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Build and deploy › Virtual Agent › Conversational Interfaces
Release: Australia · Updated: 2026-03-12 · Official documentation · View source

Case and incident deflection in Virtual Agent

Virtual Agent provides several self-service options for your user that can help deflect tickets.

Deflection occurs when a user asks a question or makes a request that doesn't result in a ticket or human assistance. There are many ways that your customers can self-serve, including using AI Search and reading Knowledge articles. Virtual Agent provides a number of ways for your users to serve themselves.

  • Now Assist in Virtual Agent enhanced chat

    Now Assist in Virtual Agent enhances the user experience by combining AI Search with generative AI chat skills. These skills can speed up issue resolution and reduce deflection to a live agent.

  • Issue Auto Resolution

    When a user creates an issue, the Issue Auto Resolution application uses machine learning and NLU to identify the criticality of the issue, the intent, and an appropriate Virtual Agent topic for an automatic resolution. If a Virtual Agent topic isn’t found, Issue Auto Resolution does an AI Search to return the most appropriate Knowledge articles, FAQs, or catalog content. The deflection content is then delivered to the user through the configured response channel, such as email, short messaging service (SMS), or the Virtual Agent chat widget.

  • Conversational Catalog Request

    This Now Assist in Virtual Agent skill is available in the Now Assist Admin console. For full catalog functionality in the chat window, enable the generative AI experience for catalog item request submissions.

  • Agentic conversations in Virtual Agent

    AI agents can reason, plan, and execute using additional AI agents, Virtual Agent topics, conversational actions and subflows, catalogs, KB articles, custom skills, and any Now Assist in Virtual Agent skills.

  • Conversational subflows and conversational actions

    Create conversational subflows and actions in Workflow Studio and use them in Virtual Agent conversations.

  • Integrating Now Assist in Virtual Agent with Microsoft Teams

    Configure Now Assist in Virtual Agent to use Microsoft Teams as the delivery channel.

  • Use the deflection topic block

    Use the pre-built deflection topic block in Virtual Agent to track the issues that Virtual Agent helped to resolve or actually resolved for a user.

  • Using Issue Auto Resolution
    You can proactively deflect issues and expedite the resolution process for your agent and user with the Issue Auto Resolution (IAR) application. Through machine learning and Natural Language Understanding (NLU), users get immediate self-service and can access Virtual Agent topics, Knowledge articles, and catalog items.

  • Using the deflection topic block to track deflections in Virtual Agent
    Use the pre-built deflection topic block in ServiceNow® Virtual Agent to track the issues that Virtual Agent helped to resolve or actually resolved for a user. Incident deflection patterns and metrics can help you optimize and analyze the effectiveness of Virtual Agent.

Parent Topic:Building and deploying Virtual Agent