This article describes functionality available
only to customers who had a drafted or published AI agent as of February 2, 2025. For
information about equivalent functionality in the AI agents - Advanced add-on, see Building dialogues for AI agents - Advanced.
You can use bot builder to create answers for your AI agents for messaging, giving your customers the opportunity to self-serve their support issues before connecting with agents. This article introduces the bot builder UI and basic functionality. For information about working with bot builder, see Building an AI agent for messaging using answers.
Bot builder is the tool you use to create answers for your AI agent for messaging. Bot builder lets you control how the AI agent behaves in response to customer input.
Each bot builder component plays an important role in building an answer:
- Header, which appears at the top of the screen, above the flow. In the header, you'll find breadcrumbs for the answer's AI agent as well as the Preview and Done buttons.
- Flow, your answer represented in a decision tree format. The flow is a series of connected steps representing the interaction the AI agent can have with a customer. You can select a step to configure the AI agent's responses, and add steps to the answer. The navigation controls at the bottom of the flow allow you to zoom in and out of the answer, or pan to areas in the answer. You can also pinch to zoom using a touchpad or touch screen.
-
Configuration panel, where you can customize each step in your answer. The
appearance of this panel changes based on what type of AI agent step you're working on.
- Answer builder (shown above), displayed when you initially create an answer, and when you select the top step in the answer. Here, you can configure your answer intent, and work with your question variations.
- Configuration tab, which appears when you select a step to the answer, or add a new step to an answer. Here, you can select the type of step you want to add to your answer, add and edit automated messages, and build lists of options for your customers to choose from. For detailed information on these step types, including usage and configuration rules, visual examples of the steps in the bot builder, and how each appears to your customers in a Web Widget, see Understanding AI agent step types.
- Preview tab, for previewing the customer experience created by the answer, before releasing it to your customers. Click the Preview tab in the Configuration panel to view.
119 comments
Miles Ilog
Upon checking, a colleague is already working with you about this concern. Please reply to the ticket to further investigate the issue.
Thank you.
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Bot Ivan
Hello!
Can you explain please, how far is updating counter of Resolution articles? For test I clicked to the article yesterday and choose option "it was helpful", but in Zendesk Explore today I have 0 value in report of this article for metrics "clicked article" and "resolution article".
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George Reinoso
Hi!,
Does flow builder works for social messaging?
Best,
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Dane
Yes, flow builder is specifically designed for Messaging.
Cheers,
Dane
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Ilaria
In the bot flow, is it also possible to set tags for the different automated replies? And if not, would it be possible to add tags to these conversations after they are ended? Based on this article it looks possible but I wanted to make sure whether it's also valid for conversations held with the bot, not with an Agent.
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Dane
The article you have provided is for our Chat channel and not Messaging. It will work only if you are using the normal chat triggers for the automated replies. However, such function is not yet supported in the Flow Builder.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Dane
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Ilaria
Hi Dane, thank you. So the conversations that happened through the Flow Builder cannot be tagged later after they are ended, is it correct?
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Dane
Yes, you are correct. As of the moment, Messaging triggers does not have this capability.
Cheers,
Dane
0
Santiago Gandolfo
Hi, is there a way to add a "Multi-line" Field to the Fields in The "Transfer to agent" step in the Flow Builder? Or at least be able to send more than 128 characters in the "Text" Field?
We would like for the customer to send us a comment abount their problem or doubt before the ticket is transfered to the agent, so that in one hand, we don't have agents waiting for a customer to send that information after the ticket was created, and also to be able to use that information in a webhook trigger to improve the routing of the tickets.
Do you suggest any alternative?
1
Dane
You can use any available ticket fields on the transfer to agent option. You just have to add the corresponding ticket field to it by selecting configure. Please refer to the screenshot below.
In my case, I prefer to add a text field that the customer will have to explain their actual concern. However, you can also use a dropdown for them to select a pre-defined value.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Dane
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Santiago Gandolfo
Hi Dane, I've tried to do what you mention, and multi-line fields don't show up on the Fields in the Configure section, only Text and Drop-down. And if we want our clients to describe give us a full description of their problem before the ticket is created, then an input that is limited to one line isn't a good UX, and less so because there is an arbitrary 128 character limit:
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2
Donald
Hi, I remember before I was able to connect the workflow to facebook messenger. Now I noticed when the admin center interface was changed I cannot see that option anymore.
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Permanently deleted user
Some things that would be beneficial that have greatly hindered our ability to use this feature include:
1
Alex
Hi team,
I noticed that my bot flow works completely differently than when I contact Zendesk live support.
