<h2>Configure IBM Watson Assistant as the NLU provider for Virtual Agent</h2><br/><div style="overflow-x:auto"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"><head><meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><meta name="copyright" content="(C) Copyright 2025" /><meta name="DC.rights.owner" content="(C) Copyright 2025" /><meta name="generator" content="DITA-OT" /><meta name="DC.type" content="task" /><meta name="DC.title" content="Configure IBM Watson Assistant as the NLU provider for Virtual Agent" /><meta name="abstract" content="Use the intents, entities, and utterances defined in IBM Watson Assistant and apply them as an NLU model for your Virtual Agent conversations." /><meta name="description" content="Use the intents, entities, and utterances defined in IBM Watson Assistant and apply them as an NLU model for your Virtual Agent conversations." /><meta name="DC.coverage" content="translation-type:source" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/virtual-agent/task/configure-nlu-settings.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/virtual-agent/concept/virtual-agent-landing-page.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/virtual-agent/concept/configure-virtual-agent.html" /><meta name="DC.contributor" content="Asha Hawkesworth" /><meta name="DC.creator" content="ServiceNow" /><meta name="DC.date.created" content="2023-08-03" /><meta name="DC.date.modified" content="2025-01-30" /><meta name="DC.format" content="XHTML" /><meta name="DC.identifier" content="configure-watson-service-integration" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../CSS/commonltr.css" /><title>Configure IBM Watson Assistant as the NLU provider for Virtual Agent</title></head><body id="configure-watson-service-integration"> <div class="breadcrumb"><a class="link" href="../../../administer/virtual-agent/concept/virtual-agent-landing-page.html" title="Unlock your enterprise productivity with ServiceNow Virtual Agent. Increase deflections by empowering your employees and customers to serve themselves using a friendly messaging interface, featuring pre-built conversations powered by artificial intelligence.">Virtual Agent</a> > <a class="link" href="../../../administer/virtual-agent/concept/configure-virtual-agent.html" title="Configure the Virtual Agent features, components, and integrations that you need to provide support to your employees, IT teams, and customers.">Configuring Virtual Agent</a> > </div> <h1 class="title topictitle1" id="ariaid-title1">Configure IBM Watson Assistant as the NLU provider for <span class="ph">Virtual Agent</span></h1> <div class="body taskbody"><p class="shortdesc">Use the intents, entities, and utterances defined in <span class="ph">IBM Watson Assistant</span> and apply them as an NLU model for your <span class="ph">Virtual Agent</span> conversations.</p> <div class="section prereq p"> <div class="p">In <span class="ph">IBM Watson Assistant</span>, do the following: <ul class="ul" id="configure-watson-service-integration__ul_f2t_rs1_13b"><li class="li">In your <span class="ph">IBM</span> account, create a <a class="xref" href="https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/opw/8.3.0?topic=links-resource" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Resource Link</a> in the AI (Artificial Intelligence) category. Once you have created the Resource Link, you should see the API key and URL:<p class="p"><img class="image" id="configure-watson-service-integration__image_ewn_mmf_25b" src="../images/ibm-watson-credentials.png" alt="In your IBM Watson Assistant account, locate the API key and URL on the dashboard page for the Resource Link you created." /></p> </li><li class="li">In your workspace, define the intents, entities, and utterances for your NLU model.</li><li class="li">Locate your workspace credentials and copy the workspace <span class="ph uicontrol">Password</span>, which you must provide when setting your credentials during configuration.</li></ul> </div> <p class="p">In your <span class="ph">ServiceNow</span> instance, make sure that the Glide <span class="ph">Virtual Agent</span> plugin (com.glide.cs.chatbot) is activated. This plugin installs the proxy agent for the <span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson Natural Language Understanding server plugin (com.glide.nlu.ibmwatson.intent.discovery), which is needed for this integration.</p> <p class="p">Role required: admin</p> </div> <div class="section context" id="configure-watson-service-integration__context_mbg_ks1_13b">Configuring the <span class="ph">IBM Watson Assistant</span> integration involves providing <span class="ph">IBM Watson Assistant</span> credentials for authentication. You can set only one NLU service provider for your instance.