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Operational Considerations for Service Assistant
Review the Adaptive Experience and the operational changes that most affect how you set up and run Service Assistant.
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As of July 21, 2026, Service Assistant is a proactive AI agent that actively monitors the case or messaging session record and orchestrates a set of agent functions that help your service reps resolve the record in real time. See the Release Notes.
Service Assistant provides step-by-step resolution guidance in real time through service plans that are grounded in your company data. In addition, Service Assistant offers agent capabilities that provide additional resolution assistance.
Together, the service plans and capabilities Service Assistant provides make up the Adaptive Experience, and they come together in the Service Assistant component. The component shows as a panel on the record page and serves as the rep's record workspace with a component feed.
Whether you're setting up Service Assistant for the first time or you set it up before this change, this article gives you a general outline of the new experience and the operational changes you can expect. It collects the operational details that most affect how you set up and run Service Assistant, so you have them in one place. Each point is also covered in its respective area of the documentation.
Permissions and Licensing
Service Assistant requires two add-on licenses: the Service Planner Add-On and the Service Assistant Adaptive Experience Add-On. Both are included with the Agentforce for Service or Agentforce 1 add-ons.
The Service Planner Add-On provides access to the basic service experience: guidance plans and their supported features. The real-time Service Assistant experience and agent chat aren't included with this license. To access the real-time, conversational experience, you need the Service Assistant Adaptive Experience Add-On. See Service Assistant Permissions.
General Considerations
Service Assistant now supports two plan types.
- A guidance plan is a static, checklist-style plan that a service rep drafts and redrafts. Guidance plans are supported for cases only (left image).
- A dynamic plan is a real-time, conversational plan that adapts each step to the evolving record data. Dynamic plans are supported for cases and messaging sessions (right image).
For Service Assistant for Case, certain features available for guidance plans aren't available for dynamic plans. These features include similar cases and quick actions. In dynamic plans, agent actions replace quick actions, and similar cases aren't supported. See Service Plans and Extend Service Assistant for Case.
Service Assistant for Messaging provides additional features, such as Service Replies. See Messaging Features.
You can use Service Assistant for Case and Messaging at the same time. You can use your agents and configurations across both objects.
Tasks for Existing Service Assistant Implementations
If you're an existing customer from before the release of the new experience, you must select your plan type for cases from the Service Assistant Setup page. Your existing configurations for your subagents, data libraries, and other features stay in place and are used for both plan types. You don't need to create a new agent or otherwise modify your configurations. However, you can turn on only one plan type at a time. You can switch between the plan types, and all your feature configurations and grounding sources are used across plan types.
If you set up Service Assistant before this change, complete these steps.
- Confirm your default agent. If you created an agent before June 30, 2025, that agent is set as the default automatically. Confirm the assignment in the Set Up Your Agent Assignment section of the Service Assistant Setup page. The default agent assignment applies to both case and messaging. See General Feature Considerations.
- Select your plan type for cases in the Define Service Plan User Experience section of the Case tab on the Service Assistant Setup page. See Set Up Service Assistant for Case.
- Add the General CRM and FAQ subagents to your existing agents. These subagents power the agent chat, where service reps ask questions, run actions, and work through plan steps with Service Assistant. The agent chat is available for both guidance and dynamic plans. See Agent Chat for Service Assistant.
Service Assistant Component and Feed
The Service Assistant component now functions as the service rep's record workspace. It has an agent chat box and a component feed. The feed is where Service Assistant surfaces the service plan steps, agent actions, and capabilities such as Case Catch-Up & Insights and Service Replies. In the chat box, service reps get on-demand help from Service Assistant, such as knowledge lookups or agent actions.
- The service plan first shows a summary plan: a short summary of the record and a list of high-level steps to resolve the case or session. Service Assistant generates the summary plan from all your grounding sources, knowledge resources, and subagent instructions. The summary plan is the outline for the full service plan, so Service Assistant builds every step from it, and the quality of your grounding sources shapes the whole plan.
- All capabilities appear as collapsible cards in the component feed.
- Service Assistant is grounded in the component feed. It has the context of the full service plan, the chat between the service rep and Service Assistant, and any other capabilities surfaced in the component. Service reps can use the chat to ask about information from the other capabilities.
