Zendesk says its new AI agent can solve 80% of support issues

Zendesk introduced Wednesday at its AI summit a string of LLM-driven merchandise meant to reshape the corporate’s reliance on human technicians.

The middle of the brand new options is an autonomous assist agent that Zendesk believes will clear up 80% of assist points with out human intervention. That system will likely be supplemented by a co-pilot agent, which can help human technicians with the remaining 20% of points, in addition to an admin-layer agent, a voice-based agent, and an analytics agent.

In response to Shashi Upadhyay, Zendesk’s president of Product, Engineering and AI, the brand new brokers are a part of a broader change within the assist business, as AI replaces a lot of the work that was beforehand performed by people.

“The world’s going to shift from software program that’s constructed for human customers, to a system the place AI really does a lot of the work,” Upadhyay informed iinfoai.

Impartial benchmarks recommend that up to date AI fashions are able to taking over the work. TAU-bench, which was designed to measure a mannequin’s tool-calling means, features a state of affairs through which fashions must course of a returned product — an in depth analogue to many assist duties. The present chief, Claude Sonnet 4.5, solves 85% of points on the take a look at.

After a chaotic investor combat in 2022, Zendesk has made a string of AI acquisitions that laid the groundwork for the present shift. The analytics agent launching right now is constructed straight on the corporate’s Hyperarc acquisition, which was accomplished in July. Earlier AI acquisitions embrace the QA and agentic service system Klaus (acquired in February 2024) and the automation platform Final (acquired the next March).

Zendesk has previewed the brand new system with current clients, and Upadhyay says the outcomes have been promising.

“For patrons which were utilizing it, shopper satisfaction has been up by 5 to 10 factors,” he informed iinfoai.

Massive language fashions have typically been deployed for buyer assist, though not often on the Zendesk’s scale. Firms from Airbnb to Regal Theaters have already experimented with in-house chatbot assist, typically contracting straight with basis mannequin labs. However these programs usually cope with data retrieval reasonably than extra advanced troubleshooting or taking self-directed motion.

If the brand new push for AI-based assist is profitable, the financial implications could be important. Zendesk’s Decision Platform already helps practically 20,000 clients, resolving 4.6 billion tickets every year. Past Zendesk, the U.S. employs 2.4 million customer support representatives — with far bigger workforces in different international locations.