What’s New in the ServiceNow Zurich Release (2025)

Posted on August 22, 2025 Virtuxient Technologies

If you’re a ServiceNow enthusiast, you probably know that the release of a new version is always an exciting time. The ServiceNow Zurich release is packed with new features and improvements. Zurich is a significant release for a couple of reasons: it’s the final alphabetical release name, and it marked a special moment for the ServiceNow community.

So, without further ado, let’s dive into it and see what’s been enhanced.

New Analytics and User Experience Tools

One of the first things you’ll notice in Zurich is its greater emphasis on analytics and user experience. ServiceNow has introduced a new User Experience Analytics (UXA), which offers a built-in dashboard for admins to monitor user interactions with the platform. You can see:

• Page views and user views: See which pages are most popular.
• Average duration and load time: Identify performance bottlenecks.
• Top five events: Understand the most common user actions.

This feature is a built-in reporting tool that gives you a quick snapshot of user behavior. It’s a great way for admins and platform owners to understand how the instance is being used.

Another new addition for user experience is the Performance Analyzer. While the Usage Analytics Homepage focuses on user behavior, the Performance Analyzer focuses on the technical performance of your instance. It offers a “waterfall” view of request flows, allowing you to see the execution sequence and identify areas of slowness. This is a powerful tool for platform owners and architects to analyze and optimize system performance, ensuring a smooth experience for all users.

Aesthetic and Functional Upgrades

A central theme in this release is the Coral Theme. ServiceNow has a history of revamping its user interface (UI), from UI16 to Polaris, and now to Coral. This new theme brings a fresh look to the platform, with a lighter color palette and a clean visual. The changes extend to how you interact with the platform.

The Theme Builder has also received significant upgrades, making it a powerful tool for customizing your instance. With the new version of Theme Builder, you can:

• Add custom fonts: Organizations can now incorporate their brand’s specific fonts into their ServiceNow instance, a long-requested feature.
• Accessibility checks: ServiceNow is heavily promoting accessibility, and now the Theme Builder includes an accessibility checker that highlights potential issues with your custom themes, helping you ensure your platform is usable for everyone.
• Easily publish Coral Theme: You can now publish the new Coral Theme directly from the Theme Manager, making it easy to adopt the latest look and feel.

Developer and Admin Enhancements

The ServiceNow Studio is also now available as a default installation with the ServiceNow AI Platform, meaning you no longer need to download it separately from the store. This streamlines the setup process for new instances and makes the developer environment more accessible.

Another valuable update is to Scheduled Jobs. ServiceNow has added new run types that give you greater control over scheduling. You can now schedule jobs to run on specific days of the month or even on a particular day of the week within a month. This new flexibility eliminates the need for complex workarounds for specific scheduling requirements.

The Clone Admin Console has also been enhanced, giving admins more power to manage their clones. You can now configure the preservation of in-process update sets for up to 12 minutes before a clone, which is a great way to safeguard your work.

Improved Service Portal and Operational Tools

The Service Portal has also received some love, particularly for developers focused on performance. A new “clock” icon in the Widget Designer allows you to defer the loading of widgets. This means you can choose only to load a widget when it comes into the user’s viewport, significantly improving the initial load time of your portal pages. You can also specify the device type (desktop, tablet, or mobile) to which this behavior applies.

For change managers, the Change Management module now integrates with the Service Operations Workspace, allowing them to use the CAB Workbench directly within the workspace.

A Word on Depreciated Features

While we’ve focused on the new additions, it’s also important to note that ServiceNow has not announced the deprecation of the Registered Product Release (RPR) in favor of the latest Release Ops. The new Release Ops application, which is available in the ServiceNow Store, offers more advanced pipeline and deployment automation. Still, it is meant to complement the existing RPR functionality, not replace it.

Agent and Operational Enhancements

Managers can approve or reject changes, add notes, and move through the meeting agenda all within a single interface, making the change approval process more efficient. Agents will also be benefitted from visual indicators for unread messages in the SOW. It will help them stay on top of conversations with users. These indicators change color to alert agents about messages that are approaching or have breached their SLA, ensuring urgent interactions are prioritized.

Additionally, ServiceNow has introduced a new property, change.conflict.max_count, which allows you to limit the number of disputes shown for a change. This helps to prevent overwhelming agents with a long list of disputes and will enable them to focus on the most critical issues.

New Tools for Developers and Builders

For those building on the platform, Zurich brings some fascinating features.

The Workflow Studio, a powerful tool for designing and managing flows, has been enhanced with new capabilities. A “Help me decide” option offers guidance on whether to use a flow, playbook, or another type of automation, helping developers choose the right tool for the job.

The Triggers in flows have been given the same powerful new scheduling options as scheduled jobs. You can now configure flows to run on specific days of the month, the last Saturday of a month, or on a relative weekday (e.g., the first Monday of January). This gives developers more control and flexibility over their automations.

Another fine feature is the ability to use Custom Client Scripts in the Catalog Builder. This means you can now define complex client-side logic for your catalog items directly in the intuitive Catalog Builder interface, without needing to switch to the native UI.

Looking Ahead: Sunset Features and Migration

As with every release, some older features are being retired to make way for new technology. ServiceNow has officially sunsetted several legacy applications and features in the Zurich release, including:

• Legacy Studio: The older version of ServiceNow Studio is being phased out in favor of the newer, more powerful version.
• Service Creator: This application, which was used for departmental workflows, is being retired.
• Legacy Clone: The older cloning method is being deprecated.

The most impactful change for organizations is the migration of 165 legacy workflows to Flow Designer. These are workflows from various areas, including hardware asset management, software asset management, and the service catalog. A dedicated KB article is available from ServiceNow that lists all the workflows that have been migrated. This is a crucial detail for anyone planning an upgrade, as it may require you to review and adjust any customizations you had on these workflows.

Now Assist for App Engine, Document Intelligence, and Security Operations all received updates in Zurich. And it also delivers on both functionality and user experience. From powerful new analytics and performance tools to a beautiful new theme and key developer enhancements, Zurich Release sure has something for everyone. ServiceNow is continuing its journey to make the platform more efficient, accessible, and user-friendly for all.