ServiceNow Yokohama Release: What’s New and How to Prepare

The ServiceNow Yokohama Release introduces powerful new features designed to simplify platform management and enhance productivity.

Whether you’re a developer, administrator, or business leader, this update delivers advanced tools to automate workflows, streamline integrations, and unlock greater value from your data.

From AI-powered agents and query builders to a new data management console, catalog builder, and automated RPA bot generation—the Yokohama release is packed with powerful updates.

In this blog, we’ll highlight the most impactful features so you don’t have to dig through the full release notes. Plus, we’ll share practical tips to help you prepare for a smooth and successful upgrade.

ServiceNow Yokohama Release Highlights—What’s New?

The ServiceNow Yokohama release brings a powerful suite of updates focused on enhancing AI capabilities, simplifying data management, and streamlining application development. Here’s a closer look at the most impactful new features:

AI Agents: Smarter Automation, No Code Required

ServiceNow now offers AI Agents tailored for IT, CRM, HR, and more—capable of autonomously handling tasks with minimal human intervention. Just describe the task in natural language, and the agent gets to work—no coding necessary.

This makes automating repetitive tasks easier and frees up your team for higher-value work. AI Agents integrate seamlessly with existing workflows, and you can extend their capabilities using the Now Assist Skill Kit. For more advanced customization or building new agents from scratch, Agentic Studio is your go-to.

New features to enhance the AI agent experience include:

• Voice Input: Control the Now Assist Panel hands-free—ideal for environments like warehouses or field service.
• Data Control: Choose data storage locations (including local options), manage data retention, and ensure regulatory compliance.
• Multi-turn Q&A: Agents now remember context, making follow-up interactions smoother and more accurate.
• Export Dashboards: Share insights quickly by exporting visualizations directly from AI-assisted conversations.
• AI Agent Orchestrator: Coordinate multiple AI agents to work together. 

AI Guardian 

AI Guardian adds a critical safety layer by monitoring AI interactions in real time. It ensures responsible AI use through:

• Content filtering: Blocks toxic language, misinformation, and sensitive topics.
• Instruction enforcement: Prevents attempts to manipulate AI behavior.
• Compliance protection: Guides users toward safe, approved topics or workflows.

Data Management Console: Centralized Oversight

The new Data Management Console gives admins a centralized view of data storage, usage, and compliance.

Key capabilities:

• Track data growth in real time.
• Set automated rules to archive or delete outdated data.
• Stay compliant with internal and external data policies.

Note: While the Data Management Console provides some quality of life improvements to ServiceNow’s archiving capabilities, the platform is still limited when it comes to handling large-scale or complex archival strategies—such as archiving to external databases.

In such cases, solutions like Perspectium can extend these capabilities by enabling off-platform archiving, improving ServiceNow users’ ability to manage data growth.

Query Builder: Easier, Visual Reporting

The updated Query Builder combines a modern drag-and-drop interface with the classic UI—letting admins build queries more easily.

For example, an admin might need to create a report on employee performance data. With the upgraded Query Builder, they can simply drag and drop data fields like “employee name,” “performance score,” and “team” to create a report.

The visual interface also provides live previews, so the admin can instantly see if the query results match their expectations. Admins can switch between the classic and modern interfaces based on their comfort level.

Note: While these improvements greatly enhance in-platform reporting, they won’t replace best-in-class business intelligence or analytics tools.

Organizations looking to integrate ServiceNow data into enterprise-grade reporting platforms like Tableau, Power BI, or Snowflake will need a data replication and integration solution like Perspectium, that ensures scalable, real-time data replication with minimal performance impact.

Catalog Builder: Faster, More Accessible Item Creation

The enhanced Catalog Builder simplifies catalog item creation with a step-by-step visual interface. It ensures consistency across items and now includes improved multi-language support for global teams.

ServiceNow Studio: Unified, AI-Powered Development

ServiceNow Studio provides a unified development environment powered by Now Assist. Developers can now create applications using natural language—no code required.

Highlights:

• Define tables, roles, and permissions using simple prompts.
• Build and customize RPA bots to automate tasks like invoice processing.
• Make adjustments and regenerate bots easily until they match your needs.

How to Prepare for the ServiceNow Yokohama Release?

Upgrading to the ServiceNow Yokohama Release offers significant improvements—but preparation is essential. Taking the right steps beforehand helps ensure a smooth transition, avoids disruptions, and keeps your platform optimized.

1. Back Up Your Data: Protect What Matters

Before any upgrade, backing up your instance is critical. While ServiceNow provides native backup capabilities, these may not meet every organization’s needs—especially when it comes to flexibility, granularity, or recovery speed.

ServiceNow’s default approach does not allow users to create their own backups on-demand, or control the backup schedule and/or frequency. Restoring from a ServiceNow backup is all-or-nothing as there is no support for partial restoration.

The process is also time consuming, requiring users to create a support ticket and engage in several rounds of communication before the restoration even begins. During restoration, the instance is taken offline. 

For smaller or less complex instances, these issues may be manageable. But for larger organizations with more strict RPO and RTO objectives, it’s wise to consider a more robust backup strategy.