- Service reps use the agent chat to ask questions, run actions, and work through plan steps with Service Assistant.
- To use the agent chat with both dynamic and guidance plans, you must add the General CRM and FAQ subagents to your agent. Existing customers must add these subagents to their existing agents.
- The service plan card isn't fixed in the component. It's embedded in the feed and can appear anywhere in it, and you can't pin it to the top. For example, if a service rep asks questions in the chat before the service plan card appears, the feed history starts and the plan card appears after those items. If you turn on Case Catch-Up & Insights or Service Replies, those cards can appear before the service plan card.
- The service plan steps don't include context from other capabilities. The plan operates independently of the capabilities in the component.
- When a case is closed or a messaging session ends, the Service Assistant component is disabled and the chat box is turned off. Posts remain saved in the component feed.
Find more complete details in these articles.
Plan Generation and Behavior
- Service Assistant generates the summary plan when the record loads, not when the case or messaging session is created. The summary plan can take up to 1 minute to appear, and there's no indicator in the component that a summary is generating. This behavior is expected.
- Service reps start the plan by selecting Draft Plan for a guidance plan or Start Plan for a dynamic plan. After a service rep starts the plan, full plan generation can take up to 2 minutes.
- The plan follows the order of the summary plan. If a service rep answers a later step's question while working an earlier step, the plan doesn't skip ahead. The steps still appear in the summary order. This behavior is expected.
- For messaging sessions, the summary plan can be long and detailed, sometimes more than 8 bullet points. This behavior is expected.
- Any chat message that a service rep enters before the summary plan generates isn't factored into plan generation or into the plan after it starts. To advance the plan, a service rep's responses need to clearly reflect that a step is complete. Informational questions in the chat don't mark a step as complete, so Service Assistant keeps the current step in place. For example, if the first step is to verify the customer's identity and the service rep asks, "How do I verify this customer's identity?", that's an informational question. Service Assistant doesn't treat the step as done, so it keeps the first step in place. If the service rep instead enters, "I verified the customer's identity," that response reflects a completed step, so Service Assistant factors it in and generates the next step.
- For dynamic plans, Service Assistant is an active agent that monitors the entire lifecycle of the record and updates the plan steps in real time.
- For cases, how Service Assistant handles a case update depends on the type of update.
- A new case email updates the current step instantly, in real time.
- Updates to the case description or grounding fields are tracked but don't update the current step. Service Assistant incorporates them when it creates the next step, after the current step is complete.
- For messaging sessions, Service Assistant generates new plan steps only when a new message comes in.
- Service Assistant keeps monitoring the record after the first plan generates, so it
adapts as the customer's intent changes.
- Service Assistant assigns a subagent to the record based on the customer's original intent and grounds the plan in that subagent and its sources, such as knowledge articles.
- When the customer's intent changes mid-plan, Service Assistant detects the new intent and can switch to another subagent to guide resolution.
- When the second subagent resolves the new intent, Service Assistant switches back automatically to the originally assigned subagent.
- Sometimes Service Assistant doesn't switch back automatically. The service rep uses the chat to redirect it, such as "Let's go back to the original issue."
Find more complete details in these articles.
Grounding Behavior
Cases
- Service Assistant monitors the entire case lifecycle and grounds the plan in your case data through Service AI Grounding.
- You select the fields and objects to ground on. The subject and description are required, and they're the only data Service Assistant uses to assign a subagent to the record. The summary plan and full service plan are grounded in content from all grounding fields and objects you set, in addition to subagent instructions and knowledge articles.
- Existing Service AI Grounding configurations work as is for both guidance plans with chat and dynamic plans. Dynamic plans use the data more intelligently to generate real-time step updates.
- Service plans aren't grounded in the content of Case Catch-Up & Insights.
- When the plan is grounded on case emails, Service Assistant checks for new emails and updates the current in-progress step. Real-time updates to the current step apply only to case emails. Case comments, the case feed, and other Service AI Grounding fields apply only to the next step, not the current one.
Messaging Sessions
- Service Assistant starts on a messaging session only when all of these conditions are
met.
