Call transcription and summarization FAQ

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">In this article, you'll find frequently asked questions and answers about call transcription and summarization.</p>
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<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">Call transcription and summarization, available with Copilot and QA add-ons, enhance support by adding transcripts and summaries to tickets or QA tools. You can activate these features in Admin Center for recorded calls, with options for real-time transcription. Costs are per minute, and sensitive data can be redacted. Supported languages include English, Spanish, and more. Troubleshoot accuracy with keyword boosting.</p>
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<p class="p">In this article, you'll find frequently asked questions and answers about call
transcription and summarization.</p>
<p class="p">This article contains the following sections:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="Talk_transcription_summarization_faq__ul_hvl_xf2_wbc">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_kjp_h22_wbc">General questions</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_ohk_322_wbc">Troubleshooting questions</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_kjp_h22_wbc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">General questions</h2>
<div class="body">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_kjp_h22_wbc__ul_mvh_k22_wbc">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">What options are available for call transcription and
summarization?</strong><p class="p">Call transcription and summarization are included as
part of the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5524125586330" target="_blank">Copilot</a> and <a class="xref" href="https://www.zendesk.com/service/quality-assurance/" target="_blank">Zendesk QA</a> add-ons. The underlying service which
transcribes and summarizes calls is the same, but what differs is where the
resulting transcripts and summaries are viewed and how they are used.
Copilot and Zendesk QA call transcription and summary settings are
independent. Activating Copilot, to add transcripts and summaries to
tickets, does not send anything to Zendesk QA unless the Zendesk QA setting
is also turned on. Even if your Support to QA connection is active and has
no filters, transcripts and summaries are only sent to Zendesk QA when the
QA setting is on.</p>
<p class="p">Real-time transcription powers the real-time
suggestions feature for Voice. If this is turned on, the real-time
transcript is used in place of the post-call transcription on ticket
comments and in QA.</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_kjp_h22_wbc__ul_cnb_nkt_5bc">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Copilot add-on</strong><p class="p">Call transcripts and summaries are added to the
conversation log on tickets in the Agent Workspace. Transcripts and
summaries provide additional context to voice tickets and reduce the
requirement for agents to take notes and summarize calls as part of
their wrap-up activities.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Zendesk QA add-on</strong>
<p class="p">Call transcripts and summaries appear in Zendesk QA where QA-focused
users can review and analyze historical call interactions in detail.
Voice QA evaluates the call transcript and provides a QA Score just
like it does for chat or messaging conversations which can be used
to identify the conversations where there’s a churn risk or an agent
knowledge gap. </p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">How do I activate call transcription and summarization?</strong><p class="p">You activate
call transcription and summarization for recorded calls in Admin Center. If
you have the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5524125586330" target="_blank">Copilot add-on</a>, you can <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6170157307162" target="_blank">activate transcripts and summaries for
tickets</a>. If you have the <a class="xref" href="https://www.zendesk.com/service/quality-assurance/" target="_blank">Zendesk QA add-on</a>, you can <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8536077648538" target="_blank">activate transcripts and summaries for
QA</a>. The configuration settings are independent of one another to
accommodate for different needs (and subscriptions).</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Do I need Copilot to get transcripts and summaries in Zendesk QA?</strong><p class="p">No.
You just need a subscription for Zendesk QA to activate transcripts and
summaries.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Is every phone call transcribed and summarized?</strong><p class="p">No, only calls which
are <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408831738266" target="_blank">recorded</a> can be transcribed and
summarized. Admins can turn on the transcription and summarization
functionality for some or all phone lines that have turned on call
recording. </p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">How are call transcriptions priced?</strong><p class="p">Call transcription is charged at
USD$0.01 per minute and real-time transcription is charged at $0.027 per
minute of transcribed audio. Transcription charges are rounded up to the
nearest whole minute. If real-time transcription and post-call transcription
are both activated, customers are charged $0.027 because the call is only
transcribed once, in real-time. Transcription charges are processed together
with other usage charges for voice, such as phone number charges or call
charges, and deducted from an account's credit balance. </p>
<p class="p">For more
pricing information, see the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408846483482" target="_blank">pricing page for voice</a>. </p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> If calls are transcribed as part of both <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5524125586330" target="_blank">Copilot</a> and Zendesk QA
subscriptions, transcription costs will only be processed once for a
given phone call. You won't be charged twice.</div>
</div>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Where do call transcripts and call summaries appear?</strong><p class="p">After a phone call
ends and the call recording audio file becomes available to play in a
ticket, the call transcript and summary are added to the ticket conversation
log. Depending on the format selected by an admin, transcripts and summaries
appear as internal notes or collapsible comments.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Can call transcripts and summaries be displayed as collapsible comments?</strong>
<p class="p">Yes, admins can <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6170157307162" target="_blank">choose how call transcripts and summaries
are displayed</a> on tickets:</p>
<ul class="ul">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Internal notes (default)</strong>: Transcripts and summaries are displayed
as internal notes.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Collapsible comments</strong>: Transcripts and summaries are displayed as
private, collapsible comments that agents can expand when needed. These
collapsible comments aren't visible to end users.</li>
</ul>
<div class="note important">
<span class="importanttitle">Important:</span> Manual redaction isn't available for collapsible
comments. If your workflow requires agents to manually redact text from call
transcripts or summaries, use the internal note format option
instead.</div>
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> Automatic redaction of personally identifiable
information (PII) and payment card industry (PCI) data from call transcripts
continues to work with both format options.</div>
<p class="p">If you use <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6711181959194" target="_blank">entity classification</a>, entities
continue to be detected in collapsible transcript and summary comments.
