Work Order Task Summarization in ServiceNow Otto for Field Service Management gives technicians and dispatchers a quick summary of a task’s issue, affected products, part requirements, and questionnaire responses. A common request is to include your own data in that summary, such as a custom priority field or details from the parent Work Order.

 

You can do this by cloning the skill, adding the fields to its input configuration, and adding an Additional Details section to the prompt. This article walks through each step.

Applies to: All currently supported releases

 

Before and after

Out of the box, the summary covers a fixed set of sections. Custom fields and parent Work Order details aren’t included.

[Figure 1: Summary_before]The out-of-the-box summary in the ServiceNow Otto panel

 

After you complete the steps in this article, a new Additional Details section shows the fields you’ve added.

[Figure 2: Summary_after]

The customized summary showing customer priority, parent work order description, and parent work order number

 

Why a script change is needed

When a user selects Summarize, the platform builds a payload from the task record. Any custom fields you add to the cloned skill are passed in the other_fields object of that payload. The Script Include FSMTaskSummarizeUtils then reformats the payload before it goes to the LLM. By default, it clears other_fields at the start of the reformatPayload function and adds back only questionnaire data, which means your fields are dropped. Step 1 removes that reset.

Note: Step 1 modifies an out-of-the-box Script Include. This is the current recommended approach. The change will appear as a skipped record during upgrades, so review it after each upgrade. This article will be updated if a future release changes this behavior.

What you need

• Admin access to AI Admin Hub and Now Assist Skill Kit
• Your custom field already created on the Work Order Task (wm_task) table
• A test Work Order Task with the custom field populated and a parent Work Order set

Step 1: Update the Script Include

1. Go to System Definition > Script Includes and open FSMTaskSummarizeUtils (sn_fsm_gen_ai.FSMTaskSummarizeUtils).
2. In the reformatPayload function, find newPayload.other_fields = {};
3. Comment it out: // newPayload.other_fields = {};
4. Select Update.

[Figure 3: Script_Include]

The other_fields reset commented out in reformatPayload

Step 2: Clone the skill

1. In AI Admin Hub , go to Skills > Customer > FSM.
2. On Work Order Task Summarization , select the three-dot menu and choose Make a copy.
3. Name your skill and select Save and continue.

Once your copy is active, the original skill becomes inactive.

[Figure 4: Make_a_copy]

The Make a copy option on the Work Order Task Summarization skill

Step 3: Choose your templates

The skill has a template for each task state: New , Work in Progress , and Closed. Tasks are summarized using the template for their current state, so customize each one where you want the extra fields to show.

[Figure 5: Templates]

Selecting a task-state template

Step 4: Add your fields

1. Select Add additional input field.
2. Pick your fields from the drop-down. Custom fields on the Work Order Task table appear here automatically. Custom fields added to an out-of-the-box table use the u_ prefix in their column name, for example u_customer_priority.
3. For parent Work Order fields, select Parent and dot-walk to the field you need, for example Parent > Short description.
4. Add a clear description for each field. The LLM uses it to understand and label the field, so be specific.

Field	Description example
Customer Priority (custom)	The customer-stated priority of this work order task
Parent	The number of the parent work order
Parent > Short description	The short description of the parent work order

1. Select Save and continue.

[Figure 6: Input_fields]

Custom and parent work order fields added with descriptions

Step 5: Update the prompt

1. Select Edit prompt to open Now Assist Skill Kit.
2. Under Manage prompt , select Clone prompt , name it, and select Add.
3. Add this section to the prompt’s output sections:

 

-Additional Details
  List every attribute present in {{other_fields.all_remaining_attributes}}, one by one,
  with no exceptions. For each attribute, state its value using its description to
  label it, for example the parent work order number and the parent work order
  description. You must include the work order number and work order description
  verbatim even if they seem similar to the Issue. Do not summarize away, merge, or
  omit any attribute. If there are truly no attributes, return "N/A". Return only a
  string for this section.

1. Select Save , set it as the default prompt, then Finalize and Publish.

Note: Your cloned skill continues to receive out-of-the-box updates, but your custom prompt does not, since you own it. To pick up prompt improvements in a future release, re-apply your changes on top of the updated out-of-the-box prompt.

[Figure 7: Prompt]

The Additional Details section added to the cloned prompt

Step 6: Test and activate

1. Back on the skill, open your test Work Order Task and select Run test.
2. Check that the summary includes an Additional Details section with your fields.
3. Select Save and continue through the remaining steps, then save the skill.
4. Open another Work Order Task, select Summarize , and confirm the new section appears.

[Figure 8: Test_result]

Test output with the Additional Details section

 

Have questions or a use case you’d like to share? Drop it in the comments.

---