Zendesk AI agents in web form channels

If you're in support, you know the deal with web forms. They're a direct line to your customers, which is great, until it feels more like a firehose of repetitive questions and simple issues. Automation is the obvious fix, and with AI getting smarter, the tools are getting better.

Zendesk recently announced it’s bringing its AI Agents to email and web forms. Instead of just suggesting articles, these agents can give direct, generative replies. On paper, it sounds like the perfect sidekick for a busy support team.

But what’s it actually like to use? Let's take an honest look at how Zendesk AI Agents in Web Form Channels work, where they fall short, and what you should know before you turn them on.

What are Zendesk AI Agents in Web Form Channels?

Think of Zendesk AI Agents for web forms as an automated first responder. When a customer fills out a ticket form, instead of just getting a "we got your ticket" email, the system uses generative AI to write a conversational response that tries to solve their problem on the spot.

This is a definite upgrade from the old way, which just tossed a few help center articles at the customer and hoped one would stick. The goal now is to provide a complete answer by pulling from your knowledge base, so fewer tickets ever need a human's touch. This feature is part of the "AI agents - Essential" package, which is included in all Zendesk Suite and Support plans, making it an easy entry point for automating common questions.

How Zendesk AI Agents in Web Form Channels work

To really get what you’re working with, you have to look under the hood. The whole feature rests on a few key parts that determine how it behaves and how much setup you’ll need to do.

The foundation: Your help center content

First things first: the AI agent’s brain is your Zendesk Help Center. That’s it. Every single answer it generates comes directly from your published articles. If the information is in your help center, the bot can find it. If it’s not, your customer won't get an answer.

Zendesk even suggests you should overhaul your help center content just for the AI, which is a pretty big hint that you’re in for some upfront (and ongoing) work. You’ll need to make sure your articles are detailed, well-organized, and always up to date.

This creates a massive headache for teams whose knowledge isn't all in one neat little box. Let's be real, whose is? That’s a huge problem if your team is like most, with info spread all over the place. It's why tools like eesel AI exist; they are built to connect with all your knowledge sources right away, like Google Docs, Confluence, Notion, and even your past ticket history. This gives the AI a complete view of your information so it can give good answers without you having to start a massive content migration project.

An infographic illustrating how eesel AI unifies scattered knowledge from multiple sources like Google Docs, Confluence, and past tickets, a key limitation of Zendesk AI Agents in Web Form Channels.

The workflow: Triggers and automations

When you turn on an AI Agent for a web form, Zendesk creates a pre-set recipe of business rules to handle the process. It gives you one inactive trigger and two inactive automations that you need to manually enable.

Here’s the play-by-play:

• Trigger: This sends out the first generative AI response as soon as a customer hits "submit" on the form.

• "Bump" Automation: If the customer goes quiet for a while, this rule sends a follow-up email to see if they still need help.

• "Solve" Automation: If the customer still doesn’t reply after that nudge, this rule automatically marks the ticket as solved.

This workflow is totally rigid. It’s a one-size-fits-all approach that works fine for simple, one-and-done questions, but it can't handle anything more complicated. You can't add your own logic, change the conversation based on what the user says, or have it do anything besides pull an answer from the help center.

This is worlds away from the control you get with a tool like eesel AI. Its workflow engine is fully customizable, letting you build out the exact rules your business needs. You get to decide when the AI should jump in, what it's allowed to do (like check an order status in your Shopify store), and how it should hand off tickets to a human agent. It puts you in charge of your own automation.

A diagram showing eesel AI’s customizable workflow, which allows for advanced logic and integrations, unlike the rigid triggers in Zendesk AI Agents in Web Form Channels.

Publishing and managing your AI agents

Flipping the switch to go live is simple enough: an admin just has to publish the agent and turn on the trigger and automations. The process is easy, but things can get confusing if your needs evolve. For example, if you end up using a mix of Zendesk's basic "Essential" AI agents and their more powerful "Advanced AI" agents (which cost extra), you have to manage them in completely separate areas of the Zendesk admin panel. This split setup can make it tough to see what all of your automations are doing in one place.

Key limitations

While the feature is a good start, its limits become pretty obvious once you try to use it for more than just basic FAQs. Here are the three biggest challenges you’ll probably run into.

Siloed knowledge

We’ve already touched on this, but it’s a biggie: Zendesk’s AI can only read what’s in your Zendesk Help Center. Most companies have important info scattered everywhere, from internal wikis in Confluence to project plans in Google Docs. Not to mention the goldmine of solutions sitting in thousands of your old support tickets. Zendesk's AI agent can't access any of that.

This leads to half-baked answers and more tickets getting escalated to your team. Your agents end up wasting time digging for information the bot should have found in the first place, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a bot.