However, unlike in internal notes, detected entities aren't highlighted in
collapsible comments.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Can Zendesk automatically redact sensitive customer data from transcripts and
call summaries? </strong><p class="p">Yes, if you have the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6561144266906" target="_blank">Advanced Data Privacy and Protection
add-on</a>, you can configure Zendesk to automatically redact
personally identifiable information (PII) and payment card industry (PCI)
data from call recording transcriptions and summaries.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note important">
<span class="importanttitle">Important:</span> Zendesk Voice can't redact PII/PCI data from call
recording audio files. To ensure this personal information isn't
accessible to users through the audio player in tickets, you must<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828042010" target="_blank"> delete call recording files</a>.
Zendesk Contact Center can redact call recordings, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9459045766170" target="_blank">call recording settings in Contact
Center</a>.</div>
</div>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">What languages are supported for call transcription?</strong><p class="p">Post-call
transcription uses automatic transcription language detection. For supported
languages, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821324826#h_01K1KAQNCFD5526GMKHJCBAMTK" target="_blank">Zendesk language support by
product</a>.</p>
<p class="p">Real-time transcription uses the agents' Zendesk
profile language. All <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821324826" target="_blank">Zendesk agent languages</a> are
supported.</p>
<p class="p">If a language spoken during a call isn't supported, the
generated transcript might be inaccurate.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Are voicemail recordings also transcribed?</strong><p class="p">On Suite plans, voicemail
transcription is available and can be turned on for each line in Admin
Center. Voicemail transcription uses the same transcription model used for
call recordings. For more information, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408831899930" target="_blank">Configuring voicemail
options</a>.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Is the call transcript or call summary shared with or retained by a third
party? Is customer data used to train the models?</strong><p class="p">The transcription
and summarization features are powered by Deepgram and OpenAI’s Enterprise
service. These services do not use Zendesk customers' inputs to train their
models or otherwise improve their services, and Zendesk customer data will
not be hosted except briefly for the purpose of providing the service. See
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5729714731290" target="_blank">Zendesk AI data use information</a>
for more information about how your data is protected.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">How can customers export their transcription charges?</strong><p class="p">From the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408825620378" target="_blank">usage charges page</a>, users can
review their transcription charges for a given period and export a CSV file
containing detailed charges. Users receive an email with a ZIP file
attachment, which contains the CSV of charges for the period. </p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Is the call transcription and summarization functionality available for Talk
Partner Edition?</strong><p class="p">Call transcription and summarization works with
Zendesk Voice only. If you're using a third-party telephony provider with
Talk Partner Edition, several <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408819751194" target="_blank">Talk Partners</a> offer transcription
services, including adding call transcripts to Zendesk tickets.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Can agents view the real-time transcript in the Agent Workspace?</strong><p class="p">Agents
cannot currently view the real-time transcript in the Agent Workspace. The
real-time transcript is currently used by Zendesk to allow agents to
generate AI suggestions during live calls.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">If I activate the real-time AI suggestions feature for voice calls, will the
call transcript and call summary be automatically added to the ticket (or
sent to QA) after the call ends?</strong><p class="p">Not automatically. If you want the
call transcript and call summary to get added to tickets or sent to QA,
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6170157307162" target="_blank">activate it for tickets</a> or <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8536077648538" target="_blank">activate it for QA</a> as the settings
are independent, just like the associated Copilot and Zendesk QA
add-ons.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_ohk_322_wbc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Troubleshooting questions</h2>
<div class="body">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_ohk_322_wbc__ul_dcs_k22_wbc">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Why do call transcripts sometimes contain errors or
inaccuracies?</strong><p class="p">Today, the best speech-to-text algorithms are around 90%
accurate, meaning that for every 100 words processed, only 90 are accurately
transcribed. Many factors can influence the accuracy of the transcription,
including background noise, speakers talking over each other, poor quality
audio connections or network signal, speaker dialects, quiet speech, or
words and phrases not being in the training model database.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">How can I improve the accuracy of transcriptions?</strong><p class="p">Use keyword boosting
to specify words that are expected to occur in your phone conversations.
This might include product names or industry-specific terms. Adding keywords
in advance helps improve recognition and the accuracy of transcriptions.
</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Why is the call transcript or call summary different to what was spoken on
the call?</strong><p class="p">On rare occasions AI can "hallucinate" and provide an
inaccurate answer if it is acting on limited data. The primary cause of
hallucination lies in the limitations of the training data and neural
network algorithms that AI models use to 'learn.' AI models, particularly
those based on deep learning, learn patterns and associations from massive
datasets. If the training data is biased, incomplete, or contains errors,
the AI may develop skewed perceptions, leading to hallucinatory outputs. For
example, hallucinations can happen when there are periods of silence or
background noise in a phone call, making it challenging for the AI to figure
out what was actually said. </p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">How can I prevent the call transcript from taking up a lot of space on the
ticket conversation log?</strong><p class="p">For customers with a subscription to <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5524125586330" target="_blank">Copilot</a>, admins can display call
transcripts and summaries as collapsible comments. Agents can expand the
comments when needed, helping reduce the space that transcripts and
summaries take up in the ticket conversation log.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
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