Auto Assist

An AI assistant that reads submitted tickets in the Zendesk Agent Workspace and presents the human agent with suggested replies, suggested ticket actions and written instructions. Approved suggestions are executed by the system, including ticket field updates, macros and custom API actions into external systems. Actions and action flows marked pre-approved in a procedure execute automatically without being shown to the agent.

Recorded characteristics

Function

Understands the contents of a submitted ticket and proactively presents suggestions in the Agent Workspace composer: suggested replies to the customer, suggested actions on the ticket, and written instructions for manual steps the agent must perform. Suggestions are generated from admin-authored procedures, help centre articles, similar solved tickets and connected external knowledge sources. When the agent approves a suggested action or action flow, the system carries it out. Documentation states auto assist does not operate on AI agent tickets.

Data access

Ticket content and conversation; standard ticket fields documented as readable (assignee email, assignee name, brand, priority, requester email, requester name, status, subject, type) and custom ticket fields; admin-authored procedures; public help centre articles matching the ticket brand and language; internal help centre articles exposed through selected user segments; similar solved tickets matching the ticket brand; connected external knowledge sources activated by an admin, documented as including Box, Confluence, Document360, Google Drive, Guru, Notion, SharePoint, web crawler content and other Zendesk instances.

Actions

Can take actions

External actions

Yes

Human confirmation

Conditional

Permission basis

Mixed

Administrative control

An administrator must turn auto assist on in Admin Center (AI > Agent copilot > Auto assist) by selecting "Show auto assist replies and actions in the agent composer", and defines which agent groups have access. Admins author and publish the procedures that define what auto assist may do, link specific actions, action flows and macros into those procedures, mark individual custom actions or action flows as pre-approved so they execute without agent approval, configure custom actions and their authenticating connections, select which help centre user segments and external knowledge sources may be used, and scope auto assist to channels using ticket triggers that apply the agent_copilot_enabled tag.

Default state

Disabled

Availability

Requires the Copilot add-on. Documentation for actions states availability on all Suites and on Growth, Professional, Enterprise or Enterprise Plus. No region restriction is established in the documentation reviewed. An updated auto assist experience including a confidence-based suggestion mode is documented as an early access programme requiring account enrolment, and is not treated here as generally available.

Licensing

Copilot add-on, purchased in addition to the base Zendesk plan.

External model or provider

Not established. Documentation states large language model technology is used but does not name the model or provider.

Limitations and uncertainty

Zendesk documentation states that suggestions require agent approval before being sent and that "agents are always in control of the replies they send to customers", while separately documenting pre-approved custom actions and action flows that are not shown to the agent and execute automatically at the relevant step of a procedure. These statements are recorded together rather than resolved; the confirmation requirement therefore depends on admin configuration. The identity under which actions execute is only partly established: ticket-side standard actions occur in the agent workspace, while custom actions authenticate through an admin-configured connection which Zendesk warns "might have greater access privileges than your agents and end users". Auto assist is documented as limited to approximately four suggested items at a time and as unable to see unsaved ticket field changes. Model, provider, data retention and region were not established from the documentation reviewed.

Evidence

• About auto assist

  Supports: Function · General · Human confirmation · Data access · Limitations · Licensing · Primary source

  Auto assist understands submitted ticket contents and makes suggestions to agents on how to solve them.

  Suggestions appear in the ticket interface in place of the composer; auto assist does not work on AI agent tickets.

  Suggestions require agent approval before being sent to a customer.

  Suggestion sources: procedures, help centre articles, similar solved tickets and additional connected knowledge sources.

  Internal help centre content is only used where admins expose the relevant user segments.

  Documented as part of the Copilot add-on.

• About actions for auto assist and action flows

  Supports: Actions · External actions · Human confirmation · Permission basis · Data access · Availability · Licensing · Limitations · Admin controls · Primary source

  Standard actions update ticket status, priority, type, tags, custom ticket fields, assignee and group; approved actions are carried out automatically by the system.

  Custom actions call an API the customer defines, and a documented Shopify integration can look up, cancel and refund orders.

  Custom actions and action flows marked pre-approved are not suggested to an agent and are executed automatically within the procedure.

  Custom actions authenticate through a connection that may have greater access privileges than agents or end users.

  Lists the standard ticket fields and custom ticket fields readable by auto assist.

  Documented for all Suites and for Growth, Professional, Enterprise or Enterprise Plus.

  The Copilot add-on is required to use auto assist.

  Up to about four suggested items at a time; unsaved ticket field changes are not visible to auto assist.

  Pre-approval of individual custom actions and action flows is an administrator configuration choice.

• Setting up auto assist

  Supports: Admin controls · Default state · Function · General · Primary source

  Admins turn auto assist on and select which agent groups have access.

  Auto assist must be switched on in Admin Center before suggestions appear in the agent composer.

  Suggestions can be replies to send to the customer or actions for the agent to take, shown in the Agent Workspace.

  Administrator setup sequence for auto assist.

• Turning on and configuring auto assist

  Supports: Admin controls · Default state · Data access · Primary source

  Enablement, access configuration and channel scoping using ticket triggers that apply the agent_copilot_enabled tag.

  The setting "Show auto assist replies and actions in the agent composer" must be selected.

  Managing which knowledge sources auto assist may use.

• Creating procedures for auto assist

  Supports: Function · Admin controls · Limitations · Primary source

  Procedures are the written steps auto assist follows when making suggestions.

  Procedures can link actions, action flows, macros, agent instructions, articles and ticket fields, and can be brand-conditional.

  Procedures must be tested and published before agents receive suggestions based on them.

• Creating custom actions for auto assist, AI agents, and action flows

  Supports: External actions · Permission basis · Limitations · Primary source

  Custom actions query and modify internal business systems or perform third-party actions through a configured API.

  Connections are used for authentication and may hold higher access privileges than agents or end users.

  Custom actions are rate limited and Zendesk API-based custom actions count against account API limits.

• Creating instructions for agents in auto assist procedures

  Supports: Function · Human confirmation · Primary source

  Direct agent instructions guide manual steps where auto assist cannot complete an action.

  Instructions require the agent's manual input, unlike suggested replies and actions which the agent approves.

• Announcing external sources and internal knowledge articles in auto assist

  Supports: Data access · General · Primary source

  Auto assist can use connected external sources and internal knowledge articles to generate text suggestions.

  Rollout announced July 2026 for external sources and internal knowledge articles in auto assist.