Creating and adding actions for advanced AI agents

You can create actions to allow AI agents to perform certain tasks during conversations with customers. When you create an action, you can use it at the AI agent level, use case level, or block level.

This article contains the following topics:

Creating an action

Adding an action at the AI agent level

Adding an action at the use case level

Adding an action at the block level

Reordering actions

Related articles:

About actions for advanced AI agents

Reviewing and managing actions for advanced AI agents

About events for advanced AI agents

Creating an action

The actions you create are reusable for that AI agent across the AI agents - Advanced add-on. When you create an action, you can easily add it at the AI agent, use case, or block level.

Actions can be created from the Actions page, or from any place where actions can be added.

Note: You can’t create actions with duplicate configurations, even if the Name field is different.

To create an action

In AI agents - Advanced, use the AI agent drop-down field in the top-right corner to select the AI agent you want to add an action for.

Click Content in the sidebar, then select Actions.

Click Create action.

In Name, enter a descriptive name for the action.

In Target, select an appropriate target:

If you’re building a conversation action, select Conversation.

If you’re building a CRM action, select the specific CRM your AI agent is integrated with.

In Task, select which task the action should perform:

If you’re building a conversation action, see Available conversation actions for advanced AI agents for more information about the available options, including additional fields associated with each task.

If you’re building a CRM action, see the appropriate article below for more information about the available options, including additional fields associated with each task:

Available CRM actions for advanced AI agents and Zendesk Support

Available CRM actions for advanced AI agents and Zendesk Chat

Available CRM actions for advanced AI agents and Sunshine Conversations

Click Create.

Adding an action at the AI agent level

AI agent–level actions are executed in every conversation your AI agent engages in. They require an event and an associated action.

To add an action at the AI agent level

In AI agents - Advanced, use the AI agent drop-down field in the top-right corner to select the AI agent you want to add an action for.

Click Settings in the sidebar, then select AI agent settings.

Select the Events and actions tab.
This page shows all the events you’ve configured an AI agent-level action for.

Click Add action.

From the drop-down list, select the event that should trigger the action.
For more information about each event, see About events for advanced AI agents.

From the next drop-down list, select an existing action or click Create action to create a new one.
Your action is added to the list under the event you associated it with.

Adding an action at the use case level

Use case–level actions are executed when a specific use case is triggered during a conversation. You select the action you want to execute when the use case is triggered. Use case–level actions are particularly useful if you want to apply actions to all replies within a use case.

To add an action at the use case level

In AI agents - Advanced, use the AI agent drop-down field in the top-right corner to select the AI agent you want to add an action for.

Click Content in the sidebar, then select Use cases.

Select the use case you want to associate an action with.

On the General tab, under Actions, click Add action.

From the drop-down list, select an existing action or click Create action to create a new one.

Your action is added under Actions.

Click Save.

Adding an action at the block level

Block-level actions are executed when a particular block within a conversation flow is reached. These actions are useful for more granular control within your dialogues.

Note: Actions are executed before the contents of the block. For example, if an action is added to an AI agent message block, the action occurs before the AI agent message is sent.

To add an action at the block level

In AI agents - Advanced, use the AI agent drop-down field in the top-right corner to select the AI agent you want to add an action for.

Click Content in the sidebar, then select Use cases.

Select the use case that contains the dialogue you want to add an action to.

Select the Replies tab.

Select the reply that contains the dialogue you want to add an action to.

Click Edit dialogue.
The dialogue builder opens.

Select the block you want to add an action to.

In the Details pane on the right, under Actions, click Add action.

From the drop-down list, select an existing action or click Create action to create a new one.

Your action is added under Actions.

Save or Publish the dialogue.

Reordering actions

You can change the order of the actions you’ve added so that they’re performed in the correct order, regardless of the order you added them in.

To reorder an action

Open the actions you’ve added at the AI agent, use case, or block level.

Click the grabber icon ( ) next to the action you want to reorder, then drag and drop it into another position.

When you reorder actions at the:

AI agent level, your changes are automatically saved.

Use case level, your changes are automatically saved for AI agents with agentic AI, but must be manually saved for zero-training AI agents.

Block level, you must manually save your changes.