A complete guide on how to use a Zendesk AI agent

AI agents are becoming a huge help for customer support teams. They can automate the repetitive stuff, give instant answers any time of day, and free up your human agents to focus on the more complex issues where they’re really needed. It’s like adding a new teammate who works 24/7.

This guide will walk you through setting up a Zendesk AI agent, step by step. We’ll look at the two main ways to get it done: using Zendesk’s built-in tools, and using a third-party tool that gives you a bit more power. By the end, you’ll have a clear idea of which path is right for your team and how to get started.

What you’ll need to get started with your Zendesk AI agent

Before you jump in, let’s make sure you have everything you need. The requirements are pretty different depending on which route you take.

For Zendesk’s native AI:

• A Zendesk Suite plan: You’ll need a Suite Team, Professional, or Enterprise plan to get access to the AI features.
• The Advanced AI add-on: This is a big one. For the most useful features like intelligent triage and better automation, you have to buy the Advanced AI add-on. It costs a steep $50 per agent, per month, on top of your regular plan, so the bill can climb quickly.
• A well-maintained Zendesk help center: Zendesk’s AI mostly learns from your Zendesk Guide articles. This means your documentation needs to be complete and up-to-date for the AI to be helpful.

For a more advanced AI agent (like eesel AI):

• Any Zendesk plan: eesel AI works with any version of Zendesk, so you don’t have to be on the priciest tier.
• An eesel AI account: You can sign up and start with a free trial to see how it works.
• Access to your knowledge sources: This is where things get interesting. You can connect your help center, sure, but you can also connect past tickets, macros, and documents from outside of Zendesk, like Google Docs or Confluence. This gives your AI a much fuller picture of your business and how you solve problems.

Requirement	Native Zendesk AI	Advanced AI (eesel AI)
Zendesk Plan	Suite Team, Professional, or Enterprise	Any Zendesk Plan
Additional Costs	$50/agent/month Advanced AI Add-on	eesel AI subscription (usage-based)
Knowledge Sources	Zendesk Help Center articles only	Zendesk Help Center, past tickets, macros, Google Docs, Confluence, etc.

How to set up your Zendesk AI agent: a step-by-step guide

The setup process is quite different depending on the tool you use, and it affects everything from how smart the AI is to whether you can test it before customers see it. Let’s break down both methods.

Method 1: setting up the native Zendesk AI agent

Getting Zendesk’s own AI running is pretty straightforward, but it has some limitations you should know about upfront.

Step 1: Activate Zendesk AI features
First, you’ll go to your Zendesk Admin Center and turn on the AI features. The basic tools are included in the Suite plans, but if you want the more capable features, you’ll be prompted to buy the add-on.

Step 2: Connect your knowledge base
Next, you connect your Zendesk help center to the AI. This is the main source of information the bot will use to answer questions. It’s important to remember that its knowledge is stuck inside these articles, which can be a problem if your team’s real solutions are stored somewhere else.

Step 3: Configure autoreplies and triggers
Now you can create some basic rules for when the AI should suggest articles. For instance, you can set up a trigger that scans a customer’s message for certain keywords. This method is reactive and depends on simple triggers, not on the AI actually understanding the customer’s problem.

Step 4: Deploy and monitor
Once you’ve turned on the features and set your triggers, the AI is live. This brings us to the biggest catch with Zendesk’s native AI: there’s no sandbox or simulation mode. You can’t test how the AI will respond before it starts interacting with real customers, which is a big risk. You’re basically testing in a live environment, and any mistakes happen right in front of your audience.

Method 2: setting up an advanced Zendesk AI agent with eesel AI

This approach is for teams that want more control, smarter responses, and a safer way to roll out AI. It’s about building an AI that works the way you do.

Step 1: Connect your Zendesk account to eesel AI

Getting started with eesel AI is simple. It’s a one-click integration that works with your current Zendesk setup. You don’t need to migrate any data; just connect your account, and you’re good to go.

Step 2: Train the AI on all your knowledge

This is a huge difference. Instead of only using help center articles, eesel AI learns from all of your knowledge, wherever it lives. You can connect past tickets, macros, and external docs. This builds a much smarter, more context-aware AI that can answer questions with the same nuance your best agents use.

Step 3: Define behavior with plain English
Forget about clunky, rigid rules. With eesel AI, you customize your AI’s behavior using simple instructions in plain English. You can adjust its tone, set clear rules for when to escalate a ticket to a human, and tell it what to do, like tagging tickets or even triggering actions in other systems. This gives you full control over how your AI talks to customers.

