ServiceNow AI Platform™ Technology Stack
Technology is best when it brings people together.
— Matt Mullenweg
Introduction
ServiceNow’s Australia release is not just another platform upgrade. It marks a visible shift from workflow automation + generative AI toward governed agentic AI at enterprise scale. The major message is: ServiceNow is moving from “AI assists people” to “AI agents work with people, under governance, with measurable control.”
ServiceNow’s own latest-release page positions Australia around three themes:
- AI agents across workflows
- AI embedded where work happens
- Governance of AI activity from one platform
It highlights AI Agent Advisor, AI Agent Studio, Intelligent Approvals, Knowledge Center, AI Control Tower, Implementation Agent, and Dynamic Guidance as key innovations.
For the Australia release, ServiceNow should be viewed less as a traditional “application stack” and more as an enterprise AI workflow platform stack: data + workflow + AI + governance + integration + experience layer.
ServiceNow describes the AI Platform architecture as one that senses context, decides the right action, acts across systems, and secures every step. It also positions the platform as able to access data from 450+ systems, including SAP and Salesforce, to give AI enterprise context.
ServiceNow AI Platform™ - Australia Release
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Business Applications │ │ ITSM | CSM | HRSD | FSM | ITOM | ITAM | SecOps | GRC │ │ SPM | Source-to-Pay | Sales CRM | Industry Workflows │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ AI Experience and Agentic Layer │ │ Now Assist | AI Agents | AI Agent Advisor | AI Desktop │ │ Actions | Build Agent | AI Control Tower | MCP Console │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Workflow and Automation Layer │ │ Flow Designer | Workflow Studio | Playbooks | Decision │ │ Tables | IntegrationHub | RPA Hub | Process Mining │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ App Development Layer │ │ App Engine Studio | ServiceNow Studio | UI Builder | SDK │ │ CLI | IDE | Creator Studio | Service Catalog | ATF │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Data and Context Layer │ │ CMDB | CSDM | Workflow Data Fabric | Data Catalog | Data │ │ Products | Zero Copy Connectors | Knowledge Graph │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Integration and API Layer │ │ REST | SOAP | Scripted REST APIs | IntegrationHub Spokes │ │ MID Server | Kafka | Stream Connect | Remote Process Sync │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Security, Governance, and Operations Layer │ │ ACL | Roles | Identity | Encryption | Vault | Domain │ │ Separation | AI Control Tower | Audit | Upgrade Console │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Main AI Platform developments in Australia
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Agentic AI becomes more operational.
Australia strengthens Now Assist AI Agents. ServiceNow describes these agents as solutions that can perceive the environment, decide, and proactively act toward goals without constant human oversight. Australia adds AI-native testing, tool-output widgets, improved platform agentic workflows, issue tracing, and suggested optimizations.
Takeaway: Earlier AI helped users write, summarize, and search. Australia moves closer to AI agents that can reason, act, test, and improve inside governed workflows.
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AI Agent Advisor is introduced.
AI Agent Advisor is a new Australia application that analyzes actual instance data, identifies automation opportunities, matches those opportunities to existing AI agents, and helps automate the creation and deployment of new agents.
Takeaway: ServiceNow is trying to reduce the gap between “we found a bottleneck” and “we deployed an AI-powered automation for it.”
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AI Control Tower becomes the governance backbone.
AI Control Tower is positioned as a centralized workspace for AI stewards to manage and monitor enterprise AI. Australia adds stronger governance features, including AI asset security scoring, LLM and AI-agent output monitoring, PII and threat detection metrics, MCP visibility, managed and unmanaged AI assets, and agentic AI system lifecycle management.
Takeaway: AI adoption without governance becomes risk. Australia makes governance, visibility, lifecycle management, and security part of the AI operating model.
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Now Assist Center becomes the AI administration hub.
Now Assist Center is new in Australia. ServiceNow describes it as a single control hub that brings together Now Assist capabilities and configuration functions so administrators can set up and manage generative AI solutions from one place. It also includes conversational admin help, setup recommendations, AI adoption metrics, and integration with AI Agent Advisor.
