
What's a ServiceNow 'Assist'? A Quick Guide.
You’ve probably heard about Now Assist and its AI features. But you might also be hearing the term “assist.” What is it? Let’s break it down.
So, What’s an “Assist”?
An “assist” is the unit used to measure how much your team uses the generative AI skills within Now Assist. Think of it as a credit that gets used each time someone performs an AI-powered action on the platform.
The main point of assists is to have a clear way to track the consumption of these AI features. This helps you manage your usage and understand which AI tools are getting the most use.
How Do You Use Assists?
You use assists whenever someone on your team executes a Now Assist skill. This could be a single action or a more complex workflow.
The number of assists used depends on the complexity of the task. Here’s how it generally works:
- Simple Actions: Things like generating a summary for a case or incident, creating resolution notes, or getting a quick answer from AI Search usually cost one assist per action.
- More Involved Actions: More complex tasks use more assists. For example, generating an agile story from a multi-turn conversation might use five assists. A multi-turn chat in Virtual Agent to order something from the catalog could use ten assists.
- Complex Generation Tasks: Some of the bigger generation capabilities consume a higher number of assists. A simple agentic workflow might use 25 assists, while a more complex one for a major incident could be 150 assists. Generating a new application or user experience can also consume a significant number of assists.
How Assist Usage is Counted
The way assists are counted is pretty straightforward.
All the assists your company is entitled to are pooled at the account level. This means the assists are shared across all your instances, including production and sub-production environments. And yes, this means any testing you do in a sub-prod instance will consume assists from the same central pool.
Usage is tracked on a rolling 365-day basis.
How to Keep Track of Your Usage
You’re not left in the dark about how many assists are being used.
If you are on the Washington release or newer, you can track your Now Assist usage through a dashboard in Subscription Management. This dashboard shows you the total assists purchased, used, and what you have available. It also breaks down usage by skill, which is helpful for seeing which features are popular.
Getting Started with AI Starter Packs
For teams looking to get started, there are AI Starter Packs. Each pack comes with an annual entitlement of assists.
Here’s the thing, ServiceNow has an adoption incentive to help you get more value. If you use up all the assists from your starter pack within the first 6 months, you get a promotional pack with 500,000 additional assists at no charge. This bonus pack is good for one year.
And if you happen to buy starter packs for multiple products, the assists from all of them are combined. If you use that total number of assists within 6 months, you get the promotional pack for each of the starter packs you purchased.
The Bottom Line
So that’s the deal with assists. It’s a measurement system to help you track and manage your AI usage in ServiceNow. By checking the dashboard, you can get a clear picture of what’s being used and make smarter decisions for your team.