Halo has shipped its final release of 2026 (version 2.250). It reaches across AI, the CMDB, asset management, the self-service portal and privacy, and adds a new Zoom app plus integrations with AWS Bedrock and Juniper Mist. Here's our read on what genuinely matters for teams running Halo day to day.
AI gets easier to switch on, and easier to govern
Hosted customers can now use a built-in OpenSearch connection for AI. Vectors go to Halo's own OpenSearch instance with no connection setup, and it indexes knowledge base articles and services as well as tickets.
The AI configuration area has been reorganised into five modules: General Settings, Platform Intelligence, Feature Library, AI Agents and MCP Server. One naming change to note: what used to be called an "AI Agent" is now a Process Agent, and "AI Agent" is now the umbrella term for Virtual, Operations and Process Agents.
Process Agents and AI Abilities can now be downloaded from Halo's online repository and configure themselves. A new Other Uses tab shows every chat profile and runbook that relies on a given agent or ability. That sounds small, but it means you can see what depends on an agent before you change it.
The CMDB gets proper governance
A new Reconciliation area lets you set an order of precedence for your asset and CMDB integrations, either globally or field by field. A lower priority source can no longer overwrite data from a better one. If you've ever had two discovery tools fighting over the same field, this is the fix.
CI relationships can now carry notes, which show on relationship tables and diagrams. Existing CIs can be turned into services or business applications by changing their type. And problem matching can now use knowledge articles linked to CIs as resolution criteria.
Assets and CIs get their own workflows
Custom buttons on a CI can now open action forms that capture structured data against the CI, with every action logged in a new Action History tab. CI types can start workflows automatically, with the current step and progress shown on the CI itself. And asset lookups fill in asset and custom fields based on the values of other fields.
Put together, lifecycle steps can now live on the record itself rather than in a separate tracker.
Automatic PII detection and redaction
Halo can now scan tickets, action notes, email bodies and chat messages for personally identifiable information. A shield icon on the ticket shows how many detections it has, and a new Privacy Centre lists flagged tickets with a full audit log of what was redacted or ignored.
Redaction replaces the data with a label of its type, and it is permanent. So agree your rules before you switch on automatic scanning. For teams with data protection obligations, this turns a policy into a control inside the tool.
A better self-service portal
Knowledge Base Tiles show FAQ lists as searchable tiles, each with an icon and up to three articles. Users can now save ticket drafts and find them under a new My Drafts button; SLA timers, rules and acknowledgement emails only kick in when the ticket is properly submitted. Chat now has its own full page, there's a new carousel widget, and a service status widget works for both agents and users. Placed on a ticket, it shows the status of the services linked to that ticket.
Zoom joins Teams and Slack
A new Halo app for Zoom lets agents work from inside Zoom Workspace. Slash commands cover the basics: create a ticket, add a note or change status, find a record, follow or unfollow. Agents can also message a user on Zoom straight from the ticket. Separately, a new Chat Message Received notification alerts agents when a message lands on a ticket from Microsoft Teams or Slack.
Also worth knowing
SLA breach dates can now be stored in their own columns, for response and resolution, so breach reporting no longer has to be reconstructed after the fact. Global runbook variables let you change a value once and have it update everywhere it's used. To-do items can carry links, and users can be allowed to complete them, which can move a workflow on. Event rules gain an activity tab, and can take the ticket user from the matched CI. Ticket areas now support criteria groups, there are new notifications when followers are added or removed, SharePoint connections now support authorisation code authentication, and resource booking can reserve several assets at once.
What this means if you're weighing Halo up
All of this lands in Halo's single all inclusive licence. No editions, no add-ons, no separate AI tier. If you're comparing Halo with a platform where CMDB reconciliation, PII redaction or AI agents arrive as premium extras, this release widens that gap.
We work with Halo every day. If you want to see what these features look like configured for your environment, or you're planning a move off ServiceNow, get in touch.