I tested the top 5 best Zendesk AI assistants for 2025 (Here's my verdict)

If you're running a support team on Zendesk, you know the feeling. The ticket queue is a monster that never stops growing, but your team size, well, that's a different story. AI seems like the obvious solution, but trying to find the right Zendesk AI assistant feels like walking into a maze.

On one side, you have glorified chatbots that are experts at frustrating customers with "I'm sorry, I don't understand." On the other, you have massive enterprise systems that seem to require a Ph.D. and a blank check just to get started. Where’s the middle ground? How do you find a tool that actually helps your team without creating a whole new set of problems?

That’s what this guide is for. I've rolled up my sleeves and spent a ton of time testing and digging into the top 5 best Zendesk AI assistants for 2025. We’re going to look at what they do, what they cost, and how they actually feel to use, so you can pick one and feel good about it.

What exactly are Zendesk AI assistants?

First, let's get on the same page. A real Zendesk AI assistant isn't just a chatbot that follows a script. It’s a smart tool that hooks directly into Zendesk to automate the real work. Think of it as a new teammate that can understand what a customer is asking, take action on a ticket, and learn from all your team’s past conversations.

They usually come in two main flavors:

• Native AI: This is Zendesk's own AI, built right into the platform. It’s deeply integrated, which is a plus, but it can feel a bit like a closed system that doesn't like to play with tools or knowledge living outside of Zendesk.

• Third-Party Integrations: These are specialized AI tools, like eesel AI, built specifically to connect with platforms like Zendesk. They tend to be more flexible, can connect to way more of your company’s knowledge, and often have much simpler pricing.

Ultimately, their job is to take over the repetitive tasks: answering the same questions over and over, tagging and routing tickets, drafting replies for your agents (acting as a copilot), and even handling simple actions like looking up an order status or processing a refund.

How we evaluated the best Zendesk AI assistants for 2025

Not all AI is built the same, especially when it’s talking to your customers. When I was evaluating these tools, I wasn't just looking for the longest feature list. I was looking for tools that solve actual problems for a support team that's already stretched thin.

Here’s what I cared about most:

• Ease of setup & integration: How quickly can you get it up and running without needing a developer? Is it a simple plugin, or does it feel like you have to rebuild your entire workflow?

• Knowledge source flexibility: Your team's real knowledge is scattered everywhere, right? It's in old tickets, Confluence pages, and who-knows-how-many Google Docs. Can the AI actually learn from all of it, or is it stuck with just your official Zendesk help center?

• Automation control & customization: Can you actually tell the AI what to do? I wanted to see if I could fine-tune its personality, tell it which tickets to handle, and define specific actions it's allowed to take, like tagging or closing tickets.

• Pricing transparency: Is the pricing easy to understand? Or is it a confusing mess of per-agent fees, pricey add-ons, and "gotcha" per-resolution charges that could blow up your budget after one busy month?

• Simulation & safety: This was a big one for me. Can you test the AI in a safe space before it talks to a single customer? I was looking for tools that let you see how the AI would have handled past tickets, so you can launch it feeling confident, not terrified.

A quick comparison of the best Zendesk AI assistants for 2025

For those of you who just want the highlights, here’s a quick rundown.

The 5 best Zendesk AI assistants for 2025

1. eesel AI

• Best for: Teams who want a powerful, flexible AI that works with their existing tools and is live in minutes.

eesel AI is built on a simple premise: AI shouldn't be a massive project. Instead of making you move platforms, it plugs directly into your Zendesk account with a single click. The real magic, though, is its ability to learn from all your company's knowledge, not just the official stuff. Past tickets, Confluence pages, Google Docs... if your team uses it, eesel can learn from it.

But the feature that really got my attention was its simulation mode. Before you flip the switch, you can run it on thousands of your past tickets to see exactly how it would have performed. This gives you a real forecast of your deflection rate and what you'll save. No guessing, no risk.

• Key Features:

  • Go live in minutes: This is genuinely a self-serve platform. You can sign up, connect Zendesk, and get it running without needing to talk to a salesperson.

  • Unify your knowledge: It trains on past tickets and macros but also connects to over 100 other apps like Notion and Sharepoint, so it has the full context.

An infographic showing how eesel AI connects to various knowledge sources.

*   **Total control:** The no-code prompt editor lets you define the AI's personality and set up custom actions, like looking up order info in [Shopify](https://www.eesel.ai/integration/shopify) or [tagging tickets automatically](https://www.eesel.ai/blog/automate-your-zendesk-ticket-tagging-with-ai-a-practical-guide).  

A screenshot of the customization and action workflow screen in eesel AI.

*   **Risk-free simulation:** You can test the AI on your actual historical data. This lets you see how it works and build confidence before it ever touches a live customer conversation.  

A screenshot of the eesel AI simulation feature.

• Pros & Cons:

• Pricing: eesel AI's pricing is refreshingly straightforward. The Team plan starts at $239/month (if you pay annually) for up to 1,000 AI interactions. Plans are based on a predictable number of interactions, not confusing per-resolution fees, and you can even pay month-to-month if you don't want a long-term contract.

A screenshot of the eesel AI pricing page.

2. Zendesk AI

• Best for: Large enterprises already using the full Zendesk Suite and willing to pay a premium for native integration.

