[Deprecated] Deploy a Virtual Agent with IBM Watson's Assistant (Conversation) Service

[darius_koohmare]

Kingston Watson Virtual Agent now on Share!

ServiceNow has also released its own Virtual Agent as of London, which can formally integrate with IBM Watson via integration in New York release.

This integration is a ServiceNow Connect & IBM Watson Assistant (Conversation) Service powered Virtual Agent prebuilt for self service incident deflection, and easily extensible to additional use cases both within and outside ITSM. A video overview is available here.

How can I install the integration?

• Install both update sets included in the share link. Ensure to install the ITSM Content update set second
• Utilize the Guided Setup which will walk you through the configuration of the REST call for the integration, the bot branding, and the channel deployment
• A Kingston instance of ServiceNow, and a IBM Bluemix account with the IBM Watson Conversation Service enabled is required
• The update sets are free and unsupported as they are Share content; IBM Watson Conversation Service has independent pricing but offers a 30 day free trial
• The following video will also guide you through installation and setup

High Level Architecture

• The Virtual Agent in the ServiceNow Connect client is available on Service Portal, Platform, and Mobile
• Any ServiceNow script, workflow, orchestration, or 3rd party API call can be invoked by the Actions, which are defined in ServiceNow and run based on the current node identified from the Watson Conversation service
• The Watson Conversation Service provides the NLP for the Intent / Entity identification, and provides the conversation tree that the bot traverses.
• REST API sends user messages from the ServiceNow platform to the IBM Watson Assistant (Conversation) endpoint
• A prebuilt Watson workspace can be quickly deployed from ServiceNow to the Watson environment using REST API

What Use Cases are prebuilt in the IBM Watson Assistant (Conversation) Interface & the ServiceNow Dialog Actions?

1. Check Status: Ability to retrieve details of recent incident & requested items, and to add additional comments
2. Create Incident: Ability to create an incident, add conversation history to work notes, and enforce urgency input
3. Search catalog items: Return user links to relevant catalog items
4. Search knowledge base: Return user links to relevant knowledge articles
5. Hello / Goodbye / Capabilities: Allow user to ask bot what it is capable of, as well as receive standard greeting / goodbye
6. Get CI Information: Allow user to understand their hardware configuration items assigned to them
7. Get My Approval Information: Return a list of outstanding approval records for the current user, and allow approve/deny/skip action
8. Live Agent Handoff: Allow user to indicate they want a live agent, and to be transferred to a live agent connect support queue

What Personas will benefit from deploying the Watson Virtual Agent?

Requestor - Business

• Supported Virtual Agent conversations for common End User self service requests results in immediate help available 24/7
• Virtual Agent will live in the Service Portal to provide help where the users are
• Increased CSAT

Fulfiller

• The IT Fulfiller can spend more time on higher complexity, higher value add tasks
• The IT Fulfiller can experience increased job fulfillment
• The IT Fulfiller can ask the virtual agent questions and receive answers

Administrator

• Prebuilt IBM Watson Conversation workspace, ability to manage bot users, workspaces, and dialog actions

IT Executive

• Reporting into Virtual Agent adoption & usage through dashboard

Has there been any documented realization of value from a Virtual Agent powered by ServiceNow & the IBM Watson Conversation Service?

• A case study from a leading AI research university is available here.

DISCLAIMER: Since this is a Share offering and not a formal in-product offering, no support or enhancements are available. This is meant as a tool to help you kick start your conversations internally around Virtual Agent technology. ServiceNow plans to offer it's own Virtual Agent as of the London release. There is no migration path between the two. IBM has rebranded their Conversation Service as Assistant.