This is exactly the problem eesel AI was designed to fix. It connects all your scattered knowledge instantly. By learning from your past tickets, internal docs, and help center, eesel AI gives your bot the context it needs to solve problems correctly from the get-go, without you having to move a single file.

Lack of advanced capabilities and custom actions

At the end of the day, the Zendesk AI agent can only talk. It can't do anything.

Just think about the common requests that come through your web forms. Customers want to know their order status, start a return, or reset a password. Zendesk's AI can't help with any of that because it can't connect to other systems to look up information, update a record, or kick off a process. Any request that requires an action gets sent straight to a human agent.

This really caps your automation potential, limiting it to just answering questions. But answering questions is only half the battle. eesel AI's AI Agent has a powerful actions engine that can connect to any API. This lets your AI look up customer data in real-time, update ticket fields in Zendesk, and start processes in other tools, giving you true end-to-end automation that actually lightens your team's workload.

A screenshot of eesel AI’s action engine, which enables the AI to perform tasks in external systems, a capability that Zendesk AI Agents in Web Form Channels lack.

No confident way to test

Here's a scary thought: with Zendesk's setup, you can't really test your AI agent before letting it talk to real customers. You just have to turn it on and cross your fingers. How are you supposed to know if it's going to work? How can you predict your resolution rate or figure out how much money you’ll save?

Going live without that information is a huge gamble. A bot that’s not ready for prime time can easily create frustrating experiences for customers, which just means more cleanup work for your team.

You should never have to guess about performance. eesel AI includes a simulation mode that lets you safely test your AI on thousands of your past tickets. You can see exactly how the AI would have answered old inquiries, get accurate forecasts on your resolution rate, and find gaps in your knowledge base, all in a safe environment before it impacts a single customer.

eesel AI’s simulation mode, which allows teams to test performance on past tickets before going live, addressing the inability to confidently test Zendesk AI Agents in Web Form Channels.

Pricing for Zendesk AI Agents in Web Form Channels

The good news is that the basic "AI Agents - Essential" feature for web forms is included in all Zendesk Suite plans. The catch? If you want to do anything more powerful, like build custom conversation flows or connect to external systems, you have to buy the "Advanced AI" add-on. That extra cost can add up fast, putting the best features behind another paywall.

Here’s a quick look at the standard Zendesk Suite plans:

Plan	Price (per agent/month, billed annually)	Key AI Features Included
Suite Team	$55	AI agents (Essential), Generative replies, Knowledge base
Suite Professional	$115	All of Suite Team + CSAT surveys, skills-based routing
Suite Enterprise	$169	All of Suite Pro + Custom agent roles, sandbox environment

While Zendesk gates features behind pricey plans and add-ons, eesel AI has transparent and predictable pricing. Our plans include all our core products (AI Agent, Copilot, Triage, and more) and aren't based on how many resolutions you get. You get powerful automation without having to worry about a surprise bill.

A view of eesel AI’s transparent pricing page, presented as a straightforward alternative to the complex plans and add-ons for Zendesk AI Agents in Web Form Channels.

The flexible alternative: eesel AI

Zendesk AI agents for web forms are a decent first step into automation, but they're held back by a rigid setup, siloed knowledge, and a lack of powerful features. For teams that need more control and confidence, a more flexible solution is a must.

eesel AI is designed to plug right into your Zendesk account and pick up where the native AI leaves off.

• Go live in minutes with a platform you can set up yourself and a one-click integration. No need to sit through a sales demo.

• Unify all your knowledge by connecting to help centers, past tickets, Confluence, Google Docs, and over 100 other apps.

• Automate complex workflows with custom actions that can look up data, update tickets, and connect to any of your other systems.

• Test risk-free with a simulation mode that gives you accurate performance forecasts based on your own ticket history.

• Benefit from transparent pricing with simple, predictable plans and no hidden fees for each resolution.

Final thoughts on Zendesk AI Agents in Web Form Channels

Look, Zendesk adding generative AI to web forms is a nice step forward, especially for teams just dipping their toes into automation. It offers a simple way to handle basic, repetitive questions.

However, its total reliance on a single knowledge source, inflexible workflows, and lack of a safe testing environment create big roadblocks for any team trying to seriously scale their support. For businesses that need to handle the real-world messiness of customer service, a more powerful and adaptable platform is the way to go.

Ready for automation beyond Zendesk AI Agents in Web Form Channels?

Zendesk is a great helpdesk, but its native AI is just the start. If you're ready for an AI agent that connects to all your knowledge, handles complex tasks, and lets you test with confidence, try eesel AI for free or book a demo to see it in action.