Configuring escalation strategies and flows for AI agents

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">Sometimes an AI agent needs to transfer a query to a human agent. This can happen if the inquiry is complex, urgent, or sensitive. Before launching your AI agent, develop an escalation strategy and design the escalation flow to cover those situations. Then build the paths using escalation blocks in thedialogue builder.</p>
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<p class="p">Sometimes an AI agent needs to transfer a query to a human agent. This can happen if the
inquiry is complex, urgent, or sensitive. Before launching your AI agent, develop an
escalation strategy and design the escalation flow to cover those situations. Then build the
paths using escalation blocks in the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357749494810" target="_blank">dialogue builder</a>.</p>
<p class="p">You can build escalation flows in the dialogue builder for messaging and email AI agents.</p>
<p class="p">This article contains the following topics:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="escalation_strategies_about__ul_adx_3zk_kfc">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_inn_qqh_n2c">Deciding your escalation strategy</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_inq_rqh_n2c">Designing the escalation flow</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_xcy_rqh_n2c">Building escalation paths</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_gmk_hwr_mhc">Configuring the automation threshold for email AI agents</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="p">Related article:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="escalation_strategies_about__ul_rk3_hzk_kfc">
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357749686554" target="_blank">Checking business hours and agent availability during AI agent
conversations</a>.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_inn_qqh_n2c">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Deciding your escalation strategy</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Your escalation strategy establishes which queries should be escalated and through which
channel. Typically, there are two escalation channels: messaging and email. </p>
<p class="p">Since this affects agent handling time, take the following factors into account: </p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_inn_qqh_n2c__ul_zhc_vqh_n2c">
<li class="li">Number of agents on your team </li>
<li class="li">Agent availability and business hours </li>
<li class="li">Volume of conversations in the channel </li>
<li class="li">Complexity and urgency of the query </li>
</ul>
<p class="p">For example, if your team has four agents working 9am to 5pm and conducting 200–250
conversations per day, escalating too many messaging conversations will overload your agents
and cause long waiting times for the customers. </p>
<p class="p">In this case, reserve messaging escalations for high-impact issues such as product
questions and shipping failures, which can directly affect revenue or CSAT. Offer escalation
only when there's no possibility that the AI agent can guide customers to self-service
resources. </p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_inq_rqh_n2c">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Designing the escalation flow</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Consider what the AI agent can do before escalation to make the handoff and ensuing
conversation more efficient, such as the following: </p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_inq_rqh_n2c__ul_mnx_vqh_n2c">
<li class="li">Gather information such as order number, name, or email </li>
<li class="li">Add tags and update fields for your specific workflow </li>
<li class="li">Identify suitable agents to take the conversation </li>
</ul>
<p class="p">With that information, design an escalation flow using <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357756562330" target="_blank">template replies</a>. If you need more than one escalation flow,
create additional templates. </p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested1" id="topic_xcy_rqh_n2c">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title4">Building escalation paths</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">In the dialogue builder, escalation blocks allow you to specify how a customer query will
be transferred if the AI agent can't resolve the issue. </p>
<div class="p">You can opt to escalate by messaging only when agents are available to continue the
conversation. For example, in a synchronous channel such as messaging, you can escalate by
email instead if it’s outside of agent working hours. To do this, use an <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357749686554" target="_blank">availability block</a> at the start of the path to ensure you only
escalate when agents are available. <div class="note" id="topic_xcy_rqh_n2c__note_mjl_qbj_sjc">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> Only conversations that
include at least one customer or AI agent message can be escalated.</div>
</div>
<div class="p">
<strong class="ph b">To create an escalation path</strong><ol class="ol" id="topic_xcy_rqh_n2c__ol_ev4_pqj_xfc">
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9066753203738#topic_nvb_tzl_52c" target="_blank">Open the dialogue builder</a> for the dialogue you
want to build an escalation into. </li>
<li class="li">Click the plus (+) icon where you want to start the escalation path. </li>
<li class="li">Add an availability block if you need the flow to consider either business hours or
agent availability. <p class="p">For more information, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357749686554" target="_blank">Checking business hours and agent availability during AI agent
conversations</a>. </p>
</li>
<li class="li">Click the plus (+) icon where you want to put an escalation block and select
<strong class="ph b">Escalation</strong>. </li>
<li class="li">Enter an AI agent message to communicate to the customer what’s happening.</li>
<li class="li">Select an escalation method from the following: <ul class="ul" id="topic_xcy_rqh_n2c__ul_hsk_3tj_xfc">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Send an email</strong>: Enter the email recipient (the agent or support department
