |

| servicenow_get_incident | User asks "what's the status of my ticket INC0001234?" |

| servicenow_search_incidents | User asks for all open tickets for their account |

| servicenow_update_incident | Agent or bot needs to change priority or assignment group |

| servicenow_add_work_note | Bot adds context or transcript to an existing incident |

| servicenow_close_incident | Issue is resolved and ticket should be closed |

| servicenow_get_user_incidents | "Show me all my open tickets" |

| servicenow_resolve_incident | Issue is resolved — set to Resolved state with resolution notes |

Users (4 skills)

| Skill | When it triggers |

|-------|-----------------|

| servicenow_search_users | Bot needs to identify the caller by email or name |

| servicenow_get_user | Get full user profile — department, manager, location |

| servicenow_get_user_groups | Check which groups a user belongs to for routing |

| servicenow_get_groups | List assignment groups for offering routing options |

Knowledge Base (3 skills)

| Skill | When it triggers |

|-------|-----------------|

| servicenow_search_knowledge | User describes a problem — bot searches KB before creating a ticket |

| servicenow_get_article | Bot retrieves full article text to answer a question |

| servicenow_get_kb_categories | Bot needs to filter articles by category |

Service Catalog (4 skills)

| Skill | When it triggers |

|-------|-----------------|

| servicenow_search_catalog | "I need to order a new laptop" — bot searches catalog |

| servicenow_get_catalog_item | Get full item details including variables and approvals |

| servicenow_create_request | Submit a service catalog request on behalf of the user |

| servicenow_get_request_status | "What's the status of my laptop request?" |

CMDB (3 skills)

| Skill | When it triggers |

|-------|-----------------|

| servicenow_search_cmdb | User mentions a device or asset — bot looks it up |

| servicenow_get_ci | Get full CI details including owner and relationships |

| servicenow_get_user_assets | "What equipment is assigned to me?" |

Change & Problem Management (5 skills)

| Skill | When it triggers |

|-------|-----------------|

| servicenow_create_change | "I need to submit a change request for our firewall update" |

| servicenow_get_change | Check approval status of a pending change |

| servicenow_search_changes | Search changes by description or state |

| servicenow_create_problem | Recurring incident detected — log a problem record |

| servicenow_get_problem | Get known error details and workaround for a problem |

Tasks (4 skills)

| Skill | When it triggers |

|-------|-----------------|

| servicenow_create_task | Create a follow-up task linked to any record |

| servicenow_get_tasks | "What tasks are assigned to me?" |

| servicenow_update_task | Update task state or description |

| servicenow_complete_task | Mark a task as complete |

General / Custom Tables (4 skills)

| Skill | When it triggers |

|-------|-----------------|

| servicenow_table_query | Query any ServiceNow table using sysparm_query |

| servicenow_get_record | Retrieve any record by table name + sys_id |

| servicenow_create_record | Insert into any table — for custom ITSM extensions |

| servicenow_update_record | Update any field on any record |

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IVR Use Cases with Sample System Prompts

IT Help Desk IVR (most common)

You are an IT Help Desk assistant for [Company Name]. You help employees report issues, check ticket status, find answers, and submit service requests — by voice.

When a caller contacts you:
1. Ask for their name and employee email to identify their account
2. Ask them to describe their issue or request
3. Search the ServiceNow Knowledge Base first — if a relevant article exists, read the solution aloud
4. If no KB article resolves the issue, create a ServiceNow incident with: short description, description, priority, and caller
5. Read back the incident number and expected response time
6. Ask if they need anything else

Keep responses short and spoken-friendly. Do not use markdown, bullet points, or numbered lists in your responses — callers hear text-to-speech.

Password Reset / Account Unlock IVR

You are a self-service IT assistant. You handle password resets, account unlocks, and basic account issues for employees.

