Using OpenAI actions in action flows




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By connecting the action builder to external systems, such as OpenAI, admins
can integrate Zendesk with external systems in automated workflows, improving
collaboration and maintaining a seamless experience across multiple platforms.
Note: The
steps associated with external systems in action flows are referred to collectively
as external actions.

This article contains the following topics:
Connecting OpenAI to action builder
Using OpenAI actions in action flows




Connecting OpenAI to action builder

Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the
action builder to the external system.
When connecting to external systems for use in action flows, the following best practices are recommended:
All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it is a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external system.
All integrations request access to necessary scopes. However, it's important that you review and validate the scopes before authorizing the connection to the external system.
When managing credentials for API key-based tools, such as OpenAI, it's best to store keys in a secure vault or credential manager.



To connect action builder to OpenAI
In Admin Center, click
Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Actions > Action
flows.

Create or edit an action flow.
Open the step sidebar.
Under External actions, click OpenAI.
Click Connect.
Use an API key to authenticate the account.
Note:

The connection isn't confirmed until you test or use an action
flow with OpenAI steps.
All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed
to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it is
a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than
personal credentials when connecting to each external
system.





After you've connected to the system, you'll see an indicator that it's connected and
details about the instance you're connected to, as well as the actions available for
OpenAI.



Using OpenAI actions in action flows

The OpenAI action steps make it possible for you to provide things such as
AI-generated summaries of long tickets to agents, identify negative emotional tones
in tickets so they can be routed to specialized teams, extract keywords that can be
used as ticket tags, and use tailored AI models to analyze customer messages.
GPT 5.0 is supported for all of the OpenAI steps. This enhances automation
capabilities by providing better contextual understanding and more natural
responses.
The following OpenAI actions are available:
Analyze senitment
Summarize text
Extract keywords
Send prompt




Analyzing sentiment

Use the Analyze sentiment action to detect the emotional tone of text.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs

model, text



Output
sentiment








Summarizing text

Use the Summarize text action to conense large quanities of text into a
brief summary.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs

model, text



Output
summary








Extracting keywords

Use the Extract keywords action to identify main topics or entities. These
can then be used as tags for tickets.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs

model, text



Output
keywords








Sending a prompt

Use the Send prompt action to define a custom prompt and response from the
OpenAI API. For example, a prompt might be:
Analyze this ticket and categorize it into one of the following: Billing, Technical Issue, Feature Request, Bug Report, General Inquiry.
Ticket:[description] where
[description] is replaced with a value by clicking Add
variable.











Variables




Inputs

model, text



Output
content








