Zendesk AI usage analytics: A complete guide for 2025

Flipping the switch on a new AI tool is easy. The hard part? Figuring out if it's actually doing anything. Are your new AI features really helping agents work faster? Are customers getting answers quicker? Are they happy with the results? If you can't answer these questions with cold, hard data, you're just guessing.

A lot of teams using Zendesk get stuck here. They invest in AI but then struggle to see how that investment connects to real results. You need to know if the money you're spending is paying off, but digging through the built-in analytics can feel like trying to solve a puzzle with half the pieces missing.

That's what this guide is for. We're going to walk through Zendesk's native AI analytics, what you can measure, and, more importantly, where they fall short. We'll also show you a much better way to get insights you can actually act on to scale your support automation with confidence.

What is Zendesk AI Usage Analytics?

First, let's clear up what we're talking about. Zendesk AI isn't a single product. It’s more of a toolkit designed to automate support tasks and give your human agents a hand. The two main parts you'll hear about are AI agents (the chatbots that can handle entire conversations) and Copilot (a set of tools that help human agents inside their tickets).

So, Zendesk AI Usage Analytics are the reports inside Zendesk Explore that are meant to track how well these tools are working. These aren't all in one neat dashboard. The reports are spread out across several pre-built dashboards that you only get access to if you're on a specific Zendesk plan or have paid for an add-on like Copilot.

According to Zendesk, the data is broken down into a few buckets:

• Generative AI Agent Tools: This keeps track of how often your human agents use features like summarizing a long ticket thread, expanding a short note into a full reply, or changing a message's tone.

• Copilot Suggestions: This measures how agents use the proactive pop-ups, like suggestions for similar tickets or recommended macro replies.

• Intelligent Triage: This shows how AI automatically tags incoming tickets with information like what the customer wants, their language, and their sentiment.

The whole idea is to help you connect the dots between using these AI tools and improving your core metrics, like first reply time, resolution time, and customer satisfaction.

How to access and use Zendesk AI Usage Analytics

To find these reports, you'll start in the analytics section of your Zendesk account and head over to the Dashboards library in Explore. If your plan includes them, you'll find the pre-built AI reports waiting for you.

One of the main dashboards is called Zendesk AI: Generative AI Agent Tools. It has a couple of tabs that are worth looking at:

• Agent Engagement Tab: This gives you a bird's-eye view of how much your team is using the agent-assist tools. You'll see big numbers like "Summaries generated" or "Messages expanded." It's a quick way to check if your team is even trying out the new features.

• Ticket Metrics Tab: This is where Zendesk attempts to link AI use to performance. It has reports that compare things like requester wait time on tickets where AI was used versus tickets where it wasn't.

This all sounds pretty good, but you'll probably start noticing some issues almost immediately.

The limitations of Zendesk AI Usage Analytics

1. The best reports are locked behind a paywall: The most useful analytics, especially the ones for agent assistance, are tied to the Copilot add-on. This isn't part of the standard Suite plans and costs extra. So, getting a complete picture of your AI's performance can get pricey, fast.

2. You're stuck with their pre-built reports: The default dashboards are what they are. You can't just jump in and add your own metrics or rearrange things. Even if you're on a higher-tier plan that lets you clone a dashboard, building your own custom reports requires you to become an expert in Explore's data models, which can be a huge time-drain.

3. Your data doesn't stick around forever: The dataset for the Generative AI tools only stores the last 1200 days of data, which is just over three years. If you want to analyze trends over a longer period, you're out of luck.

4. You can't test it before you go live (this is a big one): This might be the biggest problem of all. Zendesk's analytics are all about looking backward. They only tell you what’s already happened. There’s no way to simulate how your AI will perform or guess at your potential ROI before you turn it on for your customers. You're basically just flipping a switch and hoping for the best, which isn't a great way to roll out new tech.

Key Zendesk AI Usage Analytics metrics and what they really mean

When you do get into the dashboards, you'll see a bunch of metrics. But numbers without context are just noise. Let's look at some of the key metrics from Zendesk's datasets and talk about what they're not telling you.

Metric (from Zendesk Datasets)	What it tells you	What it's not telling you
"% Acceptance Rate" (Copilot)	How often agents click "accept" on AI suggestions, like using a drafted reply.	A low rate is a bad sign, but the report doesn't explain why. Are the suggestions off-base? Is your knowledge base out of date? You're left guessing.
"Full Resolution Time (AI vs. No AI)"	A comparison of how long it takes to solve a ticket when AI tools were used versus when they weren't.	This one can be tricky. AI is often used for simple, repetitive tickets that are already fast to solve. This can make the AI look more effective than it is on the complex issues where you really need help.
"Summaries Generated / Messages Expanded"	A simple tally of how many times agents clicked the buttons for these features.	A high number doesn't always equal high value. Are agents using the summary tool to save time on genuinely complex tickets, or are they just using it for everything out of habit? The data doesn't give you that context.
"% Satisfaction Score" (on AI tickets)	The CSAT scores for tickets where an agent used a tool like Copilot.	This metric has a huge blind spot. It completely ignores the customer experience for tickets that were fully automated by an AI agent. You have no idea how customers feel about getting a resolution without ever speaking to a person.

Zendesk gives you the numbers, but they often create more questions than answers. If your agents are ignoring AI suggestions, how do you find the knowledge gaps that are causing the problem? The reports won't point you in the right direction. This is where a tool like eesel AI steps in with more useful reporting. It can identify the exact topics your AI is struggling with and even help you automatically create new help articles from resolved tickets, closing the loop so your AI gets smarter over time.

eesel AI's reporting dashboard, which highlights knowledge gaps and deflection rates, offering more actionable insights than standard Zendesk AI Usage Analytics.

Zendesk AI Usage Analytics pricing and plans

Figuring out the actual cost of Zendesk's AI and analytics can be confusing because everything is spread out across different plans and paid add-ons. You can't just look at a single plan's price and know what you'll end up paying.

Here’s a quick look based on their official pricing page.

Plan (Billed Annually)	Price/Agent/Month	Key AI & Analytics Features Included	Key Add-Ons (Extra Cost)
Suite Team	$55	AI agents (Essential), Generative replies, Automated resolution reporting	Advanced AI Agents, Copilot
Suite Professional	$115	Everything in Team + Customizable reporting, Real-time insights	Advanced AI Agents, Copilot
Suite Enterprise	$169	Everything in Professional + Business rules analysis, Visual data alerts	Advanced AI Agents, Copilot

The problem is pretty obvious: to get the most powerful AI features and the analytics you need to measure them (which are part of the Copilot and Advanced AI Agents add-ons), you have to pay more. These add-on costs aren't listed on the main pricing page, so your total bill can grow unexpectedly, especially as your team gets bigger. You might sign up for a plan thinking you have what you need, only to discover the most important features are behind another paywall.

Beyond Zendesk AI Usage Analytics: A better way to measure and manage your support AI

After seeing the limitations and surprise costs, it's natural to start looking for another way. You need a platform that gives you control and clarity without the complicated pricing.

This is exactly why we built eesel AI. It plugs right into your helpdesk, including Zendesk, and directly addresses the biggest problems with native analytics.

The problem: You're flying blind at launch.

Zendesk analytics can't tell you how your AI will perform before you go live.

• How eesel AI helps: With eesel AI's simulation mode, you can test your AI agent on thousands of your past tickets. In a totally safe environment, you can see exactly how it would have handled real customer questions, get an accurate forecast of your resolution rate, and tweak its behavior before it ever talks to a customer. You can launch with confidence because you already know what to expect.

A view of eesel AI's simulation mode, which provides superior testing capabilities compared to the backward-looking Zendesk AI Usage Analytics.

The problem: Zendesk reports show what happened, but not why.

The data shows you usage stats but doesn't tell you how to improve.

• How eesel AI helps: Our actionable reporting digs deeper. It doesn't just show you numbers; it actively finds gaps in your knowledge base by analyzing the questions your AI couldn't answer. It highlights trends and gives you a clear to-do list for what to fix next, turning your data into a simple action plan.

The problem: Zendesk's pricing is complicated and requires expensive add-ons.

You have to pay extra for the features you really need.

• How eesel AI helps: We offer transparent and predictable pricing. Our plans are based on how much you use the platform, and we never charge you per resolution. A busy month won't lead to a surprise bill. Plus, all of our core products, like the AI Agent, Copilot, and AI Triage, are included in every single plan. No hidden fees, no paywalls.

The eesel AI pricing page, showing a clear and transparent pricing model, which is a key advantage over the often complex Zendesk AI Usage Analytics and its associated costs.

Zendesk AI Usage Analytics: Move beyond basic metrics to actionable insights

Zendesk offers a starting point for AI usage analytics, but it's often tied up in pricey add-ons, is tough to customize, and leaves you guessing when it comes to launching automation. To really get the most out of AI, you have to move beyond simple, backward-looking data.

You need a tool that lets you simulate performance, gives you clear insights from all your knowledge sources, and has a price that makes sense.

Stop guessing about your AI's ROI. See how eesel AI can give you the confidence to automate your support, with data you can actually trust and use.