SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) today announced new conversational bot technology dubbed “Virtual Agent,” designed to improve customer and employee experiences by getting work completed quickly through more natural interactions and real-time automated resolution. Unlike other bots, ServiceNow’s Virtual Agent can manage employee or customer requests from start to finish, leveraging ServiceNow’s industry-leading Now Platform™ to resolve conversational requests automatically, such as resetting a password.
“Our Virtual Agent enables a powerful conversation model built natively in the Now Platform,” said CJ Desai, chief product officer, ServiceNow. “This enables our customers to develop a wide range of intelligent service conversations, from a quick question to an entire business action through the messaging platform of their choice.”
An Intelligent Virtual Agent in Action
ServiceNow’s Virtual Agent provides personalized responses in context. For example, when an employee asks for a new phone, the chat knows what cell phone plan and carrier the employee already has, speeding the task and creating a personalized service experience.
Virtual Agent also enables companies to respond faster with instant, interactive conversations that can scale even during peak periods. It frees up staff to do higher value work. ServiceNow estimates that 15% to 20% of routine interactions can be handled by Virtual Agent.
With self-service interactions, customers and employees engage in familiar places -- via Microsoft Teams, Slack or ServiceNow chat clients. Virtual Agent gather inquiries, requests and conversations within a messaging format.
With the acquisition of Parlo, ServiceNow intends to inject more natural language understanding (NLU) into its virtual agents in the next year. NLU addresses a challenging area for AI: understanding the nuances of human language. With Parlo, customers using virtual agents will train their bots to understand technical and jargon-laden content, which is critical to make every day work interactions simple, accessible and natural for everyone.
Streamline IT, HR and Customer Service Requests with Out-of-the-Box Conversations
In its pre-built offerings, ServiceNow’s Virtual Agent delivers common service conversations:
- IT: Improve employee experience with common help desk requests such as automating password resets, creating an incident, processing approvals and checking outages.
- HR: Make it easier for employees to get answers or submit requests such as a leave of absence, research pay discrepancies, check status and update their profile.
- Customer Service: Increase customer satisfaction and improve agent efficiency when customers can create cases for products or orders and check product status through virtual agents.
Design Custom Virtual Agents Easily
It’s easy to instantly create basic service conversations that resolve issues in large volumes so agents can focus on their most important work. Customers can design their own virtual agent conversations with drag-and-drop ease and little-to-no development time. Organizations can easily plug in their preferred messaging service. That includes web, mobile and adapters for popular messaging apps such as Microsoft Teams and Slack that are delivered out-of-the-box with the Now Platform.
Virtual Agent will be available in ServiceNow’s next product release this year.
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Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements about the expectations, beliefs, plans, and intentions relating to ServiceNow’s acquisition of Parlo and ServiceNow’s future product releases. These statements reflect the current beliefs of ServiceNow and are based on current information available to the company as of the date hereof. ServiceNow does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements provided to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made. The forward-looking statements in this press release are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the ability to assimilate or integrate Parlo technology into our platform; the inability to retain key employees; and the ability to develop and gain customer acceptance of new products and services. The information in this press release on new offerings, features, or functionality is intended to outline our general product direction and should not be relied upon in making a purchasing decision.
About ServiceNow
ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) makes work, work better for people. Our cloud-based platform and solutions deliver digital experiences that help people do their best work. For more information, visit: www.servicenow.com
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