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Generative replies deliver automated, AI-generated answers in response to customer requests, with information from your own trusted help center content, without needing to build custom answers.
Through the use of generative AI, when a relevant help center article is identified, generative replies are displayed as a single message with a link to the source article. These messages are short (generally under 100 words) and reflect the AI agent persona if it's being used.
This article includes the following sections:
About generative replies in the AI agent
If you have an active help center, generative replies can immediately begin to respond to questions from your end users. These responses use generative AI to evaluate articles in your help center, then use that knowledge to provide concise answers within the ongoing conversation. If the article referenced to generate the response includes links to relevant articles, those might be included in the generated response. Generative replies enable end users to get the information they need without leaving the conversation to read an article.
Generative replies can respond to a customer question when:
- No intents are detected for that question.
- An intent matching that question is configured to generate a reply.
These replies are always followed by a standard request for end-user feedback (“Was this helpful - yes/no”). You can configure AI agent responses to this feedback.
If you’re using a restricted help center, the AI agent response respects the article view permissions set in Guide, which means:
- If the end user, agent, or admin is authenticated via the messaging authentication protocol and user mapping established with an external ID, the AI agent can suggest relevant restricted articles.
- If the end user is unauthenticated, the AI agent will suggest only public articles.
Activating and configuring generative replies
You can activate generative replies when you create a new AI agent or you can add generative replies to an existing AI agent.
To turn on generative replies in an existing AI agent
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select AI agents and automation > AI agents.
- Click Manage AI agents for messaging, then click the AI agent you want to use with generative replies.
- In the AI agent's Behavior tab, click to expand the section If the AI agent finds relevant articles.
- Make sure Generate a reply is selected. When you select this option:
- Any intents without an assigned answer setting are updated to Generate a reply.
- After the AI agent replies to an end user’s comment, it sends a request for feedback (“Was this helpful? Yes/No”). If the end user selects Yes or No, it’s followed by a customizable response.
- Click Test AI agent, then enter phrases the AI agent can match to existing help center content to view samples of replies your end users might receive.
- Click Publish AI agent to apply your changes.
Every reply the AI agent generates is followed by a request for feedback (“Was this helpful? Yes/No”). After the end user selects an option, the AI agent replies. You can customize the AI agent's feedback responses if you'd like.
Using generative replies with intents
When you turn on generative replies, replies are generated for questions that match intents without assigned answers and for questions without a matching intent.
Updating the generative replies setting for specific intents
By default, any intent without an assigned answer will generate a reply. For each intent, you can leave this setting as-is, update it to not generate a reply, or add the intent to an answer in your AI agent for messaging.
To manage generative reply settings for a specific intent
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select AI agents and automation > AI agents.
- Click Manage AI agents for messaging.
- Click the AI agent you’re using with generative replies.
- Click the Intents tab, then click the drop-down in the Answer column to select an option for each intent you want to update:
- Generate a reply lets the AI agent create a response to a customer’s matching free-text entry.
- Don’t generate a reply prevents the AI agent from responding to a customer’s matching free-text entry. Instead, it replies with the standard fallback response (“Sorry I couldn't find a good answer to your question. Here are some topics that might help though”).
- Show an answer lets you connect the intent to an existing answer or create a new answer for it.
Remember to publish the AI agent to make these changes available.
Updating the generative replies setting for questions without matching intents
You can choose whether you want to generate a reply for any question asked by an end user that does not have a matching intent. By default, a reply is generated for any customer free-text entry that matches an intent if that intent is not associated with an answer in the AI agent for messaging.
To manage generative replies to questions without matching intents
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select AI agents and automation > AI agents.
- Click Manage AI agents for messaging.
- Click the AI agent you’re using with generative replies.
- Click the Intents tab, then use the drop-down at the top of the page to select Generate a reply or Don’t generate a reply.
Remember to publish the AI agent to make these changes available.
96 comments
Cloudhuset A/S
Does the phrase "The generative reply content uses the language applied to the bot." mean that we are unable to use generative AI to support more than one language? Does the function "Automatically translate answer" under the Language settings of a bot not work if you're using generative replies?
0
Daniel Aron
Hi Cloudhuset, generative bot replies can work in more than one language. If automatic translations is enabled, and the bot is responding in a second language (that is not the default bot language) then the generative replies will be consistent with that language, provided there is help center content in that language from which to derive a reply.
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Ashley M
Is this feature to be added to auto reply for articles via email?
1
Alan Pugh
Does this mean that restricted article availability is on the roadmap for full release?
For context, our widget is only available when signed in, and we use SSO, so allowing the bot to access restricted articles will be key for us.
0
Trudy Slaght
Is there a way to exclude certain help center articles from being the main source, or to rank support articles to make them more likely to pull from?
Use case: All of our products require installation, so the word "install" is present in dozens of our support articles. When I tested a question asking about installation, the answer pulled was from an article that needs to be public, but would be the wrong answer 99% of the time.
