Do you like the Issue Auto-Resolution (IAR) feature for the Virtual Agent, but wish it could support more topics? Now it's possible!

In the Utah release, custom intents for IAR enables customers to add intents beyond the ones that are supported by the out-of-box (OOB) IAR model. Such custom intents need to be added to a dedicated NLU model, separate from the NLU Model used in other applications like Virtual Agent. Follow the installation steps to create and publish an IAR specific model with your custom intents.

Note: Installation of the system property requires MAINT role. Therefore customers requesting this feature will need to raise a NOW Support case so that the system property can be configured on the instance.

Setup Steps for appending Custom Intents via VA/NLU Model intents

1. As a MAINT user, enable custom intents for ITSM-IAR by creating and setting below system property
   
   • glide.nlu.model.purpose.iar.enable to true.
2. Activating this system property will allow the 'NLU Model' field to be available on IAR Configuration page
3. Go to NLU Studio and create a new NLU Model created for Issue Auto Resolution. Note: NLU Studio is no longer accessible via the Navigator as of Vancouver. You can navigate to there by following this link: https://YOUR-INSTANCE.service-now.com/now/nav/ui/classic/params/target/%24nlu-studio.do
   
4. Once the model is created, create the needed custom intents and their utterances in the model manually. For customers that have implemented an NLU model for their Virtual Agent, simply use the same intents by importing them into the new model created for IAR. Be sure to train and publish the model.
5. To make the custom intents available for IAR, go to the Auto-Resolution Configuration page (Settings) and navigate to the 'Machine Learning Model' tab to set the NLU Model field. Select the NLU model by clicking on the NLU Model reference popup to select the model. Here only NLU Models created for Issue Auto Resolution will be available for selection.

Note: In the Utah release, the drop-down list may show sysID or other random field. If you have only one IAR model, it will be the correct one.

6. Once the NLU Model value is set, the intents from the selected NLU Model will be available in the 'Intent to Topic Map' section's Auto-Resolution Intents drop down. In the related list, click "New", and then select the custom intents right below the list separator tagged 'MACHINE GENERATED'

7. Select a virtual agent topic corresponding to the custom intent, and then click Submit.

8. On the main IAR record, save the IAR configuration update. Be sure your desired IAR channel(s) is set to Active.

Now when users raise incidents, when IAR is enabled and configured for such intents, the system will check for an intent to topic match, including the custom intents. If there is a matching intent, the IAR flow will trigger and the user will be able to resolve their issue via IAR.

• As part of the IAR configuration, IAR out-of-box Model and its supported intents can co-exist with the custom NLU Model and intents that are set in the IAR configuration
• The custom NLU Model and intents set in the IAR configuration page need to be separate from the NLU Model and intents used in Virtual Agent Designer. Customers with available tuned intents in their current NLU Model created for Virtual Agent, can use such intents to be imported into the NLU Model created for IAR.

View the original documentation: Issue Auto Resolution for ITSM Virtual Agent