Creating and managing templates for AI agents

A template is a centralized reply that you can link to from multiplegenerative proceduresordialogues. You can create a new template from scratch, or copy an existing reply to a new template. You can also create templates in multiple languages.


What's my plan?







All Suites

Team, Growth, Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus










Support

Team, Professional, or Enterprise










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.

A template is a centralized reply that you can link to from multiple generative procedures or dialogues. You can create a new template from scratch, or copy an
existing reply to a new template. You can also create templates in multiple languages.
Since template replies aren’t triggered directly, you can use them to draft and edit new
dialogues before making them visible to customers.
Templates are also useful for:

Building reusable patterns, such as CSAT flow
Editing dialogues that are live in production
Saving a dialogue for reuse

This article covers the following topics:
Accessing and viewing existing
templates
Creating a new
template
Copying a reply to a new
template
Replacing a dialogue with a
template
Grouping replies under a
template
Changing the language for a
reply
Deleting replies and
templates
Reviewing replies linking to a
template




Accessing and viewing existing templates

View existing templates or create a new one on the Templates page.
To open the Templates page


In the AI agents workspace, select the AI agent you want to work
with.

Click
Content in the sidebar, then select Templates. If there are no templates yet, you’re prompted to create one. Otherwise, the
Templates page opens.




The Templates page shows the following information for each template:

Template name and description.

Linked in replies: Replies that link to the template.


Languages: Status of dialogue for each active language.


Actions: Number of actions applied within the template’s
dialogue.


Last modified: When the template was last changed.



Click the options menu icon ( ) in each row to access the following actions:

View information: View and update the template name and description.

Copy to another AI agent: Share the template across AI agents within your
organization.

Delete: Remove the template, after deleting any links to it from replies.





Creating a new template

You can create a template even if the AI agent is live. Since the template isn’t triggered
automatically, customers cannot see it until you link to it from an active reply.
To create a template


In the AI agents workspace, select the AI agent you want to work
with.
Click
Content in the sidebar, then select Templates.
Click Create your first template if there are no existing templates, otherwise
click Add template.
Enter a name and an optional Description.
Click Save.


Once you have created a template, you can add a conversation flow for it in the dialogue
builder.

To add a dialogue to a template
On the Templates page, click the plus icon (+) under the desired language.
If there is a green dot under the language,
a dialogue already exists and can be edited.

Review the settings and click Next. The dialogue builder opens.


Create the dialogue.


Once a template has a dialogue, you can use it in a conversation flow by selecting it in a
Link to block in the dialogue builder.



Copying a reply to a new template

You can copy an existing dialogue and save it as a new template. Some reasons to do this
are to create a backup of the dialogue, to make edits to it in draft form, or to save it for
later reuse.
To copy a reply to a new template

In the AI agents workspace, select the AI agent you want to work
with.
Click
Content in the sidebar, then select Use cases.
Select the use case that contains the reply you want to copy.
Select the Replies tab.
Click the edit dialogue icon ( ) for the reply you want to copy. The dialogue
builder opens.

Click the options menu icon ( ) in the upper-right corner, then select Copy to a
new Template.
Enter a template name and optional description, then click Create template from
dialogue. The dialogue is saved as a template.





Replacing a dialogue with a template

After you create a template reply dialogue, you can swap it into an existing reply in any
AI agent you manage. One reason to do this is to edit and test a new dialogue for an active
reply, and swap it with the old dialogue when ready.
To replace a dialogue in a reply with a template


In the AI agents workspace, select the AI agent you want to work
with.
Click
Content in the sidebar, then select Use cases.
Select the use case that contains the reply you want to use the template for.
Select the Replies tab.
Click the edit dialogue icon ( ) for the reply with dialogue you want to
replace. The dialogue builder opens.

Click the options menu icon ( ) in the upper-right corner, then select Replace
dialogue.

Select the template dialogue you want to use.

Click Replace to simultaneously replace the dialogue and save the reply.





Grouping replies under a template

You can group each language reply under one template.
To group replies under a template


In the reply you want to add to a template, open the dialogue builder.
Click the options menu ( ) in the upper-right corner, then select Move to
a different template.

Select the template where you'd like to move the reply, then select the language to
associate it with. You can have only one template reply per language.




When you finish, you can delete the
template that no longer has a reply associated, if needed.



Changing the language for a template reply

As with other replies, you can change the language for a template reply.
To change a reply language


In the dialogue builder, click the options menu icon
( ) in the upper-right corner, then select View
info. The Dialogue settings pane appears.

Under Dialogue language, select the language you want to use.
Click Save to save the new language selection.






Deleting replies and templates

You can delete a reply associated with a template or you can delete a full template.


Deleting a reply in a template

You can delete a reply associated with a template. You cannot delete a template reply if
another reply links to it.
To delete a template


In the dialogue builder for the reply you want to
delete, click the options menu icon ( ) in the upper-right corner, then select
Delete.





Deleting a template

You can delete a template if you no longer need it. You cannot delete a template reply if
another reply links to it.
To delete a template


In the AI agents workspace, select the AI agent you want to work
with.
Click
Content in the sidebar, then select Templates.
Click the options menu icon ( ) beside the template you want to delete, then
select Delete.
When asked to confirm, click Delete.






Reviewing replies linking to a template

You can review a list of replies linking to a template to understand where a template is
being used. Do this from the template details or from the dialogue settings.

To view where a template is used in template details
In the AI agents workspace, select the AI agent you want to work
with.
Click
Content in the sidebar, then select Templates.
Review the Linked in replies column to view the number of times this template
is being used.

Click the row of the template you want to review. The Template details
page opens with a list of replies that link to the template.


Click the open dialogue icon ( ) to navigate to the reply.


To view where a template is used in dialogue settings



In a reply, click Edit dialogue to open the dialogue builder.
Click the options menu icon ( ) in the upper-right corner, then select View
info.
In the settings pane on the right, under Linked in responses, review the replies this
template is routed to through the link to block.





{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "TechArticle",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357756562330",
"url": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357756562330",
"headline": "Creating and managing templates for AI agents",
"description": "You can create, manage, and organize templates for AI agent dialogues, including creating new templates, copying replies to templates, replacing dialogues, grouping replies, changing languages, and deleting templates or replies.",
"articleSection": "Building conversation flows for AI agents",
"datePublished": "2024-11-11T22:24:44+00:00",
"dateModified": "2026-05-12T17:44:30.951349+00:00",
"inLanguage": "en-US",
"mainEntityOfPage": {
"@type": "WebPage",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8357756562330"