<div class="note"><span class="notetitle">Note:</span> If you upgraded from a previous release, the upgrade process automatically retains the <span class="ph">IBM Watson Assistant</span> workspace <span class="ph uicontrol">Password</span> that you provided.</div> <div class="p">As of the <span class="ph">Quebec</span> release, <span class="ph">Virtual Agent</span> supports legacy version 1 URLs only:<ul class="ul" id="configure-watson-service-integration__ul_sw3_5k5_25b"><li class="li">Models: <code class="ph codeph">https://<IBM HOST>/assistant/api/{<!-- -->{api_version}}/workspaces?version={<!-- -->{published_version}}</code></li><li class="li">Intents: <code class="ph codeph">https://<IBM HOST>/assistant/api/{<!-- -->{api_version}}/workspaces/{<!-- -->{model_id}}/intents?version={<!-- -->{published_version}}&page_limit=1000</code></li><li class="li">Entities: <code class="ph codeph">https://<IBM HOST>/assistant/api/{<!-- -->{api_version}}/workspaces/{<!-- -->{model_id}}/entities?version={<!-- -->{published_version}} </code></li><li class="li">Prediction: <code class="ph codeph">https://<IBM HOST>/assistant/api/{<!-- -->{api_version}}/workspaces/{<!-- -->{model_id}}/message?version={<!-- -->{published_version}}</code></li></ul> </div> </div> <ol class="ol steps" id="configure-watson-service-integration__steps_v3j_gpy_zhb"><li class="li step stepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">Set the <span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson endpoint in your <span class="ph">ServiceNow</span> instance for each of the following HTTP(s) Connections records:</span> <div class="itemgroup info"> <ul class="ul" id="configure-watson-service-integration__ul_zpy_qnt_25b"><li class="li"><span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson NLU Models</li><li class="li"><span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson NLU Intents</li><li class="li"><span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson NLU Entities</li><li class="li"><span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson NLU Prediction</li></ul> </div> <ol type="a" class="ol substeps" id="configure-watson-service-integration__substeps_axp_tft_25b"><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">Navigate to <span class="ph uicontrol">All</span>, and then enter http_connection.list in the filter.</span> </li><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">In the HTTP(s) Connections page, select an <span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson entry in the Name column to open the record.</span> <div class="itemgroup info"> <p class="p"><img class="image" id="configure-watson-service-integration__image_ilc_h4t_25b" src="../images/set-ibm-watson-endpoint.png" alt="There are four IBM Watson NLU records to modify: Entities, Intents, Models, and Prediction. You must set the endpoint for each record." /></p> </div> </li><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">Edit the URL in the <span class="ph uicontrol">Host</span> and <span class="ph uicontrol">Base path</span> fields to reflect the endpoint in your <span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson NLU account.</span> <div class="itemgroup info"> <img class="image" id="configure-watson-service-integration__image_qhx_qxt_25b" src="../images/set-ibm-watson-endpoint-host.png" alt="On the form, change the Host and Base path fields to refer to your IBM Watson NLU endpoint." /> </div> </li><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">Select <span class="ph uicontrol">Update</span>.</span> </li><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">Repeat these steps for the remaining <span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson records.</span> </li></ol> </li><li class="li step stepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">Add the <span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson NLU API key in your <span class="ph">ServiceNow</span> instance for each of the following Basic Auth Credentials records:</span> <div class="itemgroup info"> <ul class="ul" id="configure-watson-service-integration__ul_vm4_npt_25b"><li class="li"><span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson NLU Models</li><li class="li"><span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson NLU Intents</li><li class="li"><span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson NLU Entities</li><li class="li"><span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson NLU Prediction</li></ul> </div> <ol type="a" class="ol substeps" id="configure-watson-service-integration__substeps_ejv_ryf_25b"><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">Navigate to <span class="ph uicontrol">All</span>, and then enter basic_auth_credentials.list in the filter.