Automatically detecting customer intent, sentiment, and language

<body>
<div class="article-banners">
<div id="docs-wmp-link">
<a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5411234991258-plan" rel="noopener" target="_blank">What's my plan?</a>
</div>
<div class="article-banner" id="addon_copilot">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<strong>Add-on</strong>
</td>
<td>Copilot</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div id="docs-ai-summary">
<p id="docs-ai-summary-toggle">Verified AI summary <span id="up-triangle">◀</span><span id="down-triangle">▼</span></p>
<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">Use intelligent triage to automatically detect customer intent, sentiment, and language in support tickets. This feature enriches tickets with actionable details, helping you prioritize and route them effectively. Configure settings to tailor predictions to your needs, and leverage tags for streamlined workflows. Enhance your support operations by integrating AI detections into your ticket management strategy.</p>
</div>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4964463770650" target="_blank">Intelligent triage</a> uses artificial
intelligence (AI) to automatically analyze new support tickets by predicting customer
intent, sentiment, and language, and enriches tickets with actionable details, such as
product names.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">You can use this information to identify and display helpful context about your
incoming tickets. Additionally, you can improve your workflows by incorporating AI
detections to more precisely deflect, route, and prioritize tickets.</p>
<p class="p"> This article describes how admins configure intelligent triage intent, sentiment, and
language detection settings. To configure entity detection, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6711181959194" target="_blank">Detecting unique information in tickets with entities</a>.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">This article contains the following topics:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_azh_xng_htb__ul_oc5_v4g_htb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_l5w_fr4_pgc">Understanding intelligent triage</a></li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="#topic_fh4_brd_hgc">Configuring intent settings for intelligent triage</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_fcq_wr2_hgc">Configuring sentiment settings for intelligent triage</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_a3r_4h2_hgc">Configuring language detection settings for intelligent triage</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_jyk_2bl_hgc">Next steps</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="p">Related articles:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_azh_xng_htb__ul_mq2_yfj_fzb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6298065502874" target="_blank">Configuring intelligent triage for the agent
experience</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_l5w_fr4_pgc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Understanding intelligent triage</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">The Zendesk machine learning model automatically provides predictions about your
tickets when intelligent triage is turned on. These predictions are added as <a class="xref" href="#topic_ybp_w54_pgc">new custom fields to your
tickets</a>, which provide insights into what a ticket is about, the language
used, and the end user's emotional tone. Additionally, <a class="xref" href="#topic_xhg_y54_pgc">related tags</a> are generated to
simplify the creation of automated workflows, views, and reporting, helping agents
and admins efficiently handle and prioritize support requests.</p>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested2" id="topic_ybp_w54_pgc">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title3">Understanding intelligent triage fields</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">When you enable intelligent triage, the system adds new custom fields to your
tickets that are populated with prebuilt predictions by the Zendesk machine
learning model:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_ybp_w54_pgc__ul_idt_2v4_pgc">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">Intent</strong>: A prediction of what the ticket is about. The
prediction is made based on the text of the first public comment in the
ticket. If configured to do so, the intent is updated every time the end
user replies.<p class="p" dir="ltr">You can see the possible intent values <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9488234915610" target="_blank">in the Intents page</a>. The
Zendesk Intent Model includes intents for all of the supported
industries. Your account has access to relevant intents and use cases
based on your ticket conversation data.</p>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">Language</strong>: A prediction of which language the ticket is
written in. To see the possible values, open the Language page in Admin
Center. For the Language field, intelligent triage can detect approximately
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821324826-Zendesk-language-support-by-product#h_01K2J618F2V783VM0C8EXMZWCT" target="_blank">150 different languages</a>.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">Sentiment</strong>: A prediction of how positive or negative the
customer feels about their request. Possible values are Very Positive,
Positive, Neutral, Negative, and Very Negative. The prediction is made based
on the text of the first message in the ticket. If configured to do so, the
sentiment is updated every time the end user replies.<p class="p">Intelligent triage
is specifically calibrated for customer service. This means that a
