Zendesk Unveils GPT-5 Powered AI Agents, Promising 80% Autonomous Resolution Rate

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

Zendesk announced Wednesday at its AI summit a string of LLM-driven products meant to reshape the company's reliance on human technicians. The center of the new features is an autonomous support agent that Zendesk believes will solve 80% of support issues without human intervention. That system will be supplemented by a co-pilot agent, which will assist human technicians with the remaining 20% of issues, as well as an admin-layer agent, a voice-based agent, and an analytics agent. According to Shashi Upadhyay, Zendesk's President of Product, Engineering and AI, the new agents are part of a broader change in the support industry, as AI replaces much of the work that was previously done by humans. "The world's going to shift from software that's built for human users, to a system where AI actually does most of the work," Upadhyay told TechCrunch. Independent benchmarks suggest that contemporary AI models are capable of taking on the work. TAU-bench, which was designed to measure a model's tool-calling ability, includes a scenario in which models have to process a returned product -- a close analogue to many support tasks. The current leader, Claude Sonnet 4.5, solves 85% of issues on the test. After a chaotic investor fight in 2022, Zendesk has made a string of AI acquisitions that laid the groundwork for the current shift. The analytics agent launching today is built directly on the company's Hyperarc acquisition, which was completed in July. Earlier AI acquisitions include the QA and agentic service system Klaus (acquired in February 2024) and the automation platform Ultimate (acquired the following March). Zendesk has previewed the new system with existing customers, and Upadhyay says the results have been promising. "For customers that have been using it, consumer satisfaction has been up by five to ten points," he told TechCrunch. Large language models have often been deployed for customer support, although rarely at the Zendesk's scale. Companies from Airbnb to Regal Theaters have already experimented with in-house chatbot support, often contracting directly with foundation model labs. But those systems typically deal with information retrieval rather than more complex troubleshooting or taking self-directed action. If the new push for AI-based support is successful, the economic implications would be significant. Zendesk's Resolution Platform already supports nearly 20,000 customers, resolving 4.6 billion tickets each year. Beyond Zendesk, the U.S. employs 2.4 million customer service representatives -- with far larger workforces in other countries.

Zendesk launches new AI capabilities for the Resolution Platform, creating the ultimate service experience for all