Step 4: Simulate performance and test before going live
This is maybe the most important part. Before your AI agent ever talks to a customer, you can run it on your past tickets to see exactly how it would have answered. This simulation shows you its accuracy, how many tickets it could have deflected, and where its knowledge might be thin. You can spot and fix issues and get a real sense of the ROI before you even launch.

Step 5: Roll out gradually with a human in the loop

When you’re ready to go live, you can do it without holding your breath. eesel AI lets you activate the AI for specific agents, certain types of tickets, or particular channels first. This makes for a controlled, safe rollout where you can watch how it’s doing and make adjustments with confidence.

Best practices for an effective Zendesk AI agent

Setting up an AI agent is one thing, but making it genuinely helpful is another. Here are a few tips to follow, whether you’re using the native tools or a more advanced solution.

Build a knowledge base that reflects reality

With Zendesk’s native tool, you’re forced to keep your help center articles perfectly updated and comprehensive. If the answer isn’t in an article, the AI is stuck. A better way is to use a tool like eesel AI, which lets you tap into your team’s actual work. By training the AI on thousands of past resolved tickets, it learns from the real conversations your agents have had. This leads to more accurate and relevant answers based on what works in practice, not just what’s in a manual.

Customize your AI’s personality and tone

Zendesk’s native tool gives you a few basic presets like "Professional" or "Friendly." It’s a one-size-fits-all approach that can feel pretty generic. Ideally, you should be able to fine-tune your AI to match your brand’s voice perfectly. With eesel AI’s AI Copilot, you can tell it to be empathetic, witty, or concise. You can even have it adopt different tones for different situations, like handling a complaint versus answering a simple question. This makes the AI feel like a real part of your team.

Always test before you deploy

This is the most important practice of all. Releasing an untested AI is a huge risk to your customer experience and brand reputation. The lack of a testing environment is a major weakness in Zendesk’s native tools. With eesel AI, the simulation feature is built-in. You can measure potential cost savings and fix problems ahead of time, making sure your AI is actually helpful from day one.

Create smart escalation paths

An AI can’t and shouldn’t handle everything. It’s vital to have clear rules for when a human agent needs to step in. The advanced actions in eesel AI allow for much smarter handoffs. For example, you can automatically route a ticket to a specific team based on the customer’s sentiment, certain keywords, or even if the AI has tried and failed to resolve the issue twice.

Common mistakes to avoid with your Zendesk AI agent

When setting up your Zendesk AI agent, a few common traps can catch you off guard. Here’s what to look out for.

Mistake 1: Underestimating the costs

Zendesk’s pricing can be a little tricky. You have your base plan cost, then the $50/agent/month Advanced AI add-on, and some features even have per-resolution fees. These costs can add up fast, especially for growing teams. In contrast, eesel AI’s pricing is transparent and based on usage, giving you more predictable costs without penalizing you for adding more agents to your team.
Mistake 2: Limiting your AI’s knowledge

If you only use help center articles, which is the standard for the native Zendesk tool, you’re leaving a ton of valuable knowledge behind. Your past tickets and internal documents contain the real-world solutions your team uses every single day. Not using this data is the biggest reason why many AI agents don’t perform as well as they could.

Mistake 3: Skipping the testing phase

We really can’t say this enough: going live without a simulation is asking for trouble. It can lead to wrong answers, frustrated customers, and a black eye for your brand. This is a fundamental flaw in many out-of-the-box AI tools. Solutions like eesel AI are built to prevent this, giving you the confidence to launch an AI that you know is ready.

What is the best way to use a Zendesk AI agent?

So, what’s the final verdict? Zendesk’s native AI is a decent starting point if all you need are basic autoreplies pulled from your help center. It can handle the simplest questions.

But for teams that want powerful, safe, and affordable automation, the best approach is to use a specialized tool like eesel AI that works on top of Zendesk. This gives you the best of both worlds: you keep the helpdesk you’re used to, but you give it a major boost with an AI that’s smarter, safer, and way more customizable. With the right setup, a Zendesk AI agent can truly improve your support operations, and a tool built for the job gives you the control and intelligence to do it right.

Ready to see what a smarter AI agent can do for your Zendesk workflow? Try eesel AI for free or book a demo to see our simulation feature in action.