- The session owner must be a human service rep. If the owner is a queue or a bot, Service Assistant doesn't process the record or generate the summary plan.
- The session meets your eligibility criteria.
- The conversation has at least 5 total messages.
- Service Assistant monitors the entire session lifecycle until the session ends. All service plan steps are generated based on the context of each message in the chat.
- Service Assistant draws context only from the active session, the transcript, and the
MessagingSessionId.
- Service Assistant doesn't access previous sessions, even when they're linked to the same conversation record.
- Service Assistant processes only text, not file uploads, images, or choice responses.
- To bring in related record data, build an Apex agent action that takes MessagingSessionId as input and queries the EndUserContactId or MessagingEndUserId field on the Messaging Session record. See Grounding Service Assistant with Agent Actions.
- Specific permissions are required for Service Assistant for Messaging. See Service Assistant for Messaging Permissions.
- The ServicePlanner User (agent user) requires app and object access to the Messaging Session object through an Agent Messaging Access custom permission set.
- Service reps have access to a service plan for a messaging session with the Service Planner User permission set.
- Service reps, the ServicePlanner User, and the Salesforce admin require access to the Messaging Session eligibility flow through a Messaging Eligibility Flow Access custom permission set. The eligibility flow doesn't run using the ServicePlanner User's Run Flows app permission.
Find more information in these articles.
Knowledge Grounding
- There are no changes to setup or permissions for knowledge grounding in the new
experience. For customers with an active Service Assistant agent before July 22, 2026,
your Adaptive Document Library configuration works as is.
- No additional permissions or changes to your permissions configuration are required.
- Your single data library can be assigned to multiple agents.
- You can create multiple data libraries and assign them to different agents.
- A single library can be used for Service Assistant for Case and Messaging.
- Service Assistant currently certifies use of only the Knowledge data type. Although you can still use other data types, such as custom retrievers, we don't provide configuration guidelines.
- When you set up Knowledge for the Adaptive Document Library, the ServicePlanner User's custom permission set needs Read and View access to every data category that an article is assigned to, not just the data categories you select in the Adaptive Document Library. If Service Assistant can't access a data category that's assigned to an article, the article doesn't surface in the plan. Grant the agent user access to all data categories in your knowledge base.
- Citations are shown differently in guidance and dynamic plans. In guidance plans, all citations appear in a single Sources section at the bottom of the component, and an article used in multiple steps keeps the same citation number. In dynamic plans, steps are created in real time as each step is presented to the service rep, and each step has its own Sources section, so the same article can appear under a different citation number from one step to the next.
- If a knowledge article cited in a service plan is deleted after the plan is drafted, behavior depends on the plan type. In guidance plans, the citation number is removed from the step and the article is removed from the Sources section, but the content already in the steps stays. If the rep redrafts the plan, that content is omitted. In dynamic plans, this behavior doesn't apply because reps can't restart a dynamic plan. The content from the deleted article stays cited in the existing steps, and no new steps are created from it.
- If a knowledge article cited in a service plan is archived after the plan is drafted, behavior depends on the plan type. In guidance plans, the citation and article stay listed. If the rep redrafts the plan, the citation is removed from the step and the Sources section, and the steps originally created from that article are removed. In dynamic plans, the existing steps and citations stay in the plan, and no new steps are created from the archived article.
Find more complete details in these articles.
General Feature Considerations
Multiple Agents
- To route records to different agents, build an autolaunched flow that receives an input variable with the case record ID and returns an output variable with the API name of the agent to assign. There's no flow template.
- You must create an input variable that receives the record ID and an output variable with the API name of the agent to assign to the record.
- Define your assignment conditions in the Outcome properties of the decision element. Route records by conditions such as record type, record origin, related records, and custom fields.
- You must set a default agent in the Set Up Your Agent Assignment section of the Setup
page. This step is required even when you use only one agent. All records that meet your
eligibility criteria are assigned the default agent.
- If you created an agent before June 30, 2025, that agent is set as the default automatically.
- The same default agent can be used across objects.
- You need to assign only a default agent. Creating and assigning a multi-agent routing flow isn't mandatory. You need a routing flow only when you want to route specific agents to specific records. The single agent is assigned to all records that meet your eligibility criteria.
