Checking operating hours and agent availability during conversations with AI agents

During conversations between users and AI agents, operating hours and agent availability can be used to determine how the AI agent should respond based on those factors.


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The functionality described in this article is being rolled
out to all Suite and Support plans from May 11 through June 12, 2026. You may not
see this functionality in your account yet. See this announcement for details.

During conversations between users and AI agents, operating hours and agent availability can
be used to determine how the AI agent should respond based on those factors.
You might leverage operating hours and agent availability in the following scenarios:

Escalation flows: When a user asks to be escalated to a human agent, the AI agent
can check whether it's within operating hours and whether any team members are
available.

Processes with team-specific transfer flows: For teams working different hours,
the AI agent can check hours and change the response as needed.

System replies for welcome, default, and failed escalation: When system replies
are sent, the AI agent can provide different responses based on operating hours.


This article contains the following topics:
Setting operating hours
Checking operating hours in a conversation flow
Checking team availability in a conversation flow


Related article:

About escalation strategies and flows for AI agents



Setting operating hours

Operating hours define the working hours for your human agents. You can define different
time zones and operating hours for different teams to support multi-region teams. Operating
hours are available for email and chat.

To set operating hours
In the AI agents workspace, select the AI agent you want to work
with.
Click
Settings in the sidebar, then select Operating hours.
Click Create rule.
In Rule name, enter a descriptive name for the rule
In the Time zone drop-down, select a time zone.
Select the appropriate days of the week and specify the operating hours for each
day.

Click Save.





Checking operating hours in a conversation flow

After you define your operating hours, you can check them during conversations to determine
how your AI agent should respond.
To check operating hours


Create a new dialogue or open an existing one.
Add an Availability block. For help, see Using the dialogue builder to create conversation flows for AI
agents.

In the first drop-down, leave Operating hours selected.
In the second drop-down, select the operating hours rule you created above.
Define the AI agent's response based on the branch:

Open: Add an Escalation block with a message and escalation
method.




Closed: Add an AI agent message block explaining your hours, or
additional follow-up options for the customer as needed. For additional help, see
About escalation strategies and flows for AI
agents.





Click Save to save your work for later, or click Publish to make your
changes live.




Checking team availability in a conversation flow

You can check whether agents are available before escalating or offering additional
options.
Regardless of whether you use omnichannel routing, this check assesses the Support status for
the agents within the escalation group. If any agent is online, the team is considered
available. If you want to check for agents' messaging status instead, contact Zendesk customer support and ask that messaging-based team
availability be turned on.
To check team availability


Create a new dialogue or open an existing one.
Add an Availability block. For help, see Using the dialogue builder to create conversation flows for AI
agents.

In the first drop-down, select Team availability.
In the second drop-down, enter the ID of the team (group) you want to check availability
for. For help, see How can I retrieve the group ID in Support?

Define the AI agent's response based on the branch:

Open (agents are available): Add an Escalation block with a message
and escalation method.

Closed (no agents are available): Add an AI agent message block
explaining that no agents are available, or additional follow-up options for the
customer as needed. For additional help, see About escalation strategies and flows for AI
agents.








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