A deep dive into Zendesk auto assist: Features, pricing, and alternatives (2025)

If you're in customer support, your team is probably juggling a dozen things at once. The idea of an AI assistant that can lighten the load probably sounds pretty good right about now. For those on Zendesk, you’ve likely come across their native tool, Zendesk auto assist, which is part of the Agent Copilot add-on. But what does it actually do, and more importantly, is it the right tool for your team?

Let's cut through the marketing noise. This guide is an honest look at Zendesk auto assist. We'll cover what it’s good at, where it stumbles, and whether it’s a good fit for you. We’ll dig into its features, the setup process, pricing, and the limitations you should know about before making a decision.

What is Zendesk auto assist?

Zendesk auto assist is an AI feature tucked inside Zendesk's Agent Copilot. Its main goal is to give your human agents a hand by suggesting replies, recommending actions, and offering instructions right inside the ticket.

It's important to get one thing straight: this isn't a tool for full, hands-off automation. It’s built to make your agents more efficient and consistent, especially with those repetitive questions that pop up every day. Think of it less like a robot taking over the job and more like a helpful partner whispering suggestions in your agent's ear.

The AI gets its information from a few specific spots: internal guides you have to write yourself called "procedures," your public Zendesk help center articles, and similar tickets that have been solved before. Your agents are always in the driver's seat and need to review and approve every suggestion before it goes out to a customer.

Core features of Zendesk auto assist

So, what does this tool actually do on a daily basis? It really boils down to how it comes up with suggestions and what kind of actions it can take.

This video provides a brief overview of Zendesk auto assist and its core functionalities.

How Zendesk auto assist generates suggestions

Zendesk auto assist has a clear pecking order for where it looks for answers. Understanding this is key to figuring out how much work you’ll need to put in to get any value out of it.

1. Procedures: This is its number one source. Admins have to create detailed, step-by-step guides for specific situations, like how to process a return or troubleshoot a login problem. If a procedure matches the ticket, the AI will use it.

2. Public help center articles: If it can’t find a procedure, its next stop is your public articles in Zendesk Guide.

3. Similar solved tickets: As a last resort, it will try to find patterns by looking at how similar conversations were handled in the past.

Here's the catch: its knowledge is completely siloed. It depends almost entirely on content created and stored inside Zendesk. If your most important process docs and internal guides live elsewhere, like in Confluence or Google Docs, Auto Assist can't see them. It's like asking a colleague for help, but they're only allowed to read files from one specific folder.

This is a huge difference compared to modern AI tools like eesel AI, which plug into dozens of knowledge sources. With a single click, you can connect tools like Confluence, Google Docs, and past tickets from other platforms, bringing all your company's knowledge together in one place.

An infographic showing how eesel AI connects with multiple knowledge sources to provide comprehensive answers, a key advantage over the siloed approach of Zendesk auto assist.

Suggested actions and workflows in Zendesk auto assist

Auto Assist can do a bit more than just suggest text. It can also recommend "actions" to help move a ticket along. This includes things like:

• Updating ticket fields (like changing the status or priority).

• Adding tags for better organization.

• Reassigning a ticket to a different agent or group.

It can also handle some external actions through API calls, like its integration with Shopify for looking up order details. But this usually requires some technical know-how to set up. And just like with replies, an agent has to click "approve" on every single action before it happens.

Setting up and configuring Zendesk auto assist

Getting Zendesk auto assist up and running isn't as simple as flipping a switch. It takes some prep work and a good amount of effort to make it genuinely useful.

Zendesk auto assist prerequisites and requirements

First, the basics. You need the Agent Copilot add-on for your Zendesk plan, and your account needs to be on their latest messaging platform. But that's the easy part. The real work starts after that.

The central role of "procedures" for Zendesk auto assist

The success or failure of Zendesk auto assist pretty much comes down to the quality (and quantity) of the "procedures" you write for it. These aren't just simple FAQs. They are detailed, step-by-step instructions that have to be written in a specific format so the AI can understand them.

This means an admin has to sit down and manually map out workflows for common ticket types. For any team with complex processes or a wide range of customer problems, this can turn into a massive, ongoing project. You're not just activating an AI; you're building its brain from scratch, one procedure at a time.

