Zendesk, a leading customer service and experience platform, announced new AI-driven initiatives aimed at revolutionizing customer engagement. During the Zendesk AI Summit in New York City, the company introduced AI-powered agents and copilots, as well as an advanced voice agent capable of handling customer conversations autonomously.
CEO Tom Eggemeier noted a shift in focus for businesses, stating that the era of AI hype is giving way to tangible, business-specific outcomes. He emphasized that companies are now targeting ambitious goals, such as achieving over 90% automated customer resolutions. Eggemeier added, “The fixation on AI for its own sake is fading.”
As part of these initiatives, Zendesk’s AI agents will be integrated across all digital channels, able to operate independently or in partnership with human agents to resolve customer issues. By delegating routine interactions to AI, human agents will have more capacity to handle complex or high-value tasks. Zendesk’s CTO, Adrian McDermott, highlighted the future potential of this collaboration, stating, “An AI agent standing next to us, smarter and better organized than us — that’s the future of work.”
Zendesk also introduced an AI agent builder, allowing businesses to customize AI agents and tailor their responses to align with their brand voice. Lisa Kant, Zendesk’s SVP of Product and Solutions Marketing, pointed to the B2C sector as particularly ripe for automation, noting that repetitive customer queries present an opportunity for AI-driven efficiencies.
In addition to digital channels, Zendesk unveiled an AI-powered voice solution designed to enhance the entire call experience. This 24/7 voice agent will allow customers to engage in natural conversations while providing unified customer support throughout the call journey. Capable of routing and resolving calls, the agent will also track key metrics such as call type, answer time, and wait time, and is expected to autonomously resolve up to 50% of calls. Human agents will be reserved for escalated issues.
Looking to the future, Zendesk executives predicted that AI automation will increasingly dominate customer interactions, with the potential to impact service, sales, and marketing. “In the future, 80% of the conversations you have with customers will be fully automated,” said one of the company’s leaders, forecasting the broader impact of AI on business operations.
With these innovations, Zendesk aims to streamline customer service operations, blending AI-driven automation with human expertise to create more efficient, personalized, and scalable customer experiences.