ticket isn’t assigned a negative sentiment just because a customer has
an issue with their order, can’t find the information they need, or some
other similar “negative” situation. Instead, the model is tuned to
analyze sentiment with the assumption that the customer is contacting
customer service because they have an issue that needs to be
addressed.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="p">In addition, each of these fields has an associated confidence field to indicate
how likely the prediction is accurate. These fields are populated by the Zendesk
machine learning model based on the content of the first message of a ticket
when it’s submitted. Agents can <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6298065502874#topic_vx1_4n3_fzb" target="_blank">update the field values</a> if
necessary.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested2" id="topic_xhg_y54_pgc">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title4">Understanding intelligent triage tags</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">When the Intent, Sentiment, and Language fields are populated, tags are
also automatically added to the ticket to help you build views, triggers,
automations, and reporting. These tags reflect the values in the Intent,
Language, and Sentiment fields, and are structured as follows:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_xhg_y54_pgc__ul_afl_cw4_pgc">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">intent__<em class="ph i">value of Intent field</em>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">language__<em class="ph i">value of Language field</em>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">sentiment__<em class="ph i">value of Sentiment field</em>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">When creating business rules, you can use the field value or the tag,
depending on which is easier. For example, when creating a trigger with multiple
intents, it’s easier to use tags because you can add them faster than adding
separate conditions for multiple field values.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested1" id="topic_fh4_brd_hgc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title5">Configuring intent settings for intelligent triage</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Intents are predictions about what each ticket is about. You can configure intent
settings in Admin Center.</p>
<p class="p">By default, intent detection is turned on. To turn off intent detection, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9678056232858#topic_fh4_brd_hgc" target="_blank">Turning off intent detection</a>.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr"><strong class="ph b">To configure intent settings</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_fh4_brd_hgc__ol_gh4_brd_hgc">
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><span class="ph">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click <img class="image" id="topic_fh4_brd_hgc__d8e1420" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/icon_ai.png">
<strong class="ph b">AI</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Intelligent triage &gt; Intent</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Manage Settings</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">To update a ticket's intent based on the latest end user message in a
conversation, click the checkbox under <strong class="ph b">Dynamic detection</strong>.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_fh4_brd_hgc__image_hh4_brd_hgc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/copilot_intent_dynamic_detect_setting.png" width="600"></p>
<p class="p">Dynamic detection applies to only new tickets created after you
turn this setting on.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Under <strong class="ph b">Channels</strong>, configure the channels you want to detect intent:<ul class="ul" id="topic_fh4_brd_hgc__ul_ih4_brd_hgc">
<li class="li">For <strong class="ph b">Email and async</strong> channels, click the drop-down, then select or
deselect the channels.<p class="p">The Web form, Email, and Web service (API)
channels are selected by default. If you create tickets via <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408824097050#topic_amm_zbh_bhb" target="_blank">channel integrations</a>,
select Social messaging.</p>
<p class="p">The Closed tickets channel is for
follow-up tickets. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8421655952026#topic_q4r_vk5_ncc" target="_blank">Follow-up ticket
considerations</a>.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">For <strong class="ph b">Messaging</strong> channels, click the drop-down, then select or
deselect the channels.<p class="p">The Web Widget, WhatsApp, and Facebook
Messenger channels are selected by default.</p>
<p class="p">Selecting any one
of the Web Widget, iOS SDK, Android SDK, or Native Messaging
channels automatically selects all four channels together.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Select the <strong class="ph b">Voice</strong> checkbox to detect intent on post-call
transcripts.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_fh4_brd_hgc__image_jh4_brd_hgc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/copilot_intelligent_triage_channel_settings.png" width="600"></p>
<p class="p"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6170157307162" target="_blank">Call transcription must be turned
on</a> and transcripts must be shown on tickets for intent to
be detected on the voice channel.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">To exclude tickets created by agents from intent detection, click the checkbox