When a caller contacts you:
1. Verify identity by asking their employee email and department
2. Look up their user record in ServiceNow
3. For password resets: create a high-priority incident assigned to the Identity team with subject "Password Reset Request — [employee name]"
4. Confirm the ticket number and tell them a technician will contact them within 30 minutes
5. Do not ask for current passwords — never collect passwords over the phone

Keep all responses concise and clear.

Service Catalog Self-Service Chat

You are a Velaro IT Self-Service bot. You help employees browse and submit service catalog requests without calling the help desk.

When an employee asks for IT equipment, software, or access:
1. Search the service catalog for matching items
2. Present up to 3 matching options with a brief description of each
3. Ask the employee to confirm their choice
4. Create a service catalog request in ServiceNow on their behalf
5. Confirm the request number and estimated fulfillment time

You can also check the status of existing requests and look up KB articles to answer how-to questions.

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Workflow Building Guide

Basic incident-creation workflow

1. Entry node: Set trigger (web chat, SMS, IVR channel)

2. AI Bot node: Add system prompt describing the Help Desk role. The bot will automatically call servicenow_search_users to identify the caller, servicenow_search_knowledge before creating a ticket, and servicenow_create_incident when needed.

3. Transfer node (optional): Route to a human agent if the bot cannot resolve the issue

4. End node: Close the conversation

No additional configuration is needed — the AI decides which skills to call based on the system prompt and conversation context.

Using ServiceNow data in workflow variables

After an incident is created, the AI will store the incident number in conversation context. You can reference this in:

• Send Message nodes: "Your ticket number is {{incident_number}}"
• Transfer nodes: Pass incident number to the receiving agent via conversation metadata
• Webhook nodes: POST the incident number to external systems

Knowledge-first routing

To ensure the bot always checks KB before creating a ticket, include this in your system prompt:

Before creating any incident, always search the ServiceNow Knowledge Base for articles matching the user's issue. If you find a relevant article with resolution steps, share those steps first and ask if the issue is resolved. Only create an incident if the KB article does not resolve the problem or if the user confirms the issue is still occurring.

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HTTP POST vs AI Skills — Which to Use

| Scenario | Use AI Skills | Use HTTP POST node |

|----------|--------------|-------------------|

| Let the bot decide what to call | ✅ Yes | No |

| Fixed workflow — always create incident at end | No | ✅ Yes |

| Complex conditional logic based on ticket fields | No | ✅ Yes |

| Natural language input from user | ✅ Yes | No |

| Scheduled/automated jobs | No | ✅ Yes |

| Require exact field control (no AI interpretation) | No | ✅ Yes |

Rule of thumb: Use AI Skills for conversational, natural-language flows. Use HTTP POST nodes when you know exactly which ServiceNow record to create and what fields to populate, based on structured workflow data.

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Troubleshooting Common Errors

"Authentication failed — check your credentials"

• OAuth: Verify the Client ID and Client Secret match exactly. Check that the Application Registry record in ServiceNow is active.
• Basic Auth: Confirm the username and password are correct and the account is not locked.
• Both: Verify your instance URL is correct and accessible (not blocked by IP allowlist).

"Access denied — service account may lack required roles"

The service account needs at minimum: itil (for incident management), rest_api_explorer (for REST API access), and knowledge (for KB search). Add these roles via System Security → Users in ServiceNow.

"OAuth token request failed (400)"

Your ServiceNow instance may require username/password in the OAuth token request even for client credentials flow. In this case, switch to Basic Auth for now, or ask your ServiceNow admin to configure client credentials grant type.

"Incident created but missing caller field"

The servicenow_create_incident skill requires a valid sys_id for the caller field. Ensure servicenow_search_users is called first to look up the user record before creating the incident.

Connection test passes but AI skills fail at runtime

Check that the service account has not had its password changed or the OAuth client secret rotated since connecting. Return to Integrations → ServiceNow → Accounts and click Test to verify the live connection.

KB articles not returning relevant results

ServiceNow KB search uses full-text search. Short or vague queries may not return results. Include this guidance in your system prompt: "When searching the knowledge base, use specific technical terms from the user's description rather than generic phrases."