Zendesk's own native AI is a powerhouse, no doubt about it. It’s woven into every part of the Zendesk platform, offering AI agents for full automation, a copilot to help human agents, and some of the most advanced analytics you can get. But all that power comes with a hefty price tag and kind of locks you into their "walled garden," making it hard for the AI to learn from any knowledge that lives outside of Zendesk.

• Key Features:

  • AI agents & copilot: Can automate customer-facing responses and give human agents a hand with summaries and reply suggestions.

  • Intelligent triage: Automatically categorizes and routes incoming tickets based on intent, sentiment, and language.

  • Deep analytics: Offers detailed reports on customer trends and AI performance.

• Pros & Cons:

• Pricing: This is where it gets tricky. To get the main AI features, you need to be on at least the Suite Professional plan at $115 per agent per month (billed annually). Then, you have to add the Advanced AI add-on for another $50 per agent per month. Even after all that, you'll pay usage-based fees for each resolution the AI handles, starting around $1.50 each. The costs can add up in a hurry.

3. Intercom Fin

• Best for: Businesses that are all-in on live chat and need a highly accurate AI to manage website support.

Intercom's Fin has a reputation for being one of the most accurate AI agents on the market, especially for real-time chat. It's really good at understanding tricky questions and giving detailed answers. While it does offer a Zendesk integration, Fin is happiest and most effective when it's used inside its native Intercom ecosystem. The biggest thing to watch out for is its pricing model, which can get very expensive if you have a lot of support requests.

• Key Features:

  • High resolution rate: Fin is known for being able to handle a large percentage of chats from start to finish without needing a human.

  • Multi-channel support: You can use it across chat, email, and social media.

  • No-code customization: Gives you a decent amount of control over the AI's behavior and how it responds.

• Pros & Cons:

• Pricing: Intercom prices Fin based on results. It costs $0.99 per resolution, with a 50-resolution monthly minimum. If you want the AI copilot to help your agents, that's another $29 per user per month. Paying per resolution sounds fair, but it creates a totally unpredictable bill that can spike during busy times.

4. Aisera

• Best for: Large, complex enterprises that need specialized AI for internal support (like IT and HR) in addition to customer service.

Aisera is a heavyweight. It's a massive, enterprise-grade platform that goes way beyond customer support, offering domain-specific AI agents for departments like IT, HR, and Finance. It’s built to handle complex workflows that span multiple departments and connects with systems like ServiceNow and Workday. It's incredibly powerful, but for a team just looking to automate Zendesk support, it's probably overkill.

• Key Features:

  • Domain-specific agents: Comes with pre-built AI models trained for specific functions like IT helpdesks or HR onboarding.

  • Multi-agent collaboration: Different AI agents can team up to resolve a single request that touches multiple departments.

  • Deep enterprise integrations: Natively connects to major enterprise software.

• Pros & Cons:

• Pricing: Aisera’s pricing is only available through a custom quote. You’ll have to talk to their sales team to get any numbers, which isn't great if you're trying to move quickly.

5. Helply

• Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses looking for a straightforward, no-code AI agent that just works.

Helply is all about simplicity and getting you a win, fast. It’s designed for scale-ups and SMBs that need to automate tier-1 support without a long, painful setup process. Its "Knowledge Bridge" feature is especially clever, it analyzes your support chats to find gaps in your help docs and suggests ways to improve them, making both your AI and your human agents smarter over time.

• Key Features:

  • No-code setup: Designed to get you up and running in minutes, no engineer required.

  • Knowledge bridge: Proactively finds and helps you fix holes in your help center based on what customers are actually asking.

  • Smart escalation: Knows when a question is too complex and reliably passes it to a human agent with the full context.

• Pros & Cons:

• Pricing: You’ll need to contact Helply for a custom quote.

This video from Zendesk explains how their next-generation AI agents can resolve complex service requests without scripts or training.

Beyond the tools: 3 things to demand from a Zendesk AI assistant

Picking a tool is only half the battle. To actually see a return and not create more work for yourself, you need to think about how you'll use it. Here are three non-negotiables you should look for in any AI assistant you consider.

1. Test with simulation: A non-negotiable

You wouldn't let a new agent start answering tickets without any training, would you? So why on earth would you let an untrained AI loose on your customers? A bot that gives wrong answers is worse than no bot at all, it destroys trust.

2. Learn from all your knowledge

Let's be honest, your official help center is only one piece of the puzzle. The real answers, the clever workarounds, and all that hard-won knowledge are buried in old tickets, internal Confluence docs, and random team chats.

3. Watch out for unpredictable pricing

Paying for each ticket the AI solves sounds fair at first, but it creates a bill that can swing wildly and actually punishes you for being successful. If you have a spike in tickets from a product launch or a small outage, you could get hit with a massive, unexpected invoice.

The right AI makes Zendesk better

The whole point of getting an AI assistant is to make your life easier and help your team scale, not to add another complex system you have to babysit. The best tools plug right into your workflow, give you confident control, learn from the knowledge you already have, and won't give you a heart attack when the invoice arrives.

eesel AI was built from day one to do exactly that. It's the self-serve AI platform that connects to Zendesk and your other tools in minutes. You can simulate its performance on your own tickets and see the potential ROI for yourself before you commit to anything.

Ready to see how simple AI can be? Start your free trial of eesel AI today.