under <strong class="ph b">Exclusion conditions</strong>.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_fh4_brd_hgc__image_kh4_brd_hgc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Copilot_intelligent_triage_settings_exclusions.png" width="600"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Save</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested1" id="topic_fcq_wr2_hgc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title6">Configuring sentiment settings for intelligent triage</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Sentiments are predictions about how the user feels about their request. You can
configure sentiment settings in Admin Center.</p>
<p class="p">By default, sentiment prediction is turned on. To turn off sentiment prediction, see
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9678056232858#topic_fcq_wr2_hgc" target="_blank">Turning off sentiment prediction</a>.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr"><strong class="ph b">To configure sentiment settings</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_fcq_wr2_hgc__ol_gcq_wr2_hgc">
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><span class="ph">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click <img class="image" id="topic_fcq_wr2_hgc__d8e1450" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/icon_ai.png">
<strong class="ph b">AI</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Intelligent triage &gt; Sentiment</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Manage Settings</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">Select the checkbox under <strong class="ph b">Dynamic detection</strong> to update a ticket's
sentiment based on the latest end user message in a conversation.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_fcq_wr2_hgc__image_hcq_wr2_hgc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/copilot_sentiment_dynamic_detection_setting.png" width="600"></p>
<p class="p">Dynamic detection applies to only new tickets created after you
turn this setting on.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Under <strong class="ph b">Channels</strong>, configure the channels you want to predict sentiment:<ul class="ul" id="topic_fcq_wr2_hgc__ul_icq_wr2_hgc">
<li class="li"> For <strong class="ph b">Email and async</strong> channels, click the drop-down, then select
or deselect the channels.<p class="p">The Web form, Email, and Web service (API)
channels are selected by default. If you create tickets via <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408824097050#topic_amm_zbh_bhb" target="_blank">channel integrations</a>,
select Social messaging.</p>
<p class="p">The Closed tickets channel is for
follow-up tickets. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8421655952026#topic_q4r_vk5_ncc" target="_blank">Follow-up ticket
considerations</a>.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">For <strong class="ph b">Messaging</strong> channels, click the drop-down, then select or
deselect the channels.<p class="p">The Web Widget, WhatsApp, and Facebook
Messenger channels are selected by default.</p>
<p class="p">Selecting any one
of the Web Widget, iOS SDK, Android SDK, or Native Messaging
channels automatically selects all four channels together.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Select the <strong class="ph b">Voice</strong> checkbox to detect intent on post-call
transcripts.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_fcq_wr2_hgc__image_jcq_wr2_hgc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/copilot_intelligent_triage_channel_settings.png" width="600"></p>
<p class="p"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6170157307162" target="_blank">Call transcription must be turned
on</a> and transcripts must be shown on tickets for sentiment
to be detected on the voice channel. </p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">To exclude tickets created by agents from sentiment prediction, click the
checkbox under <strong class="ph b">Exclusion conditions</strong>.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_fcq_wr2_hgc__image_kcq_wr2_hgc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Copilot_intelligent_triage_settings_exclusions.png" width="600"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Save</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title7" class="topic nested1" id="topic_a3r_4h2_hgc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title7">Configuring language detection settings for intelligent triage</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Language is a prediction of what language the ticket is written in. You can configure
language detection settings in Admin Center.</p>
<p class="p">By default, language detection is turned on. To turn off language detection, see
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9678056232858#topic_a3r_4h2_hgc" target="_blank">Turning off language detection</a>.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr"><strong class="ph b">To configure intelligent triage language settings</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_a3r_4h2_hgc__ol_b3r_4h2_hgc">
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><span class="ph">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click <img class="image" id="topic_a3r_4h2_hgc__d8e1465" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/icon_ai.png">
<strong class="ph b">AI</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Intelligent triage &gt; Language</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Manage Settings</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">Under <strong class="ph b">Channels</strong>, configure the channels you want to detect language:<ul class="ul" id="topic_a3r_4h2_hgc__ul_d3r_4h2_hgc">
<li class="li"> For <strong class="ph b">Email and async</strong> channels, click the drop-down, then select
