Zendesk voice AI agents: A complete overview for 2025

Voice support is still the go-to for a lot of customers, but let’s be real, most of us get a little knot in our stomach when we have to call a support line. We’ve all been through the endless, robotic IVR menus and had to repeat our problem to three different people. There’s so much room for a better experience, especially when a Calabrio report found that 80% of us still prefer picking up the phone for customer service.

AI is finally showing up to make voice support smarter and way less painful. Zendesk has jumped into this area with its new Zendesk voice AI agents, promising they can handle and solve complex calls without needing a human to step in.

This guide will walk you through what Zendesk voice AI agents actually are, what they can do, what you can expect to pay, and some important limitations to think about before you commit. We’ll also look at a more flexible way to bring powerful AI to your support channels without getting locked into one platform.

What are Zendesk voice AI agents?

At their core, Zendesk voice AI agents are AI-powered bots designed to manage customer support calls from beginning to end. They’re built right into the Zendesk platform, which is great for teams already using their software. The goal is to have one unified system for everything.

A look at the Zendesk Agent Workspace where Zendesk voice AI agents operate.

The tech they’re using is pretty impressive. They’re running on large language models (like GPT-4 from OpenAI), which lets them understand normal, conversational language and talk back like a person would. According to an article from Inc.com, this collaboration with OpenAI has given their abilities a serious boost.

The main idea is to get rid of those clunky "press one for sales" phone trees and replace them with a smooth, natural conversation. The AI can verify who the customer is, answer tricky questions, and actually get things done without having to pass the call to a human. Zendesk even says its AI agents can resolve over 50% of incoming calls, which in theory, frees up your human agents for the really tough stuff.

Key features of Zendesk voice AI agents

The biggest draw of Zendesk’s AI is how tightly it’s integrated with their other products. If your team is already all-in on Zendesk, these features will feel like a pretty natural add-on to your daily routine.

Autonomous call resolution

The star of the show is the AI’s ability to handle a whole conversation on its own, from "hello" to "problem solved." These aren’t just simple bots that direct traffic; they’re built to take action.

Depending on what the customer needs, the AI can:

• Securely verify a customer’s identity before talking about sensitive info.

• Answer complicated, multi-part questions by digging through your knowledge base.

• Process a transaction or update account details on the spot.

• Intelligently hand off a call to the right human agent with all the context if the problem is too much for the AI to handle.

AI-powered transcripts and summaries

One of the biggest time-wasters for support agents is the "wrap-up" work after a call ends. To tackle this, Zendesk’s voice AI automatically creates a full transcript and a quick summary of every single call.

An example of an AI-generated ticket summary created by Zendesk voice AI agents.

This is a huge help for productivity. It pretty much gets rid of the manual note-taking and other admin tasks agents are stuck with, letting them move on to the next customer faster. This feature is part of Zendesk’s bigger push for AI-assisted support for agents.

Native integration with Zendesk QA and analytics

Because the voice AI is part of the platform, every call is automatically logged and analyzed inside the Zendesk ecosystem. This is a big plus for managers who need one place to see how everything is performing.

The analytics dashboard where voice interactions from Zendesk voice AI agents are tracked.

The Zendesk QA for voice feature lets you review 100% of conversations, whether they were handled by an AI or a person. This helps you see performance trends, catch customers who might be about to leave, and keep quality consistent across the board.

Feature	Description	Primary Benefit
Autonomous Conversations	Manages complex voice calls end-to-end using generative AI.	Cuts down on wait times and solves issues 24/7.
AI Transcripts & Summaries	Automatically creates call summaries after every interaction.	Frees up your agents’ time and reduces admin work.
Native Zendesk QA & Analytics	All voice interactions are tracked and analyzable within Zendesk.	Gives you a single dashboard for quality and performance.
Seamless Channel Handoff	Passes calls to human agents with full context from other channels.	Customers don’t have to repeat themselves.

How to get started with Zendesk voice AI agents: Setup and pricing

Getting Zendesk voice AI agents up and running isn’t as straightforward as just buying a piece of software. It’s woven into their bigger platform, so you’ll need to be on certain subscription plans and might have to buy add-ons to get everything you want.

The implementation process

For the most part, the AI agent features are bundled into the Zendesk Suite plans. The setup involves tweaking the AI agent in your Zendesk admin settings, pointing it to your knowledge sources (which is mostly your Zendesk Help Center), and setting up its personality and rules.

Configuring settings for Zendesk voice AI agents in the admin panel.

Zendesk markets it as a quick and easy setup for the basics. But if you want to create truly independent agents with more advanced skills, like custom integrations or complex workflows, you’ll probably need to roll up your sleeves for some deeper technical work.

Zendesk pricing plans

Zendesk’s pricing can be a bit of a maze. They mostly charge per agent, per month, and which AI and voice features you get depends entirely on your plan. And it’s not just the sticker price you have to worry about; add-ons and usage fees can make your bill climb quickly.

