During conversations between users and advanced AI agents, operating hours and agent availability can be used to determine how the AI agent should respond based on those factors.

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Add-on AI agents - Advanced

During conversations between users and advanced AI agents, operating hours and agent availability can be used to determine how the AI agent should respond based on those factors.

You might leverage operating hours and agent availability in the following scenarios:
  • Escalation flows: When a user asks to be escalated to a human agent, the AI agent can check whether it's within operating hours and whether any team members are available.
  • Processes with team-specific transfer flows: For teams working different hours, the AI agent can check hours and change the response as needed.
  • System replies for welcome, default, and failed escalation: When system replies are sent, the AI agent can provide different responses based on operating hours.
This article contains the following topics:
  • Setting operating hours
  • Checking operating hours in a conversation flow
  • Checking team availability in a conversation flow

Related article:

  • About escalation strategies and flows for advanced AI agents

Setting operating hours

Operating hours define the working hours for your human agents. You can define different time zones and operating hours for different teams to support multi-region teams. Operating hours are available for email and chat.

To set operating hours
  1. In AI agents - Advanced, in the top-right corner, use the AI agent drop-down field to select the AI agent you want to set operating hours for.
  2. In the left sidebar, click Settings > AI agent settings
  3. Select the Operating hours tab.
  4. Click Create rule.
  5. In Rule name, enter a descriptive name for the rule
  6. In the Time zone drop-down, select a time zone.
  7. Select the appropriate days of the week and specify the operating hours for each day.

  8. Click Save.

Checking operating hours in a conversation flow

After you define your operating hours, you can check them during conversations to determine how your AI agent should respond.

To check operating hours

  1. Create a new dialogue or open an existing one.
  2. Add an Availability block.

    For help, see Using the dialogue builder to create conversation flows for advanced AI agents.

  3. In the first drop-down, leave Operating hours selected.
  4. In the second drop-down, select the operating hours rule you created above.
  5. Define the AI agent's response based on the branch:
    • Open: Add an Escalation block with a message and escalation method.
    • Closed: Add an AI agent message block explaining your hours, or additional follow-up options for the customer as needed.

      For additional help, see About escalation strategies and flows for advanced AI agents.

  6. Click Save to save your work for later, or click Publish to make your changes live.

Checking team availability in a conversation flow

You can check whether agents are available before escalating or offering additional options.

Regardless of whether you use omnichannel routing, this check assesses the Support status for the agents within the escalation group. If any agent is online, the team is considered available. If you want to check for agents' messaging status instead, contact Zendesk customer support and ask that messaging-based team availability be turned on.

To check team availability

  1. Create a new dialogue or open an existing one.
  2. Add an Availability block.

    For help, see Using the dialogue builder to create conversation flows for advanced AI agents.

  3. In the first drop-down, select Team availability.
  4. In the second drop-down, enter the ID of the team (group) you want to check availability for.

    For help, see How can I retrieve the group ID in Support?

  5. Define the AI agent's response based on the branch:
    • Open (agents are available): Add an Escalation block with a message and escalation method.
    • Closed (no agents are available): Add an AI agent message block explaining that no agents are available, or additional follow-up options for the customer as needed.

      For additional help, see About escalation strategies and flows for advanced AI agents.

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