Takeaway: Now Assist Center is the admin-facing control room for configuring and adopting Now Assist capabilities.
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MCP Server Console arrives for governed AI interoperability.
Australia introduces MCP Server Console, which enables secure and governed access to ServiceNow instance functionality through Model Context Protocol servers. It supports a quickstart server for incident and case lookup or summarization, OAuth 2.0 client connections, and tools based on categories such as Now Assist skills, Knowledge Graph, Subflows, Actions, and REST APIs.
Takeaway: MCP makes ServiceNow capabilities accessible to external AI clients in a controlled way, while AI Control Tower and AI Gateway provide governance and observability.
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Knowledge Center improves knowledge quality for AI-powered work.
Knowledge Center is introduced in Australia to manage knowledge articles from a centralized interface. It includes dashboards, article optimization, potential knowledge-gap detection, duplicate-article merging with Now Assist, and article health improvements.
Takeaway: AI quality depends heavily on knowledge quality. Australia recognizes that knowledge articles are no longer just help content; they are fuel for AI Search, Now Assist, and agentic workflows.
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AI Desktop Actions extends agents beyond ServiceNow screens.
Australia enhances AI Desktop Actions, formerly Agentic Desktop. It can automate dynamic steps determined by AI, use a ServiceNow web automation Chrome extension, show real-time clicks and keystrokes, request user consent, and allow users to pause, correct, and resume an AI agent.
Takeaway: AI agents are not limited to records and forms; they can increasingly assist with web and desktop task execution, under user oversight.
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Build Agent and “vibe coding” move into ServiceNow Studio.
Australia enhances ServiceNow Studio with Build Agent, an autonomous AI agent for conversational full-stack application creation and editing. Studio is now available by default on the ServiceNow AI Platform, and Build Agent becomes the default AI-assisted app generation experience.
Takeaway: Australia pushes ServiceNow development toward AI-assisted app building, but developers still need platform fundamentals, data modeling, security, scripting, and review discipline.
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Security and platform hardening are not optional.
Australia adds enhanced protections for read-only fields, granular control options such as
strict_read_onlyandclient_script_modifiable, guarded script evaluation, script sandbox controls, guest API access control, granular admin roles, and AI indicators in forms.Takeaway: ServiceNow AI Platform readiness is not only about learning AI features. It also requires secure scripting, access control discipline, upgrade testing, and governance awareness.
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New AI Platform tiers: Foundation, Advanced, Prime.
Australia introduces three AI experience/licensing tiers:
Tier Practical meaning Foundation AI basics / AI agents and skills for insights Advanced AI agents and skills to improve productivity across selected use cases Prime Autonomous AI capabilities, including creating your own AI agents and skills Takeaway: These tiers appear in multiple Australia release-note areas, including Now Assist, AI Agent Advisor, AI Control Tower, Now Assist Center, and MCP Server Console.
Below are key highlights of the ServiceNow AI Platform™, Australia release:
- Now Assist becomes broader across the enterprise - Now Assist brings generative AI capabilities to improve productivity, self-service, recommended actions, answers, and AI-powered search across the platform
- Agentic AI moves from concept to practical workflow execution - Now Assist AI Agents can perceive context, decide what to do, and proactively act toward specific goals without constant human oversight.
- AI Agent Advisor helps identify automation opportunities - AI Agent Advisor is a new Australia application that analyzes the instance, discovers automation opportunities, and helps deploy AI agents to address them.
- Now Assist Center centralizes AI administration - Now Assist Center provides a single control hub for administrators to set up, monitor, and manage Now Assist capabilities from one unified experience.
- AI Control Tower strengthens AI governance - AI Control Tower provides a centralized workspace for AI stewards to manage and monitor enterprise AI, including managed and unmanaged AI assets, AI models, prompts, datasets, MCP servers, and AI connections.
- Build Agent accelerates platform development - Build Agent enables developers to create, edit, and deploy full-stack applications and metadata through a conversational interface, with support inside ServiceNow Studio, MCP, global scope, and expanded metadata support.