Solution Highlight:
Perspectium DataSync Snapshot enables self-service backups and restores—directly within ServiceNow, with zero downtime. You can set your own backup schedule, backup on-demand, recover individual records or restore in full, customize the content of backups, and retain backups indefinitely to meet compliance requirements. 

2. Archive Old Data: Keep Your Platform Clean & Lean

Archiving outdated or inactive records is a smart move before upgrading. Accumulated stale data can degrade performance and inflate storage costs. Regular archiving helps keep your system agile and responsive.

However, ServiceNow does not support archiving the platform’s data externally. To truly take advantage of archiving and reduce your database footprint, and off-platform archiving solution is required.

Off-Platform Archiving Option:

Offloading inactive data to external repositories—such as cloud storage or data lakes—improves performance while reducing ServiceNow storage usage.

Perspectium’s Data Archive for ServiceNow supports secure, standards-compliant, off-platform data archiving, making it easy to move non-essential data out of ServiceNow —where storage is more cost-efficient—without losing access or control.

3. Consolidate P2P Integrations: Simplify & Scale

Many organizations rely on multiple Point-to-Point (P2P) integrations to move data between systems. But as these integrations multiply, they can create maintenance overhead, data inconsistencies, and reduced visibility. 

When upgrading, they become another point of failure that increases risk, and the amount of regression testing required. 

Why Consolidate Now?
Upgrading is a natural checkpoint to simplify your architecture. Replacing scattered P2P connections with a centralized data replication solution reduces complexity and enhances data integrity across your ecosystem.

Recommended Approach:
Tools like Perspectium provide a single source of truth by replicating ServiceNow data in real time across systems—without the need to reengineer your architecture. This streamlines data flow, increases reliability, and reduces operational burden.

Upgrade with Confidence: Make the Most of ServiceNow Yokohama

Upgrading to the ServiceNow Yokohama Release is a powerful opportunity to enhance your platform’s performance, automation, and user experience. But to get the most from this release—and avoid unnecessary disruptions—careful planning is essential.

From backing up your data to archiving outdated records and streamlining integrations, the steps outlined in this guide help ensure your upgrade is smooth, secure, and successful.

While smaller environments may manage this process internally, more complex organizations often benefit from expert guidance.

Professionals who specialize in ServiceNow upgrades can help you avoid common pitfalls, ensure compliance with data regulations, and make the transition faster and more efficient.

With the right preparation and support, you’ll be well-positioned to take full advantage of the ServiceNow Yokohama release—unlocking new capabilities while keeping your system lean and reliable.

Upgrade with Confidence—We’re Here to Help

Upgrading doesn’t have to mean stress or downtime. At Perspectium, we specialize in optimizing ServiceNow environments before, during, and after upgrades.

From advanced backup and restore to intelligent archiving and seamless data integrations, we’ll help you reduce risk, accelerate performance, and simplify your upgrade journey.

Contact us and let’s talk about how we can make your Yokohama upgrade a success.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What should I do before upgrading to ServiceNow Yokohama?

Before upgrading, it’s essential to:

• Back up your data.
• Archive outdated or inactive records.
• Review and streamline your integrations.

These steps help reduce system clutter, prevent data loss, and ensure a more efficient upgrade process. If you’re unsure how to approach any of these, partnering with experts can ensure best practices are followed—especially in complex environments.

2. Can I handle the backup and archiving tasks on my own?

If your instance is relatively simple and lightly customized, yes, you can often handle these tasks internally using native ServiceNow features.
However, ServiceNow’s out-of-the-box backup and archiving tools have limitations:

• Backups are typically instance-wide, with limited granularity or self-service recovery options.
• Archiving is confined to the platform, with no native support for off-platform or external storage.

For environments with regulatory requirements, complex data models, or performance constraints, it’s advisable to use third-party tools like Perspectium, which offer more flexible and scalable options.

3. How do I know if I need external support for the upgrade?

You should consider external support if:

• Your environment includes multiple integrations (especially point-to-point).
• You have custom workflows, apps, or heavy scripting.
• Your data volume is large or needs to be replicated off-platform.
• You have compliance requirements (e.g., HIPAA, GDPR, SOX) affecting data handling.

Expert partners can help validate upgrade readiness, identify risks, and ensure smooth execution with minimal downtime.

4. What happens if I don’t prepare for the upgrade properly?

Inadequate preparation can lead to:

• System slowness or timeouts.
• Data inconsistencies or loss.
• Integration failures.
• Downtime affecting business continuity.

You may also miss out on new features if your configurations aren’t compatible with updated modules. Preparation is key to a successful, low-risk upgrade.

5. When is the right time to back up my ServiceNow data before an upgrade?

At minimum, you should back up your system immediately before an upgrade or patch. Ideally, your organization should already be creating regular backups on the lead up to a planned upgrade. 

For ongoing protection:

• Daily backups are recommended for dynamic environments.
• Weekly may suffice for smaller or less active instances.

If you’re using a solution like Perspectium, you can schedule full, or partial backups, and even backup on-demand for even more protection and faster recovery.