Zendesk powers nearly 5 billion resolutions every year for over 100,000 customers around the world, with about 20,000 of its customers (and growing) using its AI services. Zendesk is poised to generate about $200 million in AI-related revenue this year, double than some of its largest competitors, while investing $400 million dollars in R&D. Much of that research is focused on upgrading the Zendesk Resolution Platform, a complete AI-first solution for customer service, employee service, and contact center teams, announced at Relate this past March. During AI Summit, Chief Executive Officer Tom Eggemeier, along with members of the Zendesk team, took to the stage to announce several major advancements, including voice AI agents, video calling, and screen sharing for Zendesk Contact Center, and improved IT asset management, as well as the introduction of next-generation analytics, in the wake of its acquisition of HyperArc. "We have built the only platform that is purpose-built for service and purpose-built for AI," Eggemeier said. "That focus is why we lead in AI for all types of service. And it is why we can deliver what no one else can for every service need you have in your organization." New capabilities across use cases and companies At its core, the Resolution Platform powers autonomous AI agents that solve complex issues in real time, leveraging leading LLMs like GPT-5, developed in collaboration with OpenAI, and supporting Model Context Protocol (MCP) to instantly access data, which streamlines workflows and improves autonomous problem-solving. "Since our launch in March, we've been building fast, focused on making AI agents smarter, more flexible, and ready for even more channels," said Shashi Upadhyay, president of product, engineering, and AI at Zendesk. "And now, these AI agents are getting even better. They work across messaging, email, and now voice. They are getting smarter; able to handle multiple intents in a single message, detecting, remembering, and resolving many issues at once." The only platform with native built-in QA, resolutions are automatically scored down to the conversation level, so teams can track resolution quality at scale. For startups, these insights are critical. They not only show what worked, but what needs fixing before it costs them time, reputation, or growth, and importantly, fit within a startup budget. That's because Zendesk is the only company that charges only for successful resolutions, which are verified through the industry's longest validation window, with two layers of quality checks. Making the product CX admin a hero Zendesk demonstrated the platform's new features by highlighting a hypothetical wearable device company's product launch. Service leaders at every stop along the product launch journey -- from design to manufacturing -- manage emerging issues with the support of the upgraded Resolution Platform. For a global manufacturer that builds complex, state-of-the-art wearable tech, the pressure starts the moment a new product hits the market, tickets start pouring in, and a red-flagged backlog piles up. "It is not a product issue, it is a resolution bottleneck," Upadhyay said. But, he added, "What once took days can now be resolved instantly." The new Zendesk Admin Copilot is designed specifically to assist human agents, helping them spot what is not working, what to do next, and carry out changes quickly. It flags operational issues, like missing intent tags, broken internal processes, or routing conflicts that delay resolution. Copilot explains what is happening in plain language, recommends specific fixes, and with the admin's approval, can make the changes itself. It's grounded in live Zendesk data, like tickets, triggers, and knowledge, so every recommendation is specific, current, and based on how the service operation actually runs. Once the admin identifies the issue and implements a fix, the next step is ensuring everyone has access to the right knowledge to support it. For many organizations, that information lives outside of Zendesk. The newly launched Knowledge Connectors allows admins to pull in relevant content, like configuration guides or policy details, without needing to migrate anything so both human and AI agents have access to real-time instructions tied to the exact product version. The admin also creates a smarter feedback loop with the new Action Builder, which automatically tags, summarizes, and sends notifications to the product team through Microsoft Teams. And finally, Zendesk HyperArc will bring customers insights that combine AI and human analysis in a clear, narrative-driven view of what is happening and why, instead of siloed dashboards or static reports. "With these innovations in place, change at the manufacturing plant cascades quickly, tickets are routed cleanly, support agents know what to say, engineering sees real signals instead of scattered anecdotes, and customers who just want the product to work get fast, reliable resolutions," Upadhyay said. "The CX Admin becomes the quiet hero of the manufacturer's story." Solutions for the retail CX leader As a CX or contact center leader for a retail company, when a must-have wearable drops, how do you deliver service for your new hit product that feels personal and consistent when your team is stretched across multiple countries, channels, and customer expectations at once? "Intelligent automation doesn't just streamline operations -- it enhances the customer experience across borders and channels," said Lisa Kant, senior vice president of marketing at Zendesk. Zendesk's Voice AI Agents are fully autonomous AI agents designed to understand natural speech, take action, and resolve issues without needing to escalate. They can verify identity, track orders, update deliveries, and answer setup questions in multiple languages, while keeping the brand experience consistent. Meanwhile, Video Calling lets a live agent spin up a video session, confirm the device is working, and walk the customer through setup or troubleshooting. And because a help center is a critical part of delivering great service, especially when scaling fast across multiple countries and languages, Zendesk built Knowledge Builder, an AI-powered tool that helps teams build and maintain their help center content automatically. It analyzes real customer conversations and turns them into localized help articles for trending issues. Giving IT leaders a strong edge When a company adopts that new product, it becomes critical to resolve issues fast, to ensure employee productivity stays strong. Available with early access in November, Zendesk's new employee service offering, IT Asset Management (ITAM), natively integrates service and asset data together into the Zendesk service desk to help IT move from reactive troubleshooting to proactive service. Now, when a vague "tablet not working" ticket comes in, Zendesk ITAM surfaces the device details right inside the ticket, so IT knows exactly what they are dealing with. Zendesk Copilot uses that same asset data to recommend model-specific troubleshooting steps. And with Knowledge Connectors, those steps can be pulled directly from SharePoint or Confluence without migration. If the fix does not work, the IT specialist confirms in seconds that the device is under warranty and issues a replacement without any back-and-forth. With real-time visibility across every hardware asset, the IT leader can spot patterns before they become a flood of tickets, or failures at the point of care, so IT resolves issues faster and prevents problems before they happen. "With Zendesk, IT is not just reacting to issues -- it is setting the standard for how proactive employee service is delivered," Upadhyay said. For more on the latest Zendesk updates and improvements, and to watch a conversation with Zendesk's special guest, co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, and more, watch the full videos here. And for the latest updates, detailed information, and product availability, visit Zendesk's official announcements page. Sponsored articles are content produced by a company that is either paying for the post or has a business relationship with VentureBeat, and they're always clearly marked. For more information, contact [email protected].