- MCP Server Console supports governed AI interoperability - MCP Server Console introduces an AI-native experience and supports the new ServiceNow AI Platform licensing tiers: Foundation, Advanced, and Prime.
- AI-native testing and agent observability improve trust - Australia adds AI-native playground testing, tool-output widgets, improved platform agentic workflows, issue tracing, and suggested optimizations for AI agent performance.
- AI expands into analytics and business insights - Now Assist in Platform Analytics allows users to generate and work with analytics objects through generative AI and analyze business data conversationally without deep technical knowledge of Platform Analytics.
- IntegrationHub gains stronger real-time integration capabilities - Australia enhances IntegrationHub with Direct Kafka for on-premise ServiceNow instances, Stream Connect topic aliases, and a Remote Process Sync dashboard for monitoring integration health.
- The release is not only AI; it also strengthens platform, workflow, and business applications. Australia includes new and updated capabilities across APIs, app development, low-code, ESM Foundation, Employee Service Management, FSM, Financial Services, GRC, ITAM, ITOM, ITSM, Platform Analytics, Public Sector, and other industry workflows.
1. Core Platform Foundation
| Layer | Technology / Capability | Practical Meaning |
| Platform runtime | ServiceNow AI Platform | The base SaaS platform where records, workflows, experiences, integrations, and AI capabilities run. |
| Data model | Tables, fields, dictionary, relationships, reference fields | The structural foundation for every application such as Incident, Change, User, CI, Catalog Item, Case, and Asset. |
| Server-side logic | Business Rules, Script Includes, Script Actions, Scheduled Jobs, Fix Scripts | Used for validation, automation, data processing, integration handling, and enterprise logic. |
| Client-side logic | Client Scripts, UI Policies, Catalog Client Scripts, UI Actions | Used to control user experience, form behavior, catalog behavior, and interactive logic. |
| Access control | Roles, ACLs, groups, domains | Protects data and controls who can read, write, create, delete, or execute platform capabilities. |
| Upgrade management | Upgrade Center, Upgrade Console, skipped records, plugin lifecycle | Required for safe movement from earlier releases to the Australia release. |
2. AI and Agentic AI Stack
The biggest shift in the Australia release is the movement from workflow automation toward AI-assisted and agentic workflow execution.
| AI Stack Component | Purpose | Australia Release Relevance |
| Now Assist | Generative AI experience across ServiceNow | Improves self-service, recommends actions, provides answers, summarizes information, and improves search experiences. |
| Now Assist AI Agents | Agentic AI solutions that perceive, decide, and act toward goals | Supports AI-native testing, tool-output widgets, improved agentic workflows, issue tracing, and optimization suggestions. |
| AI Agent Advisor | Finds automation opportunities inside the instance | Analyzes instance data, identifies high-impact automation opportunities, maps them to existing agents, and helps deploy new agents. |
| AI Desktop Actions | Automates repetitive desktop tasks | Allows AI agents to perform desktop-level actions and repetitive task automation. |
| Now Assist Center | Central admin hub for Now Assist | Provides a unified place for administrators to set up and manage generative AI capabilities. |
| Generative AI Controller | Connects ServiceNow AI capabilities to third-party LLM providers | Supports third-party large language model configurations and bring-your-own-key patterns. |
| AI Control Tower | AI governance, monitoring, and stewardship | Provides central governance for AI assets, security scoring, output monitoring, policy monitoring, and lifecycle governance. |
| MCP Server Console | Governed access to ServiceNow functions through Model Context Protocol | Enables secure and governed access to ServiceNow capabilities from external AI clients and employee experiences. |
| Build Agent | Conversational full-stack app creation and metadata editing | Helps developers create apps, workflows, agents, skills, tests, and platform artifacts using a conversational interface. |
3. AI Product Tiering
The Australia release introduces a clearer AI product tiering model. Actual availability depends on customer licensing, plugins, entitlements, and product activation.
| Tier | Meaning |
| Foundation | AI basics, AI agents, and skills for insights and productivity. |
| Advanced | Advanced AI capabilities that improve productivity across specific business and technology use cases. |
| Prime | Broader autonomous action, advanced agents, skills, AI asset creation, and enterprise-scale AI execution. |
4. Data, Context, and Knowledge Stack
AI is only useful when it is grounded in trusted enterprise context. For this reason, the data and context layer is extremely important in the modern ServiceNow AI Platform.
