AI agents in the ServiceNow support journey

Consent and instance troubleshooting

Table of contents

Overview As part of ServiceNow support cases, we may utilize AI capabilities within your instance to improve accuracy and expedite case resolution. These AI capabilities range from autonomous AI agents and tools that independently diagnose issues to AI copilots that assist our Customer Support team, referred to as Technical Support Engineers (“ TSEs ”) in solving case problems.

This K nowledge Base (“ KB ”) A rticle is intended for you — your organization’s account administrator — and explains how ServiceNow AI agents and tools operate during support cases , what your consent means, the temporary nature of instance data access, and the specific diagnostic activities performed.

Section 1: What am I consenting to? When you submit a support case, you will be presented with a instance consent prompt . To the extent we use an AI agent to access your instance data to resolve your case, we will first present you with a consent prompt, such as the following:

“ By submitting this case, I grant consent to the use of ServiceNow AI agents and tools to access and process my instance data for troubleshooting purposes. For details on our security and responsible AI practices, please review our Privacy Statement and [AI Support Agent KB Article] . ”

It is enabled by default. By granting this consent, you're allowing ServiceNow's AI agents to:

Access Your Instance Data. ServiceNow AI agents will access your instance, including your Customer Data, to the extent necessary, to diagnose the issue(s) reported in your case. Analyze System Setup. We will review relevant telemetry logs, as well as platform data and configuration data relevant to address your issue. Propose Solutions. Our AI agents will recommend resolution steps for you to review and accept. All suggested fixes leave your instance configuration unchanged. Granting consent does-not necessarily mean that AI agent will access your instance. It's applicable only for those cases where instance troubleshooting is required.

You can grant or Revoke instance access anytime during the lifecycle of the case in the Case form.

Note: If the consent is not granted, AI Agent may still continue to work on your case if its resolvable without instance level access with the help of existing knowledge repositories and past cases.

Section 2: Technical & Security Safeguards for ServiceNow AI capabilities. To protect customer privacy, enforce system integrity, and maintain compliance with regulatory standards and customer expectations, our AI support capabilities are governed by the following, but not limited to, responsible AI practices built into the core infrastructure of our AI capabilities:

Consent Before Instance Access: Every AI agent is programmed to verify if there is an active consent record before initiating a support instance query into your instance to ensure there is no automated instance access, without your consent. Immediate Opt-Out & Re-routing: If consent is withdrawn, AI agent instance access will be revoked and restricted. However, AI agents may continue to troubleshoot your case with non-instance access. Diagnostics & Troubleshooting: AI agents are architecturally restricted to perform diagnostics and cannot perform configuration changes, modifications or deletions; any required fixes are automatically routed to a qualified TSE. Automated High-Priority Case Exclusion: Our routing engine automatically excludes Priority 1 (P1), Priority 2 (P2), security incidents, platform outages, and specific PSA workflows from AI handling. Temporary Session Instance Access: Our AI instance access is temporary and automatically expires as soon as a solution is proposed or the diagnostic analysis by an AI agent is complete and accepted by you. Audit Logging: Every diagnostic query, log pull, system check, and consent record generates a permanent, time-stamped audit record attached to the case ticket. SNCA Hard Gate Integration: For SNCA-enabled environments, AI agents respect restricted access boundaries and require explicit, audited SNCA permission before entering the instance. On-Demand TSE Escalation: Customers retain the ability to transfer any AI agent interaction directly to a live TSE by rejecting the case or commenting in the resolved case that you would like a TSE transfer. Our TSEs will take over and manually assist you by using our standard support process. Section 3: Frequently asked questions Which cases are eligible for ServiceNow AI capabilities? Not all cases are eligible for AI agent troubleshooting on a customer’s instance, even where consent is provided. For example: High-impact and urgent issues —such as Priority 1 (P1) and Priority 2 (P2) support cases, platform outages, performance degrada tion, and stuck notification events—are automatically routed directly to TSEs for manual investigation. Generic cases, such as cases that do not require instance access, are part of ServiceNow AI capabilities.

Do I need to provide consent each time ServiceNow uses AI capabilities?