- Don't use your eligibility flow for the multi-agent routing flow.
- Every object requires its own multi-agent routing flow.
- When you first set up Service Assistant, create one agent and test it as the default agent to confirm the basic functionality. Then create multiple agents and build your flow. If you have multiple agents but don't set up a flow, the default agent is used for every record that meets your eligibility criteria.
Find more details in these articles.
Agent Actions
- Standard and custom Agentforce actions are supported. There aren't prebuilt actions for Service Assistant.
- How actions run depends on the plan type. In guidance plans for cases, actions run only when a service rep asks for them through the chat. In dynamic plans for cases and messaging sessions, Service Assistant surfaces actions automatically by matching them to plan steps.
- When you reference an action in subagent instructions, use the action label, not the API name. The API name causes errors that prevent plan generation.
- To use record data in an action, add the currentRecordId context variable to your action's inputs. You must create this variable manually. See Grounding with Context Variables.
- After an action completes, Service Assistant can pause instead of moving to the next step. To prevent this behavior, tell the agent to proceed in the subagent instructions. For example: "After the travel record details are provided, immediately go to the next step."
- Action output data isn't currently used to ground later steps.
- All actions run under the ServicePlanner User's permissions. Grant the ServicePlanner User access to all Apex classes, flows, objects, and fields that the action relies on.
- Actions that run and execute automatically are unmetered. If a service rep runs an action manually or asks to execute an action through the chat, the service rep needs the Unmetered User Based AI permission.
Capabilities Considerations
Service Assistant supports capabilities that extend its resolution assistance beyond a service plan. The capabilities are optional. They appear alongside the service plan and are independent of the service plan. This independence means that Service Assistant doesn't have the context of a capability's output, and a capability has no context of the plan steps. Service Assistant isn't grounded in Service Replies or in the content of Case Catch-Up & Insights.
Case Catch-Up & Insights (Case only)
- Case Catch-Up & Insights gives service reps a 360-degree view of the customer and case in one card, with four sections: Engagement Summary, Opening Sentiment, Account Summary, and Analytics. Analytics includes a case health score from 0 to 100.
- It's a standalone capability. You don't need to complete the general Service Assistant setup or create an agent. It requires only that Service Assistant for Case is turned on and the component is added to the case record page.
- If you turn on a service plan, Case Catch-Up & Insights is supported with both guidance and dynamic plans.
- Opening Sentiment requires Customer Signals Intelligence. Analytics requires Customer Signals Intelligence and Service Level Agreements. If either isn't set up, the health score uses only the case data metrics defined in the prompt.
- The card appears automatically and can take up to 1 minute to load. It's generated only once, the first time a service rep opens the case, and it doesn't refresh.
- The card's content is locked at generation based on the permissions of the first service rep who opens the case, and the same content shows to every rep who opens the case later.
Find more details in these articles.
Service Replies (Messaging only)
- Service Replies gives service reps AI-suggested replies during active messaging sessions. The replies appear as cards in the component alongside the service plan.
- Service Replies uses the same configuration and permissions as the general Service Replies feature. If you already have Service Replies configured, turn on Service Replies for Service Assistant on the Service Replies Setup page, and turn on Service Assistant for Messaging on the Service Assistant Setup page. Settings such as prompt templates, data library, and pause behavior are inherited, and there aren't any Service Assistant-specific prompt templates.
- Service Replies start with the customer's first message, before any service plan steps appear.
- Service Replies draw context from one of two grounding paths that you select in Service Replies Setup page: the live messaging conversation through prompts that you configure, or a knowledge article from a configured data library. Only one grounding path is active at a time.
- Service Replies don't receive context from plan steps or the chat feed. Service Assistant doesn't receive context from the replies proposed in the component. But when a service rep posts a reply to the customer, that message becomes part of the transcript, and Service Assistant grounds it as context for the next plan step.
- Both replies and plan steps are proposed as the conversation progresses, and each reply is stored in the component feed. Suggested replies don't collapse automatically. Service reps collapse previous replies manually.
- Service Replies and the Service Assistant agent each use their own data library. You can use the same data library for both or a different one for each.
Find more details in these articles.