or deselect the channels.<p class="p">The Web form, Email, and Web service (API)
channels are selected by default. If you create tickets via <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408824097050#topic_amm_zbh_bhb" target="_blank">channel integrations</a>,
select Social messaging.</p>
<p class="p">The Closed tickets channel is for
follow-up tickets. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8421655952026#topic_q4r_vk5_ncc" target="_blank">Follow-up ticket
considerations</a>.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">For <strong class="ph b">Messaging</strong> channels, click the drop-down, then select or
deselect the channels.<p class="p">The Web Widget, WhatsApp, and Facebook
Messenger channels are selected by default.</p>
<p class="p">Selecting any one
of the Web Widget, iOS SDK, Android SDK, or Native Messaging
channels automatically selects all four channels together.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Select the <strong class="ph b">Voice</strong> checkbox to detect intent on post-call
transcripts.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_a3r_4h2_hgc__image_e3r_4h2_hgc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/copilot_intelligent_triage_channel_settings.png" width="600"></p>
<p class="p"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6170157307162" target="_blank">Call transcription must be turned
on</a> and transcripts must be shown on tickets for language
to be detected on the voice channel.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">To exclude tickets created by agents from language detection, select the
checkbox under <strong class="ph b">Exclusion conditions</strong>.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_a3r_4h2_hgc__image_f3r_4h2_hgc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Copilot_intelligent_triage_settings_exclusions.png" width="600"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Save</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title8" class="topic nested1" id="topic_jyk_2bl_hgc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title8">Next steps</h2>
<div class="body">
<div class="p">After you've configured intent, sentiment, and language detection features, it's
recommended that you finish setting up intelligent triage by:<ul class="ul" id="topic_jyk_2bl_hgc__ul_fjw_wbl_hgc">
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6711181959194" target="_blank">Creating entities</a> to detect unique
information in tickets.</li>
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8718789695002" target="_blank">Creating custom intents</a> to
personalize intelligent triage for your specific business needs.</li>
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6298065502874" target="_blank">Configuring how intelligent triage
predictions are shown to agents</a> to increase their productivity. </li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="p">When you're done setting up intelligent triage, you can take these actions to
maximize its impact on your support workflows by:<ul class="ul" id="topic_jyk_2bl_hgc__ul_s3j_pw4_pgc">
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4662504732954" target="_blank">Creating views for your automatically
triaged tickets</a>: Surface tickets based on AI predictions, such as
intent and sentiment, so that your teams can quickly focus on high-priority
or specialized issues. This streamlines ticket management and boosts
response times</li>
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4973607684506" target="_blank">Choosing a routing method for
automatically triaged tickets</a>: Automatically assign tickets to
the right agents or teams using intelligent triage data. For example, route
urgent or negative sentiment tickets to priority support, or direct
product-specific issues to specialized experts. This can ensure faster and
more accurate resolutions.</li>
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/7934147095066" target="_blank">Leverage prebuilt analytics dashboards to
analyze intelligent triage performance</a>: Gain actionable insights
on how AI-powered predictions are enhancing ticket handling. Monitor trends
in customer sentiment, popular intents, and language distribution to
continuously optimize your workflows and improve customer satisfaction.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<script id="ai-summary-script">
//<![CDATA[
const ai_summary_style = document.createElement('style');
ai_summary_style.innerHTML = `#styled-article-body{padding:0 0 0}#article-body #docs-ai-summary{background-color:#f3f3f3;border:1px solid #d3d3d3;padding:10px 10px 6px;margin-bottom:16px}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle{font-size:.9em;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:4px;cursor:pointer;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle #up-triangle{margin-left:auto;padding-right:10px;display:none}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle #down-triangle{margin-left:auto;padding-right:10px}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-content{font-size:.9em;padding-left:25px;padding-right:25px;margin-bottom:12px}`;
document.head.appendChild(ai_summary_style);

const toggleAISummary = () => {
const summary = document.getElementById("docs-ai-summary-content");
const upTriangle = document.getElementById("up-triangle");
const downTriangle = document.getElementById("down-triangle");
if (summary.style.display === "none") {
summary.style.display = "block";
upTriangle.style.display = "none";
downTriangle.style.display = "inline";
} else {
summary.style.display = "none";
upTriangle.style.display = "inline";
downTriangle.style.display = "none";
}
};

document.getElementById("docs-ai-summary-toggle").addEventListener("click", toggleAISummary);
//]]>
</script>
</body>