where the ticket should go), email title, and (optional) email content. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Forward to an agent</strong>: Select where to transfer the conversation. <ul class="ul" id="topic_xcy_rqh_n2c__ul_hxw_jtj_xfc">
<li class="li">By default, the escalation goes to the group you specified when you first
integrated your AI agent with a CRM, but you can also specify an escalation team
in the <strong class="ph b">Escalate to team</strong> field in the Details panel. </li>
<li class="li">You can also specify which dialogue should be triggered if the escalation
fails, such as the "Failed escalation reply" system reply, in the <strong class="ph b">Escalation
fallback</strong> field in the Details pane.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">(Optional) In the Details panel, click <strong class="ph b">Add action</strong> to perform an <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357756651290" target="_blank">action</a> when an escalation happens. </li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Save</strong> to save your work for later, or click <strong class="ph b">Publish</strong> to make your
changes live. </li>
</ol>
</div>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_xcy_rqh_n2c__image_j55_vtj_xfc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/aiaa_operating_hours_simple_example.png"></p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested1" id="topic_gmk_hwr_mhc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title5">Configuring the automation threshold for email AI agents</h2>
<div class="body">
<div class="note" id="topic_gmk_hwr_mhc__note_nj2_22z_hkc">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> This section applies only to zero-training email AI agents, not
email AI agents with agentic AI.</div>
<p class="p">For zero-training email AI agents, you can configure how many use cases the AI agent can
complete during a conversation with a customer before the email automation ends. </p>
<p class="p">Configuring this threshold allows you to control how long the AI agent should be active in
an email conversation. Based on your business goals, you can let the AI agent handle
conversations as long as there is no explicit need to escalate, or limit the number of use
cases, to guarantee your customers can easily receive human assistance if they require help
with complex cases.</p>
<p class="p">If you configure the threshold to keep automation active indefinitely or allow multiple use
cases, you should confirm that escalation blocks exist in all your dialogues at the
appropriate points. Reaching an empty AI agent message block does not trigger an escalation
if additional use cases are still allowed. Once a use case is triggered, customers cannot
directly trigger a new use case while still in a dialogue’s conversation flow. </p>
<p class="p">It’s recommended to <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9041901679130" target="_blank">create a use case</a> for escalations that contains a simple dialogue
with an escalation block, which can be easily linked from other dialogues or triggered
during use case detection.</p>
<p class="p">Additionally, you should configure your workflows to identify tickets that are in an Open
status but have the <em class="ph i">escalated_by_ultimate</em> tag (which indicates that the automation
has ended). These tickets will no longer be responded to by the AI agent, meaning they might
require human attention.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To configure the email automation threshold</strong></p>
<div class="p">
<ol class="ol" id="topic_gmk_hwr_mhc__ol_kw4_pwr_mhc">
<li class="li"><span class="ph">In the AI agents workspace, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357756913178#topic_t25_qvj_tdc" target="_blank">select the AI agent</a> you want to work
with.</span></li>
<li class="li"><span class="ph">Click <img class="image" id="topic_gmk_hwr_mhc__d8e331" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ai_agents_settings_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Settings</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">General</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">Scroll down to the <strong class="ph b">Email automation</strong> section. </li>
<li class="li">Select one of the following options: <ul class="ul" id="topic_gmk_hwr_mhc__ol_vn2_zwr_mhc">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Keep automation active</strong>: The AI agent keeps responding to the customer until
the end of the conversation or until it encounters a not-understood message, a use
case with no configured replies, or an escalation block in a dialogue. The
<em class="ph i">escalated_by_ultimate</em> tag is then applied to the conversation.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Stop automation after use cases completed</strong>: The AI agent stops responding to
the customer after a certain number of use cases have been completed. The
<em class="ph i">escalated_by_ultimate</em> tag is applied following the logic described in <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357758805146#topic_z4m_lqq_q2c" target="_blank">Understanding email conversation flows</a> or
else at the end of the specified number of use cases.<ul class="ul" id="topic_gmk_hwr_mhc__ul_aqf_fxr_mhc">
<li class="li">Underneath this setting, specify the number of use cases that can be completed
before the email automation ends. <p class="p">For example, if you set this to 2, a
customer’s first question might trigger the AI agent to send a generative
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357749481882" target="_blank">system reply</a>, reaching the end of the
first use case. Then, based on this reply, the customer asks a follow-up
question, triggering a second use case, which is resolved in three
conversational turns. After this second use case is completed, the AI agent
stops responding.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">In <strong class="ph b">Reply delay (minutes)</strong>, specify the number of minutes that must pass
before the last use case is completed before the AI agent sends a reply to the
customer.<p class="p">The recommended delay is 15 minutes.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_gmk_hwr_mhc__image_jdc_4xr_mhc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/aiaa_email_automation_setting.png" width="500"></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Save</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
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