Best practices for expanding language support for AI agents

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">When you create an AI agent, you pick a default language that your AI agent uses when conversing with customers. This default language is a great starting point for automating your customer service.</p>
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<p class="p">When you create an AI agent, you pick a default language that your AI agent uses when
conversing with customers. This default language is a great starting point for
automating your customer service. </p>
<p class="p">However, as your customer service operations grow, you might want to increase the number
of languages that your AI agent can respond in to better support your customer base.
This article presents some best practices to consider as you expand your language
support.</p>
<p class="p">This article contains the following topics: </p>
<ul class="ul" id="language_best_practices__ul_dkz_hbv_ghc">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_mb4_j1v_ghc">Determining which languages you need</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_j1f_m1v_ghc">Prioritizing language support</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_pws_n1v_ghc">Implementing additional language support</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="p">Related articles:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="language_best_practices__ul_wff_gbv_ghc">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357749666714" target="_blank">Adding and managing supported languages for AI
agents</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357756745882" target="_blank">Translating replies for AI agents</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_mb4_j1v_ghc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Determining which languages you need</h2>
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<p class="p">A good first step in expanding your language support is to make a list of the markets
your AI agent will be used in. Think about the languages used in those markets, as
this might affect not only the structure of your dialogues but also the copywriting. </p>
<p class="p">For example, would you like to use standardized German for the entire DACH region
(Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), or would you prefer to use different German
dialects for different countries? </p>
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</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_j1f_m1v_ghc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Prioritizing language support</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Once you have a list of the languages you want to support, the next step is to
prioritize them. Decide which of the identified languages is going to move the
needle most and start with that one. In particular, think about which language has
the largest scalability (the potential to reuse replies and dialogues) and impact
(the biggest support message volume). </p>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested1" id="topic_pws_n1v_ghc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title4">Implementing additional language support</h2>
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<p class="p">Any languages you add and any replies you create aren't visible to customers until
they're set to active. This means you can add a language and take whatever time you
need to create or update its replies before letting customers interact with your AI
agent in that language.</p>
<p class="p">Here's what an ideal workflow looks like for expanding language support in an AI
agent: </p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_pws_n1v_ghc__ol_v4j_vbv_ghc">
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357749666714" target="_blank">Add a supported language.</a><p class="p">During
this process, select the option to duplicate the replies from another
language you've already configured. (Duplicating a reply also duplicates the
dialogue contained within the reply.)</p>
</li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357756745882" target="_blank">Translate the duplicated replies.</a></li>
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357749666714#topic_etz_kzx_jgc" target="_blank">Set the added language as
active.</a><p class="p">Customers can now interact with your AI agent in this
language.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Repeat the steps above for any additional languages you want to support.</li>
</ol>
<p class="p">If, for some reason, you can't duplicate the replies from another language, the
workflow looks a little different:</p>
<div class="p">
<ol class="ol" id="topic_pws_n1v_ghc__ol_zms_4vv_ghc">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357749666714" target="_blank">Add a supported language.</a></li>
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9624068102682#topic_i1v_nzx_jgc" target="_blank">Create new replies</a> in the language
you added.</li>
<li class="li">For each reply, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357749494810#topic_ygq_4ym_g2c" target="_blank">create a new dialogue</a>.</li>
<li class="li">As you finalize the content of each reply and its dialogue, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9624068102682#topic_jyw_4zx_jgc" target="_blank">set the reply as
active</a>.<p class="p">Customers still can't interact with your AI agent in
the added language, but setting replies as active helps you identify
which ones are ready to go live and which ones aren't.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357749666714#topic_etz_kzx_jgc" target="_blank">Set the added language as
active.</a><p class="p">Customers can now interact with your AI agent in this
language.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Repeat either set of steps above for any additional languages you want to
support.</li>
</ol>
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