</span> </li><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">In the Basic Auth Credentials page, select an <span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson entry in the Name column to open the record.</span> </li><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">In the <span class="ph uicontrol">Password</span> field, enter the <span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson NLU API key.</span> <div class="itemgroup info"> <p class="p"><img class="image" id="configure-watson-service-integration__image_efp_4pt_25b" src="../images/va-ibm-watson-credential-pw.png" alt="Enter the API key name and password on the Basic Auth Credentials form for the IBM Watson NLU model." /></p> </div> </li><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">Select <span class="ph uicontrol">Update</span>.</span> </li><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">Repeat these steps for the remaining <span class="ph">IBM</span> Watson records.</span> </li></ol> </li><li class="li step stepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">Make the IBM Watson NLU service active.</span> <ol type="a" class="ol substeps" id="configure-watson-service-integration__substeps_kdv_j22_dnb"><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">Navigate to <span class="ph uicontrol">All</span>, and then enter open_nlu_driver.list in the filter.</span> </li><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">In the Open NLU Drivers table, locate the IBM Watson Script record and in the <span class="ph uicontrol">Active</span> field, set the value to true.</span> <div class="itemgroup info"> <div class="p"><div class="fig fignone" id="configure-watson-service-integration__fig_qpb_z32_dnb"> <img class="image" id="configure-watson-service-integration__image_rpb_z32_dnb" src="../images/open-nlu-drivers.png" alt="For the IBM Watson - Script record, double-click in the Active column to change the value from false to true." /> </div> </div> <p class="p">Activating this setting adds <span class="ph uicontrol">IBM Watson - Script active</span> to the list of available NLU services in <span class="ph">Virtual Agent</span> settings.</p> </div> </li></ol> </li><li class="li step stepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">To enable NLU in your instance, navigate to <span class="ph menucascade"><span class="ph uicontrol">Conversational Interfaces</span> > <span class="ph uicontrol">Settings</span></span>, and then do the following:</span> <ol type="a" class="ol substeps" id="configure-watson-service-integration__substeps_sbd_kqb_23b"><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">Click <span class="ph uicontrol">Virtual Agent</span>.</span> </li><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">Under Natural Language Understanding (NLU), click <span class="ph uicontrol">View Settings</span>.</span> </li><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">Slide the <span class="ph uicontrol">Activate</span> toggle switch to enable <span class="ph">Natural Language Understanding</span>.</span> </li><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">In the <span class="ph uicontrol">NLU service provider</span> list, select <span class="ph uicontrol">IBM Watson - Script</span>.</span> </li><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">If you plan to use language-specific NLU models, enable the languages in the Supported NLU Languages list.</span> <div class="itemgroup info">A language is enabled if the Enabled column displays <span class="ph uicontrol">true</span>. For more information, see <a class="xref" href="enable-langs-va-gen-settings.html" title="If you plan to use language-specific NLU models, you must enable the installed languages in the Supported NLU Languages list. A language is enabled if the Enabled column displays true. English language is enabled by default.">Enable NLU languages in Virtual Agent settings</a>.</div> </li><li class="li substep substepexpand"> <span class="ph cmd">Click <span class="ph uicontrol">Save</span>.</span> </li></ol> <div class="itemgroup stepresult">IBM Watson Assistant is the NLU service provider for your instance.</div> </li></ol> </div> <div class="related-links"> <div class="familylinks"> <div class="parentlink"><strong>Parent Topic:</strong> <a class="link" href="../../../administer/virtual-agent/task/configure-nlu-settings.html" title="Configure Natural Language Understanding (NLU) in Virtual Agent to identify the NLU service provider for your instance. You can also specify the languages of NLU models used during conversation design, based on the languages supported by your NLU provider and the ServiceNow AI Platform.">Configure Natural Language Understanding in Virtual Agent</a></div> </div> </div></body></html></div>