Zendesk introduces new AI automation features for contact centers - SiliconANGLE

Zendesk introduces new AI automation features for contact centers Zendesk Inc. is rolling out a set of new features designed to make contact center teams more productive. The enhancements debuted today at the company's AI Summit event. They will be available in Zendesk's flagship Resolution Platform, a cloud-based platform that customer service teams use to process support tickets. It also eases related tasks such as estimating how many new staffers a company's contact center should hire next quarter. Zendesk was taken private three years ago in a deal that valued it at $10.2 billion. On occasion of today's product update, the company disclosed that its AI features are expected to pass the $200 million annualized revenue mark this year. That's nearly half the quarterly revenue Zendesk disclosed in the last earnings report it published before going private. The first addition to the company's platform is a set of voice AI agents optimized for contact center tasks. According to TechCrunch, Zendesk estimates that the agents can process up to 80% of support requests without manual input. They answer inquiries using knowledge base articles and past support tickets. Another new automation tool, Admin Copilot, promises to ease the work of the administrators who manage a company's Zendesk environment. The tool can generate natural language explanations of Zendesk features. Additionally, it's capable of fixing certain types of technical issues on its own. Another major focus of today's product update is making it easier for Zendesk customers to extend the platform. A new tool called App Builder enables workers to create simple applications using natural language prompts. A contact center manager could, for example, create a Zendesk sidebar that enables support agents to quickly access customers' past support tickets. Simpler tasks can be automated using a tool called Action Builder. It can perform repetitive chores such as syncing support requests to Jira. As part of today's update, Zendesk is updating the tool with features that make it possible to test user-created automation workflows for technical issues. Zendesk enables companies to reduce support request volumes by creating a knowledge base that answers users' most common questions. To speed up the task, the software maker today debuted an AI tool called Knowledge Builder. It generates knowledge base articles based on a company's support tickets and other internal business data. Zendesk's new AI capabilities are joined by several other enhancements. The software maker has added a feature for monitoring the corporate devices that a company issues to employees. Additionally, customers now have access to analytics dashboards that can track support ticket volumes, help desk productivity and other contact center metrics.

Zendesk Just Unveiled GPT‑5-Powered AI Agents That Handle Customers Without Human Help

Customer service automation company Zendesk has announced several new AI-powered updates, all aimed at boosting resolution rates and customer satisfaction scores. The updates will enable AI agents to go deeper in their interactions with customers through video, screen-sharing, and new voice agents that Zendesk CEO Tom Eggemeier calls the "most autonomous voice AI agents in the world." Eggemeier says that many of these new upgrades are powered by GPT-5, OpenAI's current flagship model. (Zendesk is one of OpenAI's top customers.) According to Eggemeier, GPT-5 has dramatically improved Zendesk's AI agents. The CEO says the new model is resolving more problems on its own, and has reduced the need to pass customer issues to human agents by 20 percent. Zendesk, which sells software that helps customer service teams manage interaction through automation and data analysis, began working with OpenAI in early 2023, just a few months after ChatGPT's launch. At the time, Eggemeier says, "it was hard to get in touch with people at OpenAI because the business was exploding. Now, we're getting deep architecture help and their AI agent builder to build on top of. It's a fundamentally different relationship." At its DevDay conference on Monday, October 6, OpenAI announced AgentKit, a set of digital tools that optimizes the process of building and orchestrating AI agents. Zendesk is using AgentKit to develop its own features, including a tool for creating agentic workflows called Action Builder. The company's new agents are capable of understanding live video, which could potentially be useful for customer support tasks that require visual analysis, such as auto insurance. An insurer could set up an agent to analyze video of a damaged car, for example. This tech also enables agents to view a customer's screen, which could enable more IT-focused use cases. Another new addition to Zendesk's suite of tools is voice agents. Customers can speak to these agents in natural language, and have been empowered to take action and resolve issues without getting a human involved. "Because they're built into the platform," the company wrote in a blog post, "they operate with full context -- leveraging your knowledge base, support data, and quality standards to deliver accurate, consistent results." In addition to the new agents, Zendesk is also rolling out new analytics capabilities, intended to help administrators better understand instances in which an agent makes a mistake. These capabilities are powered by HyperArc, an analytics platform acquired by Zendesk in July. Many companies that regularly use agents don't have any information regarding how those agents make decisions, says Eggemeier. Using HyperArc's tech, Zendesk will soon be able to map out the decision flow after every agentic interaction, showing exactly how the agent arrived at its conclusion. "Just like human agents make mistakes," says Eggemeier, "AI agents make mistakes. You need to drill down to figure out why and correct that going forward." Having agents handle customer service tasks can be appealing, but as Eggemeier says, they can make mistakes. That means that relying on AI can be risky. In August, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) reversed plans to replace 45 customer service workers with AI agents. Instead of reducing customer service call volumes, the AI agents actually led to an increase in calls. Another notable instance of AI agent failure comes from Klarna, which in 2022 laid off 700 employees in favor of AI agents, but has in recent months reversed course and started hiring human customer service employees again. With tons of data flowing from Zendesk to OpenAI, Zendesk is clearly spending heavily on the partnership. But Eggemeier isn't worried about optimizing costs. "Right now, we're not focused on optimizing the number of tokens," Eggemeier says. "We're focused on getting the best customer resolutions, the most automated resolutions, to our customers." "There's a labor arbitrage here," he explains. "If our agents can answer a customer question or complete a task for $1.49 versus $5 to $15 for human labor, it's a win for us at Zendesk, it's a win for our customers, and it's a win for their customers."