| Component | Purpose | Why It Matters |
| CMDB | Stores configuration items and relationships | Provides operational context for ITSM, ITOM, ITAM, SecOps, and AI use cases. |
| CSDM | Common Service Data Model | Standardizes service, application, business capability, and technical service relationships. |
| Service Graph Connectors | Bring external configuration and operational data into ServiceNow | Helps enrich CMDB and Service Graph with trusted external data. |
| Workflow Data Fabric | Foundation for governed data interfaces and data products | Supports creation and management of reusable data products and governed data access. |
| Data Catalog | Self-service discovery of data assets | Allows teams to find published data products, metadata, lineage, documentation, and access pathways. |
| Data Products | Governed reusable data interfaces | Allows data stewards to package reusable data products for discovery and consumption. |
| Zero Copy Connectors | Real-time access to external data without copying it into ServiceNow | Helps ServiceNow use external enterprise data while reducing unnecessary duplication. |
| Knowledge Graph | Natural language understanding of connected enterprise entities | Helps users ask natural language questions about services, servers, databases, and CI relationships. |
| Knowledge Center | Central knowledge-quality management | Provides dashboards and actions for improving knowledge article quality and coverage. |
| Now Assist in Document Intelligence | Extracts, summarizes, and answers questions from documents | Improves document processing, document Q&A, summarization, extraction, and attachment-based insights. |
5. Application Development and Low-Code Stack
ServiceNow Australia continues the move from traditional administration and development toward AI-assisted platform engineering.
| Development Tool | Purpose |
| ServiceNow Studio | Unified development environment for custom apps, metadata, flows, UI files, and app artifacts. |
| Build Agent | Conversational app creation, metadata editing, test generation, UI validation, and semantic artifact discovery. |
| App Engine Studio | Low-code app creation for creators with varying skill levels. |
| Creator Studio | No-code and citizen development style app creation. |
| UI Builder | Builds workspace pages, custom pages, portals, and Next Experience interfaces. |
| Workflow Studio | Consolidates flows, subflows, actions, decision tables, playbooks, and integrations into one design environment. |
| ServiceNow IDE | Browser-based IDE based on Visual Studio Code for the Web. |
| ServiceNow SDK | Supports local source-code development with Visual Studio Code Desktop. |
| ServiceNow CLI | Supports command-line operations from the local system. |
| ATF | Automated Test Framework for regression testing and platform validation. |
| ReleaseOps | Supports deployment and validation of code across development-to-production pipelines. |
6. Workflow, Automation, and Orchestration Stack
| Component | Purpose |
| Flow Designer | Low-code automation using triggers, actions, conditions, and subflows. |
| Workflow Studio | Unified environment for designing workflows, subflows, integrations, playbooks, and decision logic. |
| Decision Tables | Externalizes business decisions from code for approvals, routing, categorization, prioritization, and policy decisions. |
| Playbooks | Provides guided process execution for agents, case workers, and operations teams. |
| Process Mining | Finds bottlenecks and inefficiencies in real business and IT workflows. |
| Intelligent Approvals | Supports AI-assisted approval routing and decision-making based on business context. |
| RPA Hub | Supports end-to-end automation for repetitive tasks, especially across desktop and legacy systems. |
| AI Desktop Actions | Extends automation to desktop tasks executed by AI agents. |
7. Integration and API Stack
The integration layer is critical because ServiceNow often acts as a platform of platforms, connecting systems, teams, processes, and enterprise data.
