
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
Daniel Aron
Hi Fiona, using content blocks in articles should not affect the bots ability to generate replies. We have however found an issue relating to article titles that is likely the cause of failure. A fix is in progress, and once it is released I'll let you know and you can retest this example.
0
Chris Wilson
I am getting "I apologize for not being able to naswer your question. Hear are some topics that might assist you." when typing in the title of a KB article. I do not have any restrictions set up with the exception of all articles are required to be signed-in to be able to view. I am hoping that this is just an error in me setting up the bot but essentially have followed everything I have seen.
0
Alan Pugh
Hi Daniel Aron, and thanks for letting us know about this! I just returned from a sabbatical, so we'll be setting this up in the next week or two and giving it a try. I received a survey, but as I've been out of the office, nothing to report just yet.
0
Gaby Torres
Hello,
I have created a new Test Bot to evaluate the replies generated by AI. The bot seems to be suggesting relevant answers; however, the link to the article is incorrect and points to a Knowledge Base that is not associated with the brand for the bot. The Read More button links to a different article and it does seem to be linking to the correct brand/article.
Do you know why I am getting this inconsistent behaviour?
0
Alan Pugh
Daniel Aron Brett Bowser
Is there anything on the roadmap for either of these?
- Option similar to the "Leave a message" functionality on Web Widget (Classic), so that our users can open a ticket rather than opening a chat
- Option to make the subject line more descriptive than "Conversation with <User Name>" so that we can see what the conversation is about
Thanks!
0
Daniel Aron
Hi Chris Wilson can you confirm that the necessary pre-requisites were met in order for the bot to reference restricted content? The user must be authenticated using the messaging JWT authentication and the sunco appuser id must be mapped to the zendesk id via external id. Also note that restricted content isn't supported in the "test bot" feature, so it needs to be tested in a live environment.
0
Daniel Aron
Hi Gaby Torres we've seen other examples like this where generative AI goes outside the bounds of its directive. The team is constantly looking at ways to minimise this but it can not be completely avoided. If the use-case is a concern, we suggest creating a bespoke answer flow for that intent and linking to that rather than relying on a generative reply. cc Monika Vogel
2
Daniel Aron
Hi Alan Pugh thanks for the feedback. The short answer is no, there isn't anything planned for either of those. However, I think the first one can be easily address by configuring the bot to present a simple greeting message with an option to "leave a message" and then link to an answer that transfers to an agent. You can set expectations in the bot messages for when they might expect a reply from the agent and the fact it will come via email if that's your preference. This article may help.
0
Matt Russell
Hello. Two issues we are running into with our chatbot GenAI. After speaking with our ZD Service Consultant, she recommended I raise these two points here.
Would be ideal to remove the written hyperlink, and only use the Read More.
Thank you in advance, -Matt Russell
3
Fiona
I'm also seeing the same as Matt Russell.
I just tested for a question that is directly answered in our articles and it took 3 attempts and very slight rewording for the bot to understand (see screenshot). When I later attempted the second variant, it understood and answered correctly...
0
Patrick Curry
We're also seeing the same issue of incorrect articles (but otherwise correct summarisation)
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6138268212634/comments/6856225169562
0
Gaby Torres
Thanks for your reply! @Daniel Aron
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6138268212634/comments/6853511762586
I also noticed that some anwers include a link to the article as well as the Read More option and some answers only include the Read More button. What determines for the answer to give the link? Is there a way for the link not to show and just keep the Read More? The options suggested in Read More seem to be more accurate than the link.
Thanks!
0
Daniel Aron
Hi Matt Russell and Fiona in regards to the first issue highlighted
I'll share this with the team to investigate. In the meantime, I suggest disabling the If the bot needs clarification feature in the bot behavior settings to prevent this from happening.