1. Zendesk allows for multiple conversations.
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2. If the Z bot doesn't know the answer, it allows contacting the agent. But my bot in this case asks to rephrase the question and offers to 'Start over'.
3. When the Z bot suggests an article and I click 'No, I still need help', the Z bot also allows me to contact your team, rather than offering to rephrase the question or 'Start over'.
Please tell me how can I do the same with my bot flow?
Such features are very important for my product.
Thank you!
-Artem
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Dane
Flow builder does not support Messenger. However, you can add a Facebook Messenger channel in Admin Center > Channels > Messaging.
@Morgan
That's definitely a good feature to have. I'll mark it as a product feedback and this will be brought up to the attention of our Product Managers. As Flow builder is fairly new, we appreciate this kind of feedback to continuously improve our product.
@Artem
Our Messaging widget has been developed to cater our customers and make sure that they will be routed to the correct department more efficiently. This was done through rigorous and heavy customization. Hence, this functionality is not yet available for our client facing flow builder. More improvements with flow builder are currently being worked on. This kind of feedback will definitely help our Product Managers on the continuous improvement of our Flow Builder.
0
Jason Walker-C
We really need to be able to copy Bot and all its steps in a flow for backup and testing purpose.
1
Dave Dyson
Thanks for the feedback! The best place for this is our Feedback - Chat and Messaging (Chat) topic since our product team monitors that topic, and using this template will be ensure they get the information they need. Thanks!
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Jason Walker-C
@... Moved.... https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/4505043303450-Ability-to-copy-and-backup-bot-flows-and-steps-
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Dave Dyson
Thanks Jason Walker-C!
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Katie Raeburn
Hey, hoping someone might be able to help.
I have successfully built a flow and we have this working in app, however once the user has opted to speak to a human, I would like to offer them the option to ask another question/ start at the beginning of the flow, as currently it seems this user is locked into the conversation with no option to find the answer to other questions.
Would love any insight on this!
0
Lisa Tam
Hey Katie,
We have some updates coming in June where you can build separate flows to address individual customer questions. You can then train the bot to recognise the types of questions to respond with the specific answer flow. You can find more details of this upcoming bot building update here.
Hope this helps.
0
Hannah Voice
Is it not possible for users to enter free text in order to search for Help Center articles (instead of us having to configure the specific articles that we want to show)? Thanks!
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Jade Kupa
This is great, I am having difficulty however with the Conversations. Currently, they are flowing through to the Open ticket trays, and can not be replied to in there, I have admin access and we do not use the conversations like a Live Chat, we want it to come through as a ticket to answer.
Can Messaging with flow builder web widget only be used if you transfer to a live agent? Not a normal ticket with a High SLA that will be answered in priority if the articles can not be solved?
1
Mariano Terzolo
Hi everyone,
Is there a way to change the text of the farewell message "Great. Knowledge is power. You..."?
Thanks.
0
Kuan Ting C
hi i want to know how to set up the multiple language for answer bot?
I try to set up 2 languages, but one channel only can connect one bot.
after I connect the Chinese language to the channel, it will be automatically disconnected from another bot (english)
0
Dane
End-users can always enter free text on any part of the flow builder steps. For example, when you use the step "Show Help Center Articles" to present the most commonly used articles to your end-users, they can freely type in any keyword they prefer for the bot to provide other recommendations.
@Jade,
Yes, you will need to use the "Transfer to Agent" steps for such conversations to be routed to your support.
@Mariano,
The feedback flow is currently not customizable but it is something we are planning to support in the near future where you can customize the text or disable it.
@Kuan Ting,
The article Managing languages in a bot can help out on your concern. Don't hesitate to post on the comment section if you have additional concern.
1
Naresh Chevuri
How I can start my conversation without any answers, the conversation should begin with the customer.
But in my flow builder, it's asking to enter at least one answer.
I want to keep an empty answer(without any answer during the start of my conversation) at first, later depending upon the customer's request need to display the answer.
Should start like, Please guide me to develop in this way.
0
小林正左子
Hi, Naresh Chevuri
How about we try it this way?
Watch out, it's on the Japanese screen!
I'd be happy to be of help.
0
Naresh Chevuri
Masako K Thanks!
How to build flow for ending up a conversation.
Whereas in my flow I'm receiving these phrases.
1
Dane
For this configuration, you can either utilize Intent or the Message step. This way, your bot will first ask the question and will not immediately provide articles.
0