| Integration Technology | Purpose |
| REST APIs | Standard API access for CRUD operations, integrations, and system-to-system communication. |
| Scripted REST APIs | Custom REST endpoints for custom business logic and external consumers. |
| SOAP APIs | Legacy enterprise integration support where required. |
| IntegrationHub | Extends Workflow Studio automation by integrating ServiceNow data with external systems. |
| Spokes | Prebuilt IntegrationHub connectors and actions for common enterprise systems. |
| MID Server | Secure communication bridge for on-premises systems, discovery, orchestration, LDAP, integrations, and operational data collection. |
| Stream Connect, Hermes, and Kafka | Supports event-streaming style integrations and real-time enterprise event processing. |
| Remote Process Sync | Synchronizes process data across systems and provides visibility into processing status. |
| Zero Copy Connectors | Allows ServiceNow to query external data in real time without duplicating it into the instance. |
| MCP Server Console | Opens governed ServiceNow functionality to AI applications and external MCP clients. |
8. User Experience Stack
| UX Component | Purpose |
| Next Experience | Modern ServiceNow user experience shell. |
| Configurable Workspace | Workspace experience for agents, case managers, help desks, and managers. |
| UI Builder | Builds workspace and custom experiences using Next Experience components. |
| Service Portal | Mobile-friendly self-service portal framework for employees and customers. |
| Employee Center and Employee Center Pro | Unified employee service experience across HR, IT, workplace, legal, and other services. |
| Mobile Platform | Mobile access to ServiceNow experiences. |
| Theme Builder | Visual customization and branding of the platform experience. |
| Adoption Services | In-product support and adoption guidance for users. |
9. Analytics, Intelligence, and Observability Stack
| Component | Purpose |
| Platform Analytics | Provides dashboards, analytics, visualizations, and operational insights. |
| Now Assist in Platform Analytics | Allows users to ask natural language questions and convert them into insights and visualizations. |
| Performance Analytics | Supports KPI tracking, trends, scorecards, targets, breakdowns, and executive reporting. |
| Process Mining | Discovers bottlenecks and workflow inefficiencies from actual process data. |
| Predictive Intelligence | Supports classification, prediction, similarity, routing, and model-based automation. |
| Usage Insights | Provides adoption and usage visibility. |
| Performance Analyzer | Provides page-load time data, trends, waterfall visualization, and UX framework performance diagnostics. |
10. Security, Risk, and Governance Stack
| Security / Governance Layer | Purpose |
| Roles and ACLs | Core authorization model for controlling access to data and platform capabilities. |
| Authentication and Identity | Supports SSO, MFA, identity provider integration, and user lifecycle controls. |
| Domain Separation | Segregates data and processes for MSPs or multi-tenant enterprise operating models. |
| Encryption, Key Management, and Vault | Protects sensitive data, secrets, credentials, and platform integrations. |
| Data Privacy | Helps manage privacy-sensitive data and privacy-related platform controls. |
| Security Center | Provides security posture and platform security visibility. |
| AI Control Tower | Supports AI governance, AI asset management, model/provider visibility, security scoring, output monitoring, and lifecycle governance. |
| Code Signing | Helps protect the integrity of code and applications. |
| Instance Scan | Detects configuration, development, and best-practice issues. |
| Upgrade Console | Helps manage release upgrades, skipped changes, and compatibility risk. |
11. Core Business Application Stack
The platform stack becomes valuable when it is applied to real business workflows. The Australia release continues to support several major enterprise product families on top of the ServiceNow AI Platform.