2
Daniel Aron
In regards to the second issue Matt Russell Patrick Curry
Thanks for this feedback. We'll take this on board for further consideration. cc/ Monika Vogel
4
Viachaslau
@Daniel Aron Hi. We have some scenarios, where our HC article recommends contacting customer support. So when a customer is asking he gets an answer from the bot "Please contact customer support" with a follow-up question "Was it helpful?'. Of course, customers choose 'yes', but actually it doesn't solve their problem. If there is a separate intent for such cases, it's possible to create a custom answer with a step that transfers to an agent. But if there is no separate intent, we're at a dead end. Do you have any recommendations?
0
Manthan Bhosale
Generative AI in chatbot not generating answers when connected to one brand but works fine with other. Both the brands have help center active and have articles also....
0
Jorge - Leafworks
Hi Daniel,
I am also getting the problem Chris reported. The bot does not seem to have access to the articles (they are all restricted). Let me give you some details:
0
Tatiana Christensen
Hi,
I wrote before about the "ugly" url in bot answers earlier :) it would be great, if it showed Text on link that was linked instead of the linked URL.
This is related, as I have articles with links to headers within the article. In this case, the bot refers to the header #, which makes no sense for the user. I hope the team can do something about that. Thanks in advance.
3
Sami
We have the same issue where the messaging bot's behavior is set to generate a reply but does not answer with any meaningful response.
We have both public and private KBs in our help center, and are English language only.
Support stated we also need to enable the Answer Bot - is this not for the classic web widget only?
0
Elina
When Dutch customers use the Bot the "Was this helpful?" question, after a generated answer and article recommendation of the Bot is translated to "Wat is dit slattering?". Translated in English this is "Is this slutty?". We had a few Dutch customers complain about this "vulgar language" now. :( Could you fix this? It is the generated question, nothing we wrote in a flow, that is translated incorrectly.

0
Carlos Santos
Hi.
We have a restricted-access help center and within it several different user segments. Apparently our bot only replies autonomously with answers based on articles that are bound to native user segments like “Signed-in users”. If the articles are restricted to custom user segments like “Partners-only” or similar, then the bot ignores the articles altogether.
Is there documentation on the relationship of generative replies with the help center's user segments that I can consult?
Also, and above all, does the bot handle restricted-access articles properly or are there known limitations (I think I saw a comment somewhere that handling restricted-access articles was going to be released Jan 2024)?
Thank you.
0
Max
Hello,
Is it somehow possible or on the roadmap that Generative Answer looks as well in Gather / Community section and articles ?
Thank you
1
JJ F.
Is there a way to turn off having the “Read More” link presented in an answer?
1
Leslie
Hi, Daniel. Do we have any update on this: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6138268212634/comments/6623188559514? Thank you!
0
Daniel Aron
Hi Leslie, enabling generative replies to draw from content beyond help center articles (inc. website content) is still on the roadmap. However, we are currently focussed on some other priorities and we don't expect to be able to deliver this feature until 2025. If this is of immediate importance to your business, I suggest looking into Ultimate which currently supports this with uGPT. I went ahead and made your account representatives aware that you might be interested in Ultimate.
0
Daniel Aron
Hi JJ F. no it isn't possible to remove the “read more” link with generative replies. Can you share why you'd like to be able to do this?
0
Thais Souza da Silva
We are experiencing something weird with our bot. They are recommending our articles correctly in most cases, but sometimes, it recommends things like this:
When we click the link, it doesn't send us to our FAQ, but to some other site from a different company. Also, important to mention that we do have articles about the subjects in the messages. Do you know how to fix it?
1
Sally Anne Dishong
@Thais Souza da Silva - Thank you for sharing your experience with the bot. I'd like to follow up on your post and question about the weird behavior. Is your screenshot an actual response…or have you edited it to use the “example.com” and “company.com” domains as placeholders so as not to share the actual URLs? And also, is the bot responding in English to a question in another language?
0
Thais Souza da Silva
Sally Anne Dishong Thanks for answering. These are real answers from the bot, with “company” and “example” in the middle of the suggested links. And it is answering in the correct language to the users, this is not a problem. Here you can see another example:
1
Sally Anne Dishong
Thanks for your response, Thai! Our Customer Support team is currently evaluating the use of the bots and your experience is helpful as we continue our research.
0