As part of intelligent triage, topics classify what a ticket is about. You can use the topics that appear in tickets to automate your workflows.
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Redirect customers to self-serve.
For example, you can deflect tickets with account password or sign in issues by sending an auto reply with an article that describes how to solve the problem.
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Route tickets to the right groups.
For example, you can assign a refund topic directly to agents who specialize in handling refunds.
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Increase ticket priority.
For example, you can increase SLA priority for tickets that report scam issues.
To help you get the most out of Zendesk's AI Copilot features, this article provides an overview on how admins can get started with topics. It contains the following sections:
- Step 1: Set up the channels for topic detection
- Step 2: Use triggers to create workflows based on topics
- Step 3: Track your progress with the Intelligent triage dashboard
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Step 1: Set up the channels for topic detection
You can set which ticket channels include topic detection.
For example, you might want your agents to view topics on email channels, but not messaging channels.
To set up channels for topics
-
In Admin Center, click
AI in the sidebar, then select Intelligent triage > Topic.A list of intelligent triage topics appears.
- Click Manage settings.
A Manage settings page appears.
- For topic detection, add the Channels you use the most. Some channels are
already added by default.

For a full list of channels you can add, see Automatically classifying tickets with intelligent triage.
- Click Save.
Step 2: Use triggers to create workflows based on topics
Once you are familiar with the use cases where topics can help and configure which channels include topic detection, you can create ticket triggers to manage ticket workflows based on topics. For example, you can create a trigger to automatically route any ticket with an Account activation topic to a group of agents in your company who handle account services.
To create a trigger based on topic
To automate ticket workflows, create ticket triggers based on topic.
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Business rules >
Triggers. - On the Triggers page, click the Ticket tab, then click Create trigger.
- Enter a Name, Description, and Category for your trigger. See Creating ticket triggers for details.
- In trigger Conditions, add the Topic you want to use as part of the
trigger condition.
You can use the values included on the Topics list to specify a condition. See Accessing and viewing intelligent triage topics.
For example:
Topic | Is | Account::Account activation

- In trigger Actions, add the actions you want to perform when the condition
applies.
For example:
Ticket > Group | Account services

For more information on trigger conditions and actions, see Ticket trigger conditions and actions reference and Zendesk chat and messaging triggers conditions and actions reference.
- Click Create trigger.
Step 3: Track your progress with the Intelligent triage dashboard
Zendesk Explore includes an Intelligent triage dashboard you can use to extract valuable insights into your tickets. Use these insights to improve your workflows and determine how effective your support is.
To open the Intelligent triage dashboard
- Open the product menu and select Analytics.
A list of Explore dashboards appears.
- From the list of dashboards, click the Zendesk Copilot: Intelligent triage
dashboard.
As you drive more volume of tickets, the intelligent triage dashboard will help you understand your service operations and provide insights to identify opportunities to improve.
Tip: You can also view suggestions for improvements in the Recommendations section of the Overview: Copilot page.