The features described in this article are currently available in an early access program (EAP). You can sign up for the EAP here.

Generative search provides AI-generated answers to search queries within your help center. Logged in users performing searches in the help center can use generative search to receive quick answers to their questions without having to click through multiple search results and scan through the related articles for an answer. Instead, they can enter a phrase or question in the search query field and review the resulting generated quick answer. Since the quick answer is derived from the primary search results, they can click into the articles for more information.

This article includes the following sections:
  • About generative search for help center
  • Updating your help center theme
  • Activating the generative search for help center EAP
  • Using generative search for help center
Related articles:
  • Generative search for Agent Workspace (EAP)
  • Overview of OpenAI within Zendesk Services

About generative search for help center

Once activated, generative search works by evaluating the question that a user enters in the help center search. The top matching articles, posts, and external content (on Enterprise plans where federated search is configured) are evaluated by OpenAI, which then generates an answer. The answer is posted at the top of the search results (see Using generative search for help center).

The quality of a generated answer depends on the following:
  • Quality of your knowledge base - Because generative answers are based on your help center and external content, the quality of the quick answer depends on the quality of your knowledge base.
  • Search input - Depending on the format and structure of the search query, you may not see a generated answer for every search. For the best results, avoid one- or two-word search queries, and instead, structure your search query as a phrase, sentence, or question. Additionally, if there are no articles, posts, or external content that matches the search, an answer will not be generated.

Updating your help center theme

Before you can activate your help center for generative search, you must first update your help center theme to include the generative answers functionality. If your theme is a:
  • Copenhagen theme, you'll need to install an update to the Copenhagen theme from Github.
  • Custom theme, you'll need to add the generative answers helper to your theme. The {{generative_answers}} helper is only available in the templating API v3 and above.
To install an update to the Copenhagen theme
  1. In Guide, click the Customize design icon () in the sidebar.

    The Themes page opens.

  2. Click Add theme in the upper-right corner.
  3. Click Add from GitHub.

  4. Enter the repository and branch name for the generative search for help center theme update:
    • Repository: zendesk/copenhagen_theme
    • Branch name: generative_answers
  5. Click Import.

    The theme is imported and appears on your Themes page.

To update your custom theme

  1. In Guide, click the Customize design icon () in the sidebar.

    The Themes page opens.

  2. Click Customize on the theme you want to edit.
  3. Click Edit code.

  4. Under Templates, click search_results.hbs.
  5. Add the {{generative_answers}} helper code to the theme's search_results.hbs template where you want the generative answers to appear: See the image below for an example:

  6. Click Save.
  7. After activating, if you find that the Quick answer box UI doesn't match the fonts and colors of your custom theme, this could be due to one of the following:
    • You have the required settings in the theme settings interface. However, the settings values are not set to match your theme, because your theme's look and feel is hardcoded in your CSS file. To update the color and font settings, see Branding your help center.
    • You do not have some or all of the settings in the theme settings interface. If this is the case, you'll need to add the settings and set their values to match the rest of your theme. To do this, you can update your manifest.json file with the following identifiers from Github, replacing the value of each identifier with the font or color code that matches your theme:
      • Color settings identifiers:
        • text_color
        • link_color
        • hover_link_color
        • visited_link_color
      • Fonts settings identifiers
        • heading_font
        • text_font

Activating the generative search for help center EAP

By default, generative search is not activated in your account. Guide admins can activate this feature in Search settings.

To activate generative search in your help center

  1. In Guide admin, click the Settings () icon in the sidebar, then select Search settings.

  2. Click Manage on the Quick answers search setting.

  3. Select Show quick answers for search queries.

  4. Click Save.

Using generative search for help center

When generative search is activated, users who are logged into your help center can enter questions or phrases in the search field and receive AI-generated quick answers to their question. Derived from the top search results for their query, quick answers show users the information they're looking for in the search results, without requiring them to open each link and scan through the articles for an answer.

Quick answers are posted in a box above the search results, alongside buttons that let users provide feedback about how helpful the answer is. Providing feedback helps train the AI to produce better answers in the future. You can also improve the quality of your answers by enhancing the content in your knowledge base. Generative search uses the content in your help center to produce answers, so as a result, the answer is only as good as your content.

To use generative search for help center
  1. Log into your help center, then enter a question or phrase in the help center search field and press Enter.

    The search page opens, displaying the search results and, if available, an AI-generated quick answer.

    If there is not enough information for AI to generate a Quick answer, you'll receive instructions to rephrase your search. If an answer is not generated, you can revise your search query to sound more like a question or phrase. For example, the search query "How long will it take?" will be more likely to generate an answer than the single search term "time".

  2. (Optional) Submit your feedback about the quick answer.

    Feedback is retained for up to 90 days and is used to assess and improve the quality of answers produced by generated search.

    • Click the thumbs-up icon to indicate the answer was helpful.
    • Click the thumbs-down icon to indicate the answer was not helpful. Select the reason that best matches the reason for your rating. Type any additional feedback you may have, then click Submit feedback.

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