Managing the email automation trigger for an advanced AI agent

As part ofconnecting an advanced AI agent to email, you create an automation trigger that controls how the AI agent responds to customer requests on the email channel. After you create this trigger, you can manage it in Admin Center.

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Add-on | AI agents - Advanced

As part of connecting an advanced AI agent to email, you create an automation trigger that controls how the AI agent responds to customer requests on the email channel. After you create this trigger, you can manage it in Admin Center.

This article contains the following topics:

About the email automation trigger

Reordering the email automation trigger

Editing the email automation trigger

About the email automation trigger

When you create the automation trigger for an advanced email AI agent, the trigger has the following default configuration:

Meet ALL of the following conditions:

Ticket > Comment | Is | Public
This condition ensures that the AI agent is notified of each customer, agent, or AI agent reply.

Ticket > Channel | Is | Email
This condition ensures that the AI agent is notified for comments on the email channel only.

Meet ANY of the following conditions:

Ticket > Ticket | Is | Created
This condition ensures the AI agent responds to the first comment in a ticket.

Ticket > Ticket | Is | Updated
This condition ensures the AI agent responds to subsequent comments in a ticket.

Actions

Category: Notify by > Active webhook

Value: Ultimate.ai Automation Webhook: <your AI agent ID>

Endpoint: https://zendesk-support-automation.us.ultimate.ai/v1/webhook

Method: POST

JSON body:
{"botId": "YOUR_AI_AGENT_ID",
"message": "**{{ticket.title}}** \n\n
{{ticket.latest_comment_rich}}",
"conversationId": "{{ticket.id}}",
"type": "message",
"tags": "{{ticket.tags}}",
"channel": "{{ticket.via}}",
"requester": "{{ticket.requester.id}}",
"currentUser": "{{current_user.id}}",
"submitterRole": "{{ticket.submitter.role}}",
"authorRole": "{{ticket.comments.first.author.role}}",

The JSON body includes details that allow the AI agent to ignore agent replies (though you can allow this if you want) and to not reply to tickets older than three days. The type is also changed for analytical purposes.

Reordering the email automation trigger

You can reorder your list of AI agent ticket triggers to designate the order they're fired in. For more information on the overall impact this can have on your workflows, see Reordering triggers.

To reorder the email automation trigger

In Admin Center, click Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Business rules > Triggers.

Click Edit order in the upper-right.

Find the email automation trigger for your advanced AI agent.
By default, this trigger is named Ultimate.ai Multitouch Ticket Automation: <AI agent ID>.

Click and hold the drag-and-drop handle ( ) for the trigger, drag the trigger into position, and release the handle.

Click Save.

Editing the email automation trigger

You can edit the email automation trigger as needed.

Some examples of edits you might want to make include:

Responding to agent-submitted tickets

Supporting the web form channel

Supporting the API channel

Removing the authorized user condition

To edit the email automation trigger

In AI agents - Advanced, select the advanced AI agent you want to work with.

Click Settings in the sidebar, then select CRM integration.

Select the Integration tab.

Click Edit automation trigger.
The trigger’s configuration page opens in Admin Center.

Edit the trigger as necessary.

Click Save.

Responding to agent-submitted tickets

By default, the email automation trigger is configured so that the AI agent doesn’t respond to tickets submitted by agents