Best practices for supporting multiple languages in an AI agent (Legacy)

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">If your customer base uses multiple languages for communication, there are several settings you can take advantage of to improve their experience during conversations with your AI agent.</p>
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<div class="note attention" id="ai_agents_language_support_best_practices__note_anc_myj_f2c">
<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 your customer base uses multiple languages for communication, there are several
settings you can take advantage of to improve their experience during conversations with
your AI agent. </p>
<p class="p">This article walks you through several recommended steps to take when supporting a
multilingual customer base through your AI agent. </p>
<p class="p">This article contains the following topics:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="ai_agents_language_support_best_practices__ul_alw_3hm_dgc">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_qnp_wgm_dgc">Translating AI agent messages</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_cj3_chm_dgc">Translating help center articles</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_hcb_dhm_dgc">Translating conversations in the Agent Workspace</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_hq5_dhm_dgc">Testing multilingual AI agents</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="p">Related article: </p>
<ul class="ul" id="ai_agents_language_support_best_practices__ul_w5m_3hm_dgc">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408842754202" target="_blank">Managing languages and translation support in AI
agents</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_qnp_wgm_dgc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Translating AI agent messages</h2>
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<p class="p">The best place to start when supporting a multilingual customer base is to make sure
your AI agent’s messages are translated into the languages your customers use. </p>
<p class="p">The easiest way is to configure your AI agent to automatically translate its
messages. This includes its standard responses and (for legacy functionality) answer
steps. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408842754202" target="_blank">Activating automatic translation for an AI
agent</a>. </p>
<p class="p">If you find that the automatic translations for some AI agent messages don’t meet
your standards—for example, by translating product and brand names, using incorrect
pronouns, or using inaccurate phrasing—you can replace them with custom
translations. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408842754202" target="_blank">Creating custom translations for AI agent messages</a>. </p>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_cj3_chm_dgc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Translating help center articles</h2>
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<p class="p">After translating your AI agent messages, the next best step is to make sure that
your help center content is also available in the languages your customers use. </p>
<p class="p">AI-generated replies sent by the AI agent might suggest help center articles in a
conversation to direct customers to information that may help them self-solve their
questions. To offer help center articles in multiple languages, you’ll need to
activate those languages, then add translated versions of those articles to your
help center. </p>
<p class="p">For more information, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408827609882" target="_blank">Configuring your help center to support multiple
languages</a> and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408834328090" target="_blank">Localizing help center content</a>. </p>
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</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested1" id="topic_hcb_dhm_dgc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title4">Translating conversations in the Agent Workspace</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">If your human agents work in different languages than your AI agent, they might need
to translate the content of a conversation between a customer and your AI agent if
the conversation is escalated. </p>
<p class="p">After taking over a conversation from the AI agent, human agents can use the native
translation feature in the Zendesk Agent Workspace to communicate with customers and
other agents across multiple languages. This feature is activated by default for all
customers using Agent Workspace, but is available only for agents with a Chat seat. </p>
<p class="p">For more information, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832500506" target="_blank">Translating conversations in the Zendesk Agent
Workspace</a>. </p>
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</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested1" id="topic_hq5_dhm_dgc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title5">Testing multilingual AI agents</h2>
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<p class="p">Finally, you should always test your AI agent in the languages your customers will
use it in. This helps you evaluate the automatic and custom translation results and
understand the end-user experience. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9462994470810" target="_blank">Testing an AI agent before publishing it for
customers</a>.</p>
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