Announcing the “Intent” to “Topic” terminology update in the Copilot add-on

Announced on | Rollout on | Rollout ends
May 26, 2026 | June 11, 2026 | June 18, 2026

Starting June 11, 2026, existing Copilot customers will see “Topic” instead of “Intent” across the in-product experience. This change makes it clearer that the AI is identifying the customer issues and requests in tickets. It also supports the ongoing work to make Intelligent Triage easier to set up, easier to improve over time, and easier to use across Zendesk AI products.

If you purchased the Copilot add-on on or after June 11, 2026, then you'll see "Topic" by default.

This is a naming change only. Your workflows, ticket data, and all the functionality you use today stay exactly the same.

This announcement includes the following topics:

What is changing?

Why is Zendesk making this change?

What do I need to do?

What is changing?

On June 11, 2026, we’re renaming Intelligent triage  “Intent” to “Topic” across the in-product experience.

You’ll see this update in places such as:

The ticket header

The Intelligent Triage Topic page in Admin Center (previously called the “Intent” page)

The Intelligent triage dashboard

Admin copilot recommendations

Any workflows you’ve created that use Intent are automatically updated to Topic

For now, the custom ticket fields for  "Intent" and “Intent confidence” aren’t changing. This means you may see both terms for a while in the Agent Workspace and Admin Center. We plan to update these field names in Q3 2026 so everything matches.

Why is Zendesk making this change?

As AI expands across Zendesk, using clear and consistent terms matters more. "Topic" is straightforward and better reflects what the AI is doing: identifying what each ticket is about so teams can route, prioritize, report on, and automate work.

This update also supports our broader direction for Intelligent Triage: making it easier to set up, improve, and scale with guided onboarding, clearer in-product guidance, quality recommendations, and a more centralized topic management experience.

As Intelligent Triage becomes available to more customers, moving to “Topic” now gives new customers clearer terminology from day one and makes it easier for teams to understand and work with these capabilities across products.

What do I need to do?

No action is required. This update rolls out automatically between June 11, 2026 and June 18, 2026. You might want to give your agents and admins a heads-up so they know why the labels look different. There's no setup, no configuration, and no workflow changes on your end.

If you’re interested in using the Zendesk copilot add-on, see Buying the Copilot AI add-on or contact your Zendesk account representative.

If you have feedback or questions related to this announcement, visit our community forum where we collect and manage customer product feedback. For general assistance with your Zendesk products, contact Zendesk Customer Support.