Here’s a look at their main Suite plans that include the core AI features:

Plan	Price (per agent/month, billed annually)	Key AI & Voice Features Included
Suite Team	$55	AI agents (Essential), Generative replies, Knowledge base, Phone support, Call routing.
Suite Professional	$115	Everything in Team, plus CSAT surveys, Skills-based routing, IVR phone tree, HIPAA compliance.
Suite Enterprise	$169	Everything in Professional, plus Custom agent roles, Sandbox environment, Advanced reporting.

It’s really important to read the fine print. The "Advanced AI agents" that can handle more difficult problems and do more complex tasks are sold as an add-on. The "Copilot" that helps human agents by summarizing tickets is also a separate add-on.

On top of that, these plans only come with a certain number of "automated resolutions." If your AI resolves more tickets than your plan allows, you get hit with a pay-as-you-go fee of around $2 for each extra one. This can make your monthly costs really unpredictable, especially when you have a busy month.

Key limitations of the native approach

Before you go all-in on a single vendor, it pays to ask some tough questions. A native tool feels convenient, but that convenience can come at the cost of flexibility and control.

A closed ecosystem limits knowledge sources

This is probably the biggest hurdle: Zendesk’s AI is smart, but it mostly learns from the information that’s already inside Zendesk. That means it’s fantastic at finding answers in your Zendesk Help Center articles, old tickets, and macros.

But what about all the other places your company’s knowledge lives? Think about those detailed troubleshooting guides your engineers have in Confluence, the latest product updates shared in a Google Doc, or the quick policy clarifications that are sorted out in Slack. For Zendesk’s AI, this information might as well not exist. This leads to incomplete answers and more calls getting escalated to human agents that the AI should have been able to handle.

Complex setup and a lack of risk-free testing

While the initial setup might be simple enough, building autonomous agents that can do custom things, like checking an order status in Shopify or creating a ticket in another system, can get complicated in a hurry.

The bigger risk, though, is that there isn’t a great way to test it. How can you be sure your new voice AI will work the way you expect before you unleash it on real customers? Without a way to simulate how it would perform using your past support conversations, you’re pretty much guessing. You could end up with an AI that makes mistakes, tanks your CSAT score, and just creates more cleanup work for your team.

Per-agent pricing leads to unpredictable costs

Zendesk’s pricing is tied to how many human agents you have, plus the cost of add-ons and those surprising overage fees for automated resolutions.

This model means your costs can grow in ways you didn’t see coming. As your team gets bigger, your bill goes up. If you have a crazy busy month and the AI handles more tickets than you’re allotted, your bill goes up. You can end up paying more for being successful and efficient, which makes it incredibly hard to budget accurately.

A more flexible alternative: Supercharge Zendesk with eesel AI

For teams that are happy with their help desk like Zendesk but need more power and control over their AI, there’s a different way to go. Instead of ripping out your current tools, you can add a smarter AI layer on top of them.

Go live in minutes with a truly self-serve platform

Forget about long sales calls and demos just to get started. With eesel AI, you can sign up, connect your help desk with one click, and have a basic AI agent running in minutes. You are in the driver’s seat from the very beginning.

An eesel AI agent shown working within the Zendesk platform, a more flexible alternative to native Zendesk voice AI agents.

Unify all your knowledge, not just your help desk data

eesel AI is built to solve the knowledge silo problem. It connects to all the places your information lives, not just what’s in your help desk. You can easily pull in knowledge from Confluence, Google Docs, Notion, Slack, and over 100 other apps.

This gives your AI a complete picture of your company’s knowledge, so it can give accurate and thorough answers every time.

Test with confidence using powerful simulations

This is a really important difference. Before your AI agent ever speaks to a customer, eesel AI lets you run simulations on thousands of your past support tickets.

This feature gives you an accurate prediction of your automation rate and shows you exactly how the AI would have answered in real situations. You can see how it performs, find spots where it needs a little help, and tweak its behavior, all in a safe, risk-free environment.

Benefit from transparent, predictable pricing

eesel AI has straightforward plans based on the volume of conversations you need, with no per-resolution fees. Your bill won’t jump up during a busy month, and the costs are easy to understand and predict. You’re never penalized for successfully automating more questions; in fact, that’s the whole point.

The verdict on Zendesk voice AI agents: Choosing the right AI voice strategy

Zendesk voice AI agents are a big step forward for phone support. They’re a solid choice for teams that are deeply invested in the Zendesk ecosystem and keep almost all of their knowledge inside Zendesk’s native tools.

However, for teams that need to pull information from many different places, want total control with risk-free testing, and prefer a clear, predictable price tag, a tool like eesel AI offers a more flexible and powerful way to level up your existing setup.

The best strategy isn’t about replacing your help desk. It’s about making it smarter with an AI that can work with your entire knowledge stack, giving you the power to offer truly great voice support.

Ready to see what a unified AI agent can do for your team? Sign up for eesel AI for free and connect your Zendesk account in minutes.