No. You do not need to provide consent for each AI agent or tool is used. Most often, we will provide transparency disclosures informing you of our AI use. However, we will request your consent if an AI agent will have automated access into your instance or if a TSE is using an AI tool within your instance, which contains your Customer Data.

Is providing consent mandatory?

No. Providing your consent is optional, and if you choose to decline consent or later opt- out, your case will be handled through our standard troubleshooting by a TSE. You may opt-out of consent at any time by opting out via the case form or commenting in the case that you want the case to be handled by a TSE.

In some cases, we may still utilize AI capabilities to troubleshoot your case, however we will do so without accessing your instance.

Can I withdraw consent later?

Yes. You can withdraw consent at any time during the case life cycle by opting out via case form by clicking on [ Revoke AI Agent Consent ].

What happens when I grant consent to ServiceNow AI capabilities — w ill AI agents or Customer Support team review my case?

When you consent to ServiceNow AI capabilities, both automated AI agents and tools, and TSEs may review your case, depending on the severity of the issue and the type of access granted. In some cases, an AI agent may perform automated diagnostics and propose fixes for your review—and in other cases, a case may require human intervention, where the TSE will review the AI's diagnostic findings and continue troubleshooting your case directly. For more details, please see Section 4.

What if I don’t want to interact with an AI agent at all, even if it doesn't access my instance?

We respect your preference for human-led support by our TSEs. If an AI agent initiates a case session or response, you can easily transfer your case to a TSE at any time by rejecting the case or commenting in the resolved case that you would like a TSE transfer. Our TSEs will take over and assist you manually through our standard support process.

Does consent to AI capabilities allow AI agents to change my configuration?

No. The current consent scope covers analysis, diagnosis and troubleshooting. AI agents don’t make configuration changes within your instance. If a fix requires a configuration change, this is flagged to a TSE, who will coordinate with you before any change is made.

What are the advantages of providing consent?

Providing consent enables faster analysis, diagnosis, and resolution of your case. Your instance configuration remains unchanged, and there's no data leakage — all access is governed by ServiceNow's Data Privacy rules.

How long does AI agents retain access to my instance?

Access is temporary. AI agents have the instance access only during investigating the issue to generate the resolution.

What kind of issues can AI agents resolve?

AI agents are designed to help diagnose, and where applicable, resolve issues that don't require a change to your instance's configuration — for example, identifying a root cause from logs or confirming whether a configuration or ACL setup or property setting is the source of an issue.

What happens if the issue requires a configuration change?

AI agents document their findings and escalates the case to a TSE, who reviews the recommended fix and works with you before applying any change.

Will I be notified of what AI agents found or did?

Yes. Findings, analysis, and any recommended next steps are recorded on your case and visible to you.

Is my Instance data used to train AI models?

No. Your instance data accessed during troubleshooting is used strictly to diagnose and resolve your active support case. Your data is never used to train ServiceNow models or public Large Language Models, nor is your data shared with third parties for model training purposes.

We also ensure that the Customer’s PII data is not shared with LLM’s.

Section 4: What do AI agents do once I provide consent? Once consent is granted, if your issue is specific to your instance’s configuration, AI agents may perform temporary, diagnostic activities on your instance, including: Few examples are below:

Diagnostic Activity

Description

ACL Configuration Validation

Reviews Access Control List (“ ACL ”) rules relevant to the reported issue to check for misconfigurations, conflicting rules, or access restrictions causing the reported behavior.

Application Installation Checks

Verifies that required applications, plugins, or store apps are correctly installed, activated, and compatible with your instance version. Identifies and resolves Application Sync, Dependency, and Indexing issues.

Log Analysis

Collects and analyzes relevant system, transaction, and error logs to identify the root cause of the issue.

Configuration Review

Examines relevant configuration records tied to the reported issue to identify anomalies compared to expected or default platform behavior.

Related Article: KB2709990 SNC Access: KB1001627

Data and privacy Access granted through this consent is used strictly to resolve the reported case. For details on how your data is handled, refer to the ServiceNow Privacy Statement .