Announcing automatic integration between advanced AI agents and Zendesk messaging for new customers

Announced on | Rollout on
January 12, 2026 | January 19, 2026

Going forward, integrating advanced AI agents with Zendesk messaging is no longer a manual process. We’re automating this integration so that advanced messaging AI agents are automatically connected to the Zendesk messaging channel for new customers.

This announcement answers the following questions:

What’s changing?

Why is Zendesk making this change?

What do I need to do?

What’s changing?

For customers who buy AI agents - Advanced on or after January 19, 2026, advanced messaging AI agents are automatically connected to the Zendesk messaging channel. This means that:

A messaging integration is automatically configured based on your Zendesk account’s subdomain.

A messaging group is automatically created. This messaging group is used to contain messaging AI agents associated with your organization.

Any messaging AI agents that are created are automatically added to the group.

After this, all you need to do is set the AI agent as a default responder and manage settings that affect how it behaves on messaging channels.

As part of this change, an advanced AI agent can be connected only to the account it was created in. This means that if you have multiple production environments, you cannot connect an AI agent that was created in production environment A to production environment B.

Additionally, an AI agent cannot be connected to multiple environments at the same time. If you have a sandbox environment in addition to your production environment, you cannot connect a single AI agent to both environments. However, you can request that Zendesk duplicate the AI agent for you and switch the integration to the appropriate environment.

Why is Zendesk making this change?

Advanced AI agents are a native part of Zendesk and should have out-of-the-box setup. We’re simplifying this process to require the least amount of manual steps when setting up your advanced AI agent.

What do I need to do?

For customers who buy AI agents - Advanced on or after January 19, 2026, the messaging integration happens automatically. Afterward, you can set the AI agent as a default responder and manage settings that affect how it behaves on messaging channels.

This integration applies only to advanced messaging AI agents. Advanced email AI agents are not automatically connected.

For customers who bought AI agents - Advanced prior to January 19, 2026:

If you’ve already integrated your advanced AI agents to messaging, no functional changes are made to your current setup.

If you created a messaging group as part of your integration, any advanced AI agents you create in the future are automatically added to that group.

If you didn’t create a messaging group as part of your integration, a group is automatically created for you, and any existing and new AI agents are added to that group.

If you haven’t yet integrated your advanced AI agents with messaging, you experience the same changes as a new customer (described above in What’s changing?).

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.