Using AI-powered intents with conversation bots

Attention: Intents are available as part of the Advanced AI add-on. Eligible accounts will be able to use them in a limited capacity without purchasing the add-on.

Intents are predetermined topics that represent customer questions and requests. They are drawn from a set of industry-specific topics that have been developed by Zendesk using our own anonymized customer service data.

Intents can be assigned to answers to help you save time and increase bot accuracy. When you assign an intent to an answer, the bot knows to show this answer whenever it identifies the intent in a conversation with a customer.

You can connect intents with answers in a number of ways, including:

• Applying suggested intents when creating answers, allowing you to build more effective conversation bots.

• Using intent suggestions that identify commonly-asked but unanswered questions from customers to help you fill any gaps in your bot’s knowledge.

This article includes the following sections:

• Requirements for using intents
• Adding suggested intents to answers
• Creating answers based on intent suggestions

Requirements for using intents

To use intents, your account must meet the following requirements:

Requirement type	Requirement criteria
Plan	Suite Enterprise, Suite Enterprise Plus, or Support Enterprise, with the Advanced AI add-on for full access.
Industry	Retail and e-commerce business-to-consumer (B2C). Does not include manufacturers, wholesale, business-to-business (B2B), or customer-to-customer (C2C). Software platforms or applications. Does not include companies that commercialize gadgets or hardware components. Finance services. Traditional and online banking only. Insurance. Includes auto, health, home, and pet insurance. Employee experience. Includes IT and HR departments only.
Languages	Arabic, Chinese (simplified), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish

Adding suggested intents to answers

When creating an answer for a conversation bot, Zendesk will suggest intents that can help your bot accurately understand your customers’ needs. These suggested, or pre-trained, intents can be used in place of training phrases to help your conversation bot match and deliver the most relevant answer for a customer's question.

Each suggested intent can be associated with one answer. You can add up to three intents to each answer.

Note: Accounts that meet the requirements listed above will be able to use suggested intents in up to three answers per bot without purchasing the Advanced AI add-on. When this limit is reached, intents will no longer be suggested.

Using suggested intents in new answers

You can apply suggested intents to your answers during the creation process.

To create an answer using suggested intents

1. In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Bots and automations > Bots.
2. Under Conversation bot, click Manage bots.
3. Click on an existing bot to open its edit page, or create a new bot.
4. On the Answers tab of the bot’s edit page, click Create answer.
5. Enter a name for your answer. The name should be a brief, clear description of the issue addressed by the answer.
6. Click Next. Up to three pre-trained intents are displayed:

   

7. Select one or more of the suggested intents.

   If none of the suggested intents describe the customer problem, click Train the bot yourself to add training phrases.

   If no intents are suggested, the training phrases entry UI opens automatically. The answer creation process continues as described in Creating an answer for a bot

8. Click Next. The answer opens in the bot builder.

   The intents selected in the previous step appear in the answer’s configuration panel on the right side of the bot builder.

   

9. Add additional steps to the answer as needed. You need to add at least one step to the answer.
10. Click Preview to see how the answer will appear to your end users, then click Done when you’re satisfied with the answer.

If you entered your own training phrases (as described in step 7) and suggested intents are available, they will appear in the configuration panel in bot builder as well.

Click Dismiss to remove the suggested intents. For information on replacing training phrases with these intents, see Adding suggested intents to an existing answer.

Adding suggested intents to an existing answer

When you add suggested intents to an existing answer, the training phrases are hidden but not deleted. You can revert to using the training phrases at any time.

To add suggested intents to an existing answer

1. In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Bots and automations > Bots.
2. Under Conversation bot, click Manage bots.
3. Click on an existing bot to open its edit page.
4. On the Answers tab of the bot’s edit page, click the answer you want to update.
5. If intents are available for the answer, they’ll appear in the configuration panel. If no intents are suggested, try making the answer name more descriptive.
6. Select the intents you want to add to the answer, then click Use selected intents.
7. You can revert to the previous training phrases by clicking Train the bot yourself.

   

Creating answers based on intent suggestions

Zendesk can identify the questions asked most often by your own customers during bot conversations that do not match an existing bot answer. This helps you uncover gaps in the information provided by your bot so you can create new answers (or improve existing ones), giving your customers a better support experience by avoiding the “Sorry, I didn’t get that” fallback message.

Note: These intent suggestions are available only for bots using languages supported by the intents model.

Understanding intent suggestions

An intent appears in the suggestions based on the following criteria:

• It is not linked to an existing answer.
• It has been matched to a customer question or comment at least three times over the last 30 days.
• It is related specifically to the conversation bot the questions came through.

The top intents that meet these criteria appear on the bot’s Answers tab, with a link to the complete list of intents on the Intents tab.

The Intents tab displays a list of up to 250 industry-relevant intents.

The Intents list includes the following information columns:

• Intent, the text of the intent.
• Category, the type of intent the entry falls into.
• Frequency, the number of related customer queries in the last 30 days.
• Answer, a drop-down list to link the suggested intent to an existing answer, or to create a new linked answer.

The intents list is refreshed daily.

Sorting and filtering the Intents list

By default, the list of intents is ordered by how frequently customers ask questions related to the intent. You can sort and filter the list if needed.

To sort the Intents list

1. Click the Sort icon () at the top of the column on which you want to order the list.

To filter the Intents list

1. Click the Filter button at the top of the Intents list.
2. In the Filter options window, fill in the following information:
   • Time period: Use the drop-down to select the time period during which the intents were matched to a customer’s question. You can choose 7, 14, or 30 days.
   • Exclude: Enter Answered to hide intents that have been included in bot answers.
3. Click Apply filters.

You can clear the filters by clicking the criteria at the top of the Intents list, or by clicking Clear filters.

Linking a suggested intent to a new answer

You can create a new answer from a suggested intent.

To link a suggested intent to a new answer

1. In the Answer column of the intent you want to use, click the drop-down menu and select Create a new answer.
2. Enter the Answer name. By default, this field is prefilled with the suggested intent. Keep this text, or replace it as needed, then click Next. Note that removing the intent here will also unlink it from the answer on the Intents page.
3. Enter Suggested intents. By default, the originating suggested intent is pre-selected, and up to two more intents are suggested. Select the intents you want, then click Next. You can also click Train the bot yourself to add your own phrases. See Training your conversation bot for more information.

Create your answer in bot builder. See Building a conversation bot using answers to continue.

Linking an intent to an existing answer

You can choose to add an intent to an existing answer.

To link an intent to an existing answer

1. In the Answer column of the intent you want to use, click the drop-down menu and select the answer you want to link to.
2. If the existing answer has training phrases applied to it, you’ll be asked if you want to replace them with the intent. Click Replace, or click Cancel to retain the phrases.
3. Publish the bot to apply these changes to your bot.