ServiceNow launches Flow, a conversational interface for its service desk

Flow is built on an entirely new technology stack and is aimed at organizations that want to automate support without undertaking a full information technology service management deployment. ServiceNow said the product gives it an entry point to companies that have avoided buying ITSM software because of its complexity, and also targets departments, remote offices and newly acquired business units inside enterprises that already use ServiceNow.

"Flow is for companies that want to work in a completely new way," said Jeff Hausman, executive vice president and general manager of technology workflow products at ServiceNow. "It's automation built for speed and simplicity."

The service is designed around recurring requests such as password resets, account unlocks, access provisioning, policy questions and basic troubleshooting. Employees describe their problems in natural language, and Flow retrieves relevant information and either acts or escalates the request to a support team along with the context of the conversation. Once a support worker resolves an issue, an IT manager can turn that solution into an automated workflow with a single click, ServiceNow said, so subsequent requests are handled automatically without a developer or a newly written knowledge base article. More than 100 prebuilt connectors link the service to systems holding knowledge, asset and ticketing information or supporting automated actions.

In a demonstration, an employee asked about company holidays in Slack and received an answer linked to a source document. When the same employee reported trouble accessing a human resources system, Flow offered to open a ServiceNow incident and collected details about the problem. Other workflows shown included one that sends virtual private network guidance, checks whether access has been restored, determines whether approval is necessary and requests a manager's authorization before proceeding, and another covering employee onboarding, including joining a workspace and provisioning access credentials.

"The real value comes when those solutions can be easily automated and repeated at scale," Stephen Elliot, group vice president of software development and IT operations at International Data Corp., said in a ServiceNow press release. Customers cited in the announcement described uses beyond traditional internal IT support; one said it uses shared Slack channels to support clients, while two software companies pointed to simpler processes for retrieving internal knowledge and reducing repeated questions.

"Someone asks a question in Slack, Flow pulls answers from what we've already documented, and if it's something new, we escalate it and learn from it, and Flow automates it the next time," said Mitch Stutler, co-founder and chief executive of ServiceNow partner VividCharts Inc.

Flow is free during controlled availability, with North American customers receiving priority access initially. ServiceNow is targeting Oct. 6 for general availability to current customers in North America, with broader availability across North America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa expected by the end of the fourth quarter. Pricing at general availability will be consumption-based, with a free trial offered before purchase. Existing ServiceNow customers with AI entitlements will draw from their current pool of assists without buying an additional product license, and the company did not disclose specific consumption rates. New customers will be able to buy Flow with a credit card without an existing ServiceNow relationship.

ServiceNow also plans to extend the conversational model beyond IT into areas including customer support and procurement, according to SiliconANGLE.