| Product Area | Typical Modules |
| IT Service Management | Incident, Problem, Change, Request, Knowledge, Major Incident, Service Operations Workspace. |
| IT Operations Management | Discovery, Service Mapping, Event Management, AIOps, Operational Intelligence. |
| IT Asset Management | Hardware Asset Management, Software Asset Management, Enterprise Asset Management. |
| Customer Service Management | Case Management, Customer Service Workspace, customer workflows, and field-service-connected experiences. |
| HR Service Delivery / Employee Service Management | HR cases, Employee Center, knowledge, journeys, and lifecycle events. |
| Field Service Management | Work orders, dispatch, scheduling, mobile workforce, and field operations. |
| Security Operations | Security Incident Response, Vulnerability Response, Threat Intelligence. |
| Governance, Risk, and Compliance / Integrated Risk Management | Risk, compliance, audit, policy, third-party risk, and operational resilience. |
| Strategic Portfolio Management | Demand, project, portfolio, resource, agile, and investment planning. |
| Source-to-Pay Operations | Procurement, purchase orders, supplier lifecycle, and accounts payable operations. |
| Sales CRM and Industry Workflows | Telecommunications, financial services, public sector, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and other industry workflows. |
12. Practical Skills Required for Australia Release
| Role Area | Required Skills |
| Admin / Platform Engineer | User/group/role management, ACLs, tables, forms, lists, notifications, imports, upgrades, and plugin management. |
| ServiceNow Developer | JavaScript, GlideRecord, GlideAjax, Business Rules, Script Includes, Flow Designer, Scripted REST APIs, and scoped apps. |
| Low-Code Developer | App Engine Studio, Flow Designer, Workflow Studio, Decision Tables, Catalog Builder, and UI Builder. |
| AI Platform Developer | Now Assist, Build Agent, AI Agents, AI Agent Advisor, Skill Kit, prompt design, and ATF with AI support. |
| Integration Developer | REST, SOAP, OAuth, IntegrationHub, MID Server, spokes, Kafka, Stream Connect, and Remote Process Sync. |
| Data / CMDB Specialist | CMDB, CSDM, Service Graph Connectors, data quality, reconciliation, and identification rules. |
| AI Governance Lead | AI Control Tower, AI asset lifecycle, model/provider visibility, data privacy, security scoring, and policy monitoring. |
| UX Developer | Next Experience, Workspace, UI Builder, Service Portal, Employee Center, and responsive design. |
| QA / Release Engineer | ATF, Instance Scan, ReleaseOps, update sets/source control, regression packs, and upgrade testing. |
| Analytics Lead | Platform Analytics, Performance Analytics, Process Mining, Predictive Intelligence, and AI-generated insights. |
13. Recommended Learning Priority
For Australia release readiness, it is better not to start directly with AI. The stronger and safer learning sequence is:
- Platform fundamentals: Tables, forms, lists, dictionary, users, groups, roles, and ACLs.
- JavaScript and scripting on the Now Platform: Business Rules, Script Includes, GlideRecord, GlideAjax, and client/server separation.
- Workflow automation: Flow Designer, Workflow Studio, subflows, actions, decision tables, and approvals.
- Integration foundation: REST, Scripted REST APIs, IntegrationHub, OAuth, and MID Server.
- Data and CMDB foundation: CMDB, CSDM, Service Graph, data quality, identification, and reconciliation.
- Modern experience development: Workspace, UI Builder, Service Portal, and Employee Center.
- AI and agentic capabilities: Now Assist, Build Agent, AI Agents, AI Agent Advisor, and AI Desktop Actions.
- Governance and security: AI Control Tower, ACLs, identity, encryption, audit, data privacy, and upgrade controls.
14. Summary
The Australia release marks a major step in ServiceNow’s evolution from a workflow automation platform into a governed enterprise AI platform. The focus is no longer limited to generative AI assistance such as summarization, search, and content generation. Australia strengthens the move toward agentic AI, where AI agents can identify opportunities, assist with decisions, execute actions, and improve workflows under enterprise governance. Key developments include AI Agent Advisor, Now Assist AI Agents, Now Assist Center, AI Control Tower, MCP Server Console, Knowledge Center, AI Desktop Actions, and Build Agent in ServiceNow Studio. Together, these capabilities show ServiceNow’s strategic direction: AI embedded in the flow of work, governed centrally, and applied across IT, employee, customer, industry, and enterprise workflows.
15. Official Reference Links
- ServiceNow Australia Release Notes
- ServiceNow AI Platform
- Now Assist Release Notes
- Now Assist AI Agents Release Notes
- AI Agent Advisor Release Notes
- AI Control Tower Release Notes
- MCP Server Console Release Notes
- Build Agent Release Notes
- Generative AI Controller Release Notes
- Data Products Release Notes
- Zero Copy Connectors Release Notes
- IntegrationHub Release Notes
- ServiceNow Studio Release Notes
- ServiceNow SDK Release Notes
- Now Assist in Platform Analytics Release Notes
Publication note: Product availability can vary based on licensing, plugins, entitlements, and customer environment.