Optimizing your help center content for AI agents (Legacy)

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">If you're using features such asAI agentsthat draw information from your help center content, focused, well-written, and well-formatted articles will lead to better results. You can optimize your articles to improve the quality and accuracy of automated responses that include generative replies and suggested articles.</p>
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<div class="note attention" id="topic_dsr_qpj_2hb__note_opb_h1h_2jc">
<span class="attentiontitle"></span> <span class="ph">This article describes functionality that moved into
legacy status on July 31, 2025. On December 31, 2026, this functionality will no
longer be available. For more information, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10487730059034" target="_blank">this announcement</a>.</span>
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<p class="p">If you're using features such as <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6970583409690" target="_blank">AI agents</a> that draw information from your help center content, focused,
well-written, and well-formatted articles will lead to better results. You can optimize your
articles to improve the quality and accuracy of automated responses that include generative
replies and suggested articles.</p>
<p class="p">
This article contains the following topics:
</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_dsr_qpj_2hb__ul_ibc_h1k_jhb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_sd5_ghv_kbc">About automated replies based on help center content</a></li>
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="#topic_rls_l1k_jhb">Planning and organizing article content</a>
</li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_bdk_l1k_jhb">Using article labels to filter results (autoreply with articles only)</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">Related article:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_dsr_qpj_2hb__ul_kxp_1g5_52c">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9067636151834" target="_blank">Best practices: Preparing your help center for generative AI</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_sd5_ghv_kbc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">About automated replies based on help center content</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Some features can assess your help center content to send relevant, helpful responses to an
end user’s request sent via email, web form, or messaging. These responses can be sent as:</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_sd5_ghv_kbc__ul_yk3_h1d_mbc">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<div class="p" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">Links to suggested articles</strong>. A list of links for up to three specific
articles. This type of reply is used in autoreplies with articles for <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408820951450" target="_blank">web forms</a> and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408833721498" target="_blank">emails</a>.<div class="note" id="topic_sd5_ghv_kbc__note_bvc_rnz_dgc">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> In some older accounts,
autoreplies are called article recommendations. </div>
</div>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<p class="p" dir="ltr"><strong class="ph b">Generated responses</strong>. AI-created replies sent in response to an end user’s
free-text entry in an AI agent conversation. This type of reply is used in generative replies
in an AI agent.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="p">
<div class="note attention">
<span class="attentiontitle"></span> These actions may be counted as an automated resolution. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5352026794010" target="_blank">About automated resolutions</a> for more information.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_rls_l1k_jhb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Planning and organizing article content </h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">The way you organize the content of a help center article impacts how effectively an AI agent
can locate relevant information. </p>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested2" id="topic_gkq_2bk_jhb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title4"> Creating titles for your articles </h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Article titles play a big part in determining whether an article is a good
candidate for solving a customer's problem. If an article's title closely matches a customer’s
text in an email or web form support request, or free-text comment in an AI agent, it's more
likely to come up as a suggestion in the automated response.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Give your articles titles that are similar to how your customer might phrase their
support request. Try formatting your article titles in one of the following ways:</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_gkq_2bk_jhb__ul_d5q_xbk_jhb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">
As a question
</strong>
: "How do I reset my password?"

</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">As a simple, active phrase</strong>: "Resetting a password"
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested2" id="topic_x2m_2bk_jhb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title5"> Narrowing an article's focus </h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">When possible, an article should cover a single, specific topic. How you implement this
suggestion depends on how you present information in your articles:</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_x2m_2bk_jhb__ul_cbs_kbk_jhb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Issue/resolution articles</strong>: Articles that address specific issues and resolutions
should focus on a very specific issue with a single resolution. For instance, rather than
having a single article covering multiple related billing issues – payment options,
requesting a refund, and challenging a charge – write three articles, one for each billing
issue. Offer a single resolution for each issue to guide your customers to your preferred
resolution, and link to other articles that may offer alternative resolutions.</li>
</ul>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_x2m_2bk_jhb__ul_yjs_j2k_jhb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Process articles</strong>: The same principle applies to articles that describe processes
and procedures. For example, when documenting an account set-up process that involves two
distinct tasks (creating an account and selecting account options), consider presenting the
information in two separate, concise articles, one for each task. This helps the AI agent
identify the article that best matches a customer's specific request.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested1" id="topic_bdk_l1k_jhb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title6">Using article labels to filter results (autoreply with articles only) </h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408835056154" target="_blank">Labels</a> can restrict the articles are considered in an autoreply with
articles response. After you add a label to an article, you can include it in the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408833721498" target="_blank"><code class="ph codeph">autoreply with articles</code> trigger</a> to filter the results. </p>
<p class="p">There are a few approaches you can take when using labels.</p>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title7" class="topic nested2" id="topic_qkq_mjv_kbc">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title7">Reducing the “noise” in your help center</h3>
<div class="body">
<div class="p">Your help center may include articles that should not be available for automated article
retrieval results. In this case, add a "use_for_autoreply" label to the articles you
<em class="ph i">want</em> the AI agent to consider. Add this label to all autoreply with articles
triggers.<div class="note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> This approach can only be applied to autoreplies with articles for email
responses.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title8" class="topic nested2" id="topic_kwv_mjv_kbc">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title8">Targeting customer segments</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">You can use article labels in triggers when you have different customer segments
and you want to show each segment only the relevant articles. For example, suppose you are a
mobile game developer and you support both Android and iOS platforms. When you get a request
from a customer who's using Android, you want to suggest only Android-related articles.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">To accomplish this, create an "Android" autoreply trigger with the condition based
on your custom field "Platform = Android." Then, configure the trigger using labels to include
only articles that contain the "android" label.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Repeat the process to set up a trigger for the iOS platform and label.</p>
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