I could configure tags to exclude an article from generative replies, or if there was a setting within guide that allowed an article to be excluded from generative AI responses, that would be even better.
4
Sean Morrissey
I am hoping this is a configuration issue on my side, but I cannot seem to get generative replies to see any of my KB articles. Whether they are public or private. Any question I ask it returns no results. Any of my Answers where I push an article works fine. I do not see where I am doing anything wrong in the setup.
2
Austin Vo
Is there any explore reporting available during EAP that will help us assess how effective the generative replies are in deflecting tickets?
11
Hayley Johnson
How does this work with flow builder? We have some questions where we know the customer will need to open a ticket. Are we able to use flow builder and the generative AI tools at the same time?
1
Elisa
I cannot turn on generative reply on and existing BOT because the Setup tab the section "if the bot finds relevant articles" is not present
I find the section only if I create a new BOT but that would mean to recreate all the answers of the existing BOT
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Daniel Aron
Hi Ashley M yes extending generative replies to autoreply on email is on the roadmap for H2 2024
1
Daniel Aron
Thanks for the feedback Alan Pugh. Yes supporting restricted content for authenticated users is on the roadmap for Q1 2024.
0
Daniel Aron
Hey Trudy Slaght, no there isn't currently any explicit features to exclude, rank or filter articles for use with generative replies. Thanks your feedback, we'll consider it as we plan the future roadmap. One suggestion in the mean-time is to review the content of articles relevant to the broader "installation" intent and encourage users to write complete phrases so the bot can find the best article without the need for tags or filters e.g. "how do I install A" vs "how do I install B" rather than just a single word like "install". The bot typically performs better across the board at recognising user intent and responding when the phrase is greater than two words.
0
Daniel Aron
Hi Sean Morrissey, I know we corresponded about this via email, however I'd just like to confirm were you able to resolve the issue? Can you share what was/is preventing generative replies from working with your help center?
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Daniel Aron
Hi Austin, unfortunately no there isn't any Explore reporting for generative replies at this stage. However, we are actively planning for how we might best provide insights to customers relating to generative replies performance and expect to introduce them in H1 2024.
1
Daniel Aron
Hi Hayley Johnson, today the bot will respond to a user message with either a generative reply or a custom answer built in flow builder. And if it doesn't find either it will display a fallback message. If the user receives a generative reply and needs to continue on to talk to an agent this is possible today if they select "no" when the bot asks for feedback "was this helpful?" and the bot presents an option for a custom answer flow built for agent transfer. That said, we are considering how we can improve this experience and provide more flexibility for admins to configure how the bot should follow up from generative replies. Does this help? I'd love to hear more about the functionality you had in mind?
0
Daniel Aron
Hi Elisa, I've reached out to you directly to assist with this issue.
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Pete Holborow
Is there a way to ignore selected articles based on labels?
We have articles for both clients and providers on our help centre. The longer term plan is to split this into two different help centres but for now I'd like to only generate articles that apply to clients.
0
Deiaa Eid
would you please fix this ?
![](/hc/user_images/01HFA5KGR3JBRK433CQRF2GG2F.png)
2
Daniel Aron
Hi Pete Holborow no there isn't a feature to filter help center articles through labels or similar means currently. However, we plan to release an enhancement to support restricted content in Q1 2024. With that, you could use Guide user segments and through authentication, the bot would only access content relevant to clients if the user is logged in and identified with the appropriate user permission. Will this meet your needs?
0
Daniel Aron
Hi Deiaa Eid thanks for the feedback. Good timing, we're actively working on improving the bot's comprehension of small talk such as your example here "thanks" cc/ @...
2
Gin Atkins
Thanks Daniel Aron - yep Deiaa Eid we're going to start with dealing with 'hello' or greetings, and thank you type messages to avoid that situation. We're in discovery on this now, exact release date timing is TBC but expect it early next year.
0
Pete Holborow
Thank you Daniel Aron. Follow up question, where can I edit the "knowledge is power" message? I can't find that text anywhere in the settings.
3
Daniel Aron
Hey Pete, that message isn't editable currently, however we're considering how we might enable customization of those feedback collection messages. Can you share why and how you'd like to edit it?
0
Pete Holborow
The tone just doesn't really fit the rest of the answer and tone I'm going for. I'd prefer to be able to customise it to be a little more appropriate for our use case (medical related questions).
0
Håvard Skare
Hi. I am having the same issue as Sean Morrissey. Did you find a solution?
0
Daniel Aron
Hi Havard, we're actively working on a solution to enable restricted content to be referenced for generative replies. We're expecting to release this in January 2024.
1
Håvard Skare
Hi @Daniel Aron. My content is not restricted though. It is open to all, yet the generative replies will not work. It only says it could not find a solution.
0
Tatiana Christensen
Hello, we are experiencing the same issue as Håvard on our unrestricted help center. I created a ticket about this topic with Zendesk support today.
0
Sean Morrissey
I had a call with the dev team last week. Appears to be a q1 2024 release for an update.
1
Brett Bowser
0