Using triggers and tags for Zendesk auto assist activation

You also have to tell Zendesk exactly when to let Auto Assist chime in. You do this by setting up triggers that automatically add the "agent_copilot_enabled" tag to certain tickets.

While this gives you some level of control, it also adds another layer of admin work. You have to create and maintain a whole set of rules based on a ticket's channel, intent, or form to decide which conversations get AI help.

This whole process feels worlds away from platforms like eesel AI, which are designed to be simple and self-serve. Instead of making you write dozens of procedures before you even see a result, eesel AI gets to work right away by learning from thousands of your team's past tickets automatically. You can then jump into its simulation mode to test its performance on your historical data, see exactly what it can automate, and roll it out when you feel confident. Most teams are able to go live in minutes, not months.

A screenshot of the eesel AI simulation mode, which allows teams to test automation performance on historical data before deployment, a feature not available with Zendesk auto assist.

Zendesk auto assist pricing and limitations

Alright, let's get to the two questions that really matter: how much does it cost, and what are its real-world shortcomings?

Unpacking Zendesk auto assist pricing

You can't buy Zendesk auto assist by itself. It's bundled into the "Copilot" add-on](https://www.eesel.ai/blog/what-is-copilot). According to Zendesk's pricing page, Copilot is available for their Suite Professional plan (which starts at $115 per agent/month) and Suite Enterprise plan (starting at $169 per agent/month).

The actual price of the add-on isn't listed publicly, which means you'll have to get on a call with their sales team for a quote. This makes it tough to budget properly and compare costs with other tools.

What's more, Zendesk's per-agent pricing can be a real sticking point.

If you have a team of 20 but only need AI assistance for 5 agents, the cost can quickly become hard to justify.

Key Zendesk auto assist limitations to consider

When you step back and look at the whole picture, a few key drawbacks really stand out.

• It’s stuck in a knowledge silo. The AI is pretty much trapped inside the Zendesk platform. It has no way of accessing critical information your team might keep in other places like Confluence, Notion, or Google Docs.

• The setup is a heavy lift. Its usefulness is directly tied to how much time you're willing to sink into writing and maintaining "procedures." This is a time-consuming job that's hard to keep up with as your business grows.

• The pricing is inflexible. The per-agent model can get expensive fast, and it’s not a great fit for teams that only want to use AI for specific tasks or for a small group of agents.

• Customization is limited. While you can write procedures, you don't have much control over the AI's core behavior, tone of voice, or persona compared to more modern, flexible platforms.

A more flexible alternative to Zendesk auto assist: eesel AI

For teams that need more power, flexibility, and control, it's worth looking at other options. Here’s a quick comparison of how Zendesk auto assist stacks up against eesel AI.

Feature	Zendesk auto assist	eesel AI
Setup Time	Weeks to months (manual procedure writing, trigger setup)	Minutes (one-click integrations, learns from past tickets)
Knowledge Sources	Zendesk Help Center, past tickets, and manual "procedures"	Unified knowledge: Zendesk, Confluence, Google Docs, Notion, Slack & 100+ more.
Pricing Model	Per-agent/month add-on, often with opaque pricing.	Transparent, predictable plans based on usage, not agent count. No per-resolution fees.
Testing & Rollout	Manual testing on live tickets.	Powerful simulation mode to test on past tickets before going live.
Control	Controlled via tags and triggers.	Granular control to automate specific ticket types; fully customizable AI persona and actions.

Is Zendesk auto assist right for your team?

So, where does that leave you? Zendesk auto assist can be a decent starting point for teams that live and breathe Zendesk and have all their knowledge neatly organized in Zendesk Guide. If you're ready to put in the time writing detailed procedures, it can certainly help your agents work a bit faster.

However, its rigid structure, heavy reliance on manual setup, and inflexible pricing make it a tough sell for fast-moving teams that use a bunch of different tools to store information. For businesses that want a powerful, easy-to-use AI assistant that connects to their entire knowledge base and has predictable costs, looking at other options is a smart move.

Give your Zendesk support a smarter AI

If the limitations of Zendesk auto assist are hitting a little too close to home, it might be time for a more powerful and flexible solution.

eesel AI plugs directly into your Zendesk account in just a few minutes. It brings together knowledge from all your sources, like Confluence and Google Docs, and uses a powerful simulation mode to show you exactly what it can automate before you even go live.

Start your free trial or book a demo to see how eesel AI can transform your customer support.