Configuring Agentic chat for BMC Helix ITSM

 

BMC Helix ITSM leverages the advanced AI capabilities of BMC HelixGPT to offer users an enhanced search experience. The Full Text Search (FTS)-based global search is augmented with a chat-based search powered by BMC HelixGPT. Instead of manually searching for incidents, change requests, or information from knowledge articles, users can type their specific questions into Agentic chat and get answers.

For example:

  • Instead of manually searching for a knowledge article that contains an asset replacement policy, a service desk agent can type in specific questions and get summarized policy information.
  • Instead of relying on service desk agents to get information about the incidents reported from a specific region during a specific duration, a service desk manager can ask a question and get a real-time list of such incidents.

Related topics

Use case: Leveraging Agentic chat to search for information

Searching for information by using Agentic chat

Adding custom fields as attributes to the semantic model

Troubleshooting Agentic chat

BMC HelixGPT FAQ

To generate responses for the user questions, Agentic chat uses the Service Collaborator AI agent of BMC HelixGPT that autonomously learns and adapts to each user interaction and takes appropriate decisions and actions. Service Collaborator is an LLM-based AI agent that processes natural language inputs and provides intelligent, context-aware responses.

To generate responses for knowledge article-related questions, Agentic chat uses published knowledge articles from the supported knowledge providers as its knowledge source.​​​​​​

To generate responses for questions about incidents or change requests, Agentic chat uses the semantic model configuration to establish the qualification criteria for determining the tickets to be returned in the response.

For more information, see Adding custom fields as attributes to the semantic model.

If you want to enable BMC HelixGPT for an on-premise deployment, see Performing the BMC Helix Service Management installation.

To leverage the BMC HelixGPT capabilities, the BMC Helix IT Service Management application is configured out of the box in BMC HelixGPT Manager. For more information, see Registering an application for BMC HelixGPT Manager.

The following diagram depicts the tasks for configuring Agentic chat for BMC Helix ITSM:

Agentic_Chat_Configuration_WorkFlow.png

Important

Supported knowledge providers

For the BMC Helix IT Service Management application, BMC HelixGPT uses the following knowledge articles, by default, to generate responses for knowledge article-related questions: 

  • Published knowledge articles from BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge Management
  • Knowledge articles associated with closed incidents from BMC Helix ITSM

You can also set BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround as a data source for the BMC Helix IT Service Management application instead of BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge Management. BMC HelixGPT uses published knowledge articles from BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround to generate responses.

Before you begin

Make sure you complete the following tasks before you enable Agentic chat for BMC Helix ITSM.

Important

If you have already performed these tasks to enable the Ask HelixGPT feature for BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk and want to use the same AI provider, model, and data sources, then you only need to associate that model with the Agent in Global Context skill.

If you have opted for the Agentic chat feature but not for the Ask HelixGPT feature, ensure you disable Ask HelixGPT.

For more information about disabling Ask HelixGPT, see Configuring Ask HelixGPT for BMC Helix ITSM.

Product

Task

Reference

BMC Helix Innovation Studio

Ingest data from BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge Management and BMC Helix ITSM into BMC HelixGPT.

If you have set BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround as a data source for the BMC Helix IT Service Management application, ingest its data into BMC HelixGPT.

BMC HelixGPTManager

Obtain the API key from your AI service provider and configure the AI service provider connection in the BMC HelixGPT Manager administrator UI. 

Provisioning and setting up the generative AI provider for your application

BMC HelixGPTManager

In BMC HelixGPT Manager, the following skill is provided out of the box for Agentic chat:

  • Agent in Global Context: To generate an answer when a user asks a question in Agentic chat.

Associate the model you want to use with this out-of-the-box skill for the BMC Helix IT Service Management application in the BMC HelixGPT Manager administrator UI.

By default, the Azure OpenAI GPT-4o (Omni) model is associated with this out-of-the-box skill.

If you want to use a custom skill for Agentic chat, associate a model with the custom skill.

For information about associating a model with a skill, see Creating and managing prompts and Creating and managing skills.

For information about the supported models, see Models in BMC HelixGPT.

BMC HelixGPTManager

Set BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround as a data source for the BMC Helix IT Service Management application.

Perform this task only if you want to use published knowledge articles from BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround instead of BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge Management to generate the responses.

You need not define search filters for BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround because they are predefined.

Important

By default, BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge Management and BMC Helix ITSM are set as data sources for the BMC Helix IT Service Management application. 

If you set BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround as a data source, make sure you remove the association of  BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge Management as a data source for the BMC Helix IT Service Management application.

For information about setting a data source for an application, see Defining knowledge search settings.

To enable Agentic chat for BMC Helix ITSM

  1. On the AR System Configuration Generic UI form, add the enableHelixGPTGlobalChat CCS parameter to the com.bmc.arsys.smartit (*) component.
  2. Set the enableHelixGPTGlobalChat CCS parameter to true.

To set the default mode to global search or Agentic chat

After you enable Agentic chat, you can set the default mode to Agentic chat or global search.

Before you begin

Ensure you have set the enableHelixGPTGlobalChat CCS parameter to true.

  1. On the AR System Configuration Generic UI form, add the helixgptGlobalSearchDefaultMode CCS parameter to the com.bmc.arsys.smartit (*) component.
  2. Set the helixgptGlobalSearchDefaultMode CCS parameter to one of the following options:
    • search: To set the default mode to global search.
    • chat: To set the default mode to Agentic chat.

The default value is search.

​​​​​Skill configuration for Agentic chat

By default, the Agent in Global Context out-of-the-box skill is used for Agentic chat to generate the responses. If you have created a custom skill, you can use it instead of the out-of-the-box skill.

For more information, see Configuring ticket contextual data and custom skill for BMC HelixGPT capabilities.

Custom field configuration in the semantic model for Agentic chat

When a user asks a question about incidents or change requests in Agentic chat, BMC HelixGPT uses the text from the user question and the semantic model configuration to establish the qualification criteria for determining the tickets to be returned in the response.

The semantic model is configured out-of-the-box and contains information about the HPD:HelpDesk, CHG:Infrastructure Change, and CTM:People form schemas. The fields from the HPD:HelpDesk and CHG:Infrastructure Change forms are configured as attributes in the semantic model.

If you have customized the HPD:HelpDesk and CHG:Infrastructure Change forms and created custom fields, you can add the custom fields as attributes to the semantic model.

For more information, see Adding custom fields as attributes to the semantic model.

Result: After Agentic chat is enabled for BMC Helix ITSM

After you enable Agentic chat, you can see the following options:

  • The global search GlobalSearch_without_GPT.pngicon on the BMC Helix ITSM navigation bar is replaced with Global_Search_Sparkles_Icon.png indicating that Agentic chat is enabled for BMC Helix ITSM.
  • Clicking Global_Search_Sparkles_Icon.png displays Chat and Search as toggle options. The default mode displayed depends on the default mode you configure, that is Chat or Search.
    A BMC Helix Innovation Studio-based user interface is displayed for Chat and Search.
  • Clicking Chat opens Agentic chat.
    GPTChat_25.2.png

If Advanced Responsive Navigation bar is enabled and clicking Global_Search_Sparkles_Icon.png does not show the Chat and Search options, ensure you enable the enableHelixGPTGlobalChat CCS parameter.​​

To disable Agentic chat for BMC Helix ITSM

  1. On the AR System Configuration Generic UI form, select the com.bmc.arsys.smartit (*) component.
  2. Set the enableHelixGPTGlobalChat CCS parameter to false.

Result: After Agentic chat is disabled for BMC Helix ITSM

After you disable Agentic chat, you can see the following option:

  • The global search GlobalSearch_without_GPT.pngicon is displayed on the BMC Helix ITSM navigation bar instead of GPT_Search_Icon.png indicating that Agentic chat is disabled for BMC Helix ITSM.
  • Clicking GlobalSearch_without_GPT.pngopens the global search.
    A classic Smart IT-based user interface is displayed for global search.

Classic_Global_Search.png

Limitation of Agentic chat

The date and time in the search records are displayed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) even if you have set the useARUserPreferenceForTimezone CCS parameter to true and configured a user preference time zone.
For example, if you have configured Eastern Standard Time as the user preference time zone, the submit date and time of an incident in the search result is displayed in UTC. 
To view the date and time according to the user preference time zone configuration, users click the record in the Sources area of the search results to preview it.

 

FAQ

Agentic chat does not generate any response even after I have done the required configurations

Possible reasons when searching for information from knowledge articles:

  • A relevant published knowledge article does not exist in the knowledge repository referenced by BMC HelixGPT.
  • A relevant published knowledge article exists, but the logged-in user is not entitled to view the knowledge article.

Possible reasons when searching for incidents or change requests:

  • The logged-in user does not have the required RLS permissions to view the incidents or change requests.

  • The field on which the user question is based is not added as an attribute to the semantic model.

    For example, if you have a custom field named Location in the HPD:HelpDesk form and you do not add the field to the semantic model, then when a user asks a question to search for incidents based on a specific location, a response is not generated.

Agentic chat generates a blank response when using the MS Azure GPT-4 (Omni) model

The token per minute (TPM) rate limit configured for the MS Azure GPT-4 (Omni) model might be reached​​​​​​.

Agentic chat shows incorrect or varied responses when searching for information from knowledge articles

Possible reasons:

  • Response generation depends on many factors such as accuracy of the knowledge articles, model, and prompt configuration. Therefore, the generated responses might vary.
  • BMC HelixGPTdoes not use information present in the attached documents of the knowledge articles for generating responses. Hence, if the information is present in an attached document of a knowledge article, the generated response will not contain the information.

If the knowledge article that is referenced to generate the response contains incorrect or hidden malicious content, the generated response will be incorrect. Knowledge approvers must thoroughly review the knowledge articles before approving them.

Tip

If you want to allow knowledge approvers to review the articles in source HTML format, you can set the isCKEditorSourceEditable CCS parameter to true. For more information, see Setting-configuration-parameters-in-BMC-Helix-ITSM.

The following screenshot shows the Source option that is available on the edit knowledge article screen after you enable the isCKEditorSourceEditable CCS parameter:

IncidentScreen_SourceOption.png

Agentic chat does not generate a response when I search for incidents or change requests by exact date and time

We recommend you search for incidents or change requests by duration instead of date and time.
For example, show me incidents created during the last week.

Can I access the BMC HelixGPT capability for BMC Helix ITSM with suite licenses?

For information about licensing, see Licensing and pricing for BMC HelixGPT.

Where is the BMC Helix ITSM data stored if I plan to use BMC HelixGPT?

For information about data transportation, encryption, and storage, see BMC HelixGPT FAQ and Security and privacy for BMC HelixGPT.

 

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