Disclaimer: This article reflects my personal views based on experience with ServiceNow products and does not represent the official position of ServiceNow. For the most up-to-date information on language support, please refer to official ServiceNow documentation and announcements.

 

Enable OOTB unsupported languages in the Now Assist Virtual Agent

ServiceNow Now Assist Virtual Agent supports 23 out-of-the-box languages for translation. If you need a language not included in ServiceNow's language packs, you can add it to the language table and configure Now Assist settings. This article explains how to set up an OOTB unsupported language like Indonesian in the Now Assist Virtual Agent.

 

A. Create a language for OOTB unsupported language

To translate the interface of an instance to a language for which ServiceNow does not provide an internationalization plugin, you must create a language record for a new translation in the Languages [sys_language] table. For more information about the Language table, see Languages table.

 

In this scenario, an Indonesian language entry will be added to the language table based on the below information.

 

ServiceNow OOTB Unsupported Languages

No

|

Language

|

Plugin name

|

ID

|

Required

|
|

1

|

Indonesian

|

Self-Localization

|

id

|

Yes

|

 

Before you begin

Role required: admin

Instance Version: Yokohama Patch 6 or later

 

Procedure

1. Navigate to All > System Localization > Languages.

2. Select New.

1. Enter the form as show below to add Indonesian.

1. Click Submit button.

 

B. Activate Native Translation for Azure OpenAI

Enable multilingual support in Now Assist Admin for Knowledge Management by selecting languages for each AI model provider and activating translation features. Each time you add a language, requeir to configure the Multilingual service. For example, to support Indonesian , we will set up Azure OpenAI accordingly.

 

Procedure

1. Navigate to All > Now Assist Admin > Settings

1. Select Multilingual Service from the left panel

2. Click the Edit button for select the language for Azure OpenAI native translation.

1. Check the Indonesian checkbox.

1. Click the Save button.

 

C. Change the Now Assist model provider to Azure OpenAI

To change the model provider in the Now Assist Admin interface, select a Skill Group and pick your preferred provider from the available options—this will update all related capabilities for that group. You can also edit or customize the model provider at the skill or skill group level by choosing from supported third-party providers, including the default Now LLM Service. Additionally, you have the option to review your organization's model policy and view the history of any changes made. Lean more Manage model provider from the product documentation.

 

Procedure

1. Navigate to All > Now Assist Admin > Settings

2. Select Manage AI models > Manage model providers

3. Click Edit model provider button

1. Select Customize to select the model provider for a particular skill or skill group.

2. Click Edit provider for skill group

3. Select AI Agents to change the model provider for Now Assist in Virtual Agent.

1. Click Save and Activate button.

2. Click Yes, activate button

1. Confirm the current AI agent model provider shown on the screen.

 

D. Add Indonesian to the AI model

From ServiceNow Yokohama Patch 6 release you can configure third-party AI models for the Multilingual support in your instance. Some AI models have language support limitations, as shown in the following table.

If you observe, the Azure OpenAI GPT-4.1 AI Model provider supports all ServiceNow out-of-the-box languages for translation, and it can also handle many additional languages. Find Azure Translation supported languages details information here.

 

In this section, we will set up Indonesian language support for Now Assist Virtual Agent translation.

 

Procedure

1. Type “ sys_generative_ai_model_config.list ” in the navigation filter to open the Generative AI Model configuration table.

1. Filter the list as follows and click Run button.

1. Open the “ gpt_small ” model record and change scope.

1. Click Support Languages Lock icon

2. Search Indonesian and add into Support Languages list

1. Click Update button.

2. Open the “ gpt_large ” model record and add repeat the steps 3-6 Indonesian.

1. Open the “ E5FT ” model record and add repeat the steps 4-6 Indonesian.

 

E. Add Indonesian to the Native Translation Allowed Languages

The Native Translation Allowed Languages table acts as a whitelist that defines which languages are safe and supported for native processing. This table ensures that native processing is only used where quality is guaranteed, otherwise ServiceNow automatically falls back to dynamic. ServiceNow does not guarantee the quality of Indonesian native translations; please verify the translations before use.

 

Procedure

1. Type “ sys_generative_ai_native_translation_langs.list ” in the navigation filter to open the Native Translation Allowed Languages table.

1. Filter the list as follows and click Run button.

1. Open the “ gpt_small ” model record and add Indonesian in the Allowed Languages list.

1. Click Update button.

2. Open the “ gpt_large ” model record and add Indonesian in the Allowed Languages list.

1. Click Update button.

 

F. Re-indexing the knowledge article

The Now Assist Virtual Agent relies on AI Search to locate Knowledge articles. When a new language is enabled in the instance, it is necessary to reindex the Knowledge articles. Therefore, we will follow the steps for indexing articles in Indonesian.

 

Procedure

1. Navigate to All > AI Search > Indexed Sources

2. Search “ Knowledge Table ” in the Name field

1. Open the “ Knowledge Table ” record.

2. Click Index All Tables button

1. Wait for Keywork Ingestion state = Indexed to complete indexing.

Note: Processing may take longer if your instance has many articles.

 

G. Enable a global fallback for AI Search

The default fallback language for ServiceNow is English. By enabling the fallback property for AI Search, users searching for knowledge articles in a non-English language will be able to access English content if their preferred language isn't available. For more information, see the product documentation here.

 

Procedure

1. Navigate to All > System Properties > AI Search

2. Check AI Search Multi-Language Support checkbox.

1. Click Save button.

 

H. Verify Indonesian translation in Now Assist Virtual Agent

Use the Employee Center portal to search and generate responses in Indonesian with the Now Assist Virtual Agent.

 

Testing scenario:

My english article is titled " How do I quit an application that isn't responding?" but it hasn't been translated into Indonesian yet. I plan to search for this article using the Indonesian query “ Bagaimana cara menutup aplikasi yang tidak merespons? ” and I expect Now Assist to provide a responses in Indonesian.

1. Navigate to All > Self-Service > Employee Center

2. Change your user language to Indonesian.

3. Open Now Assist Virtual Agent

4. Enter the text “ Bagaimana cara menutup aplikasi yang tidak merespons? ” and click the arrow icon.

1. Confirm that the prompt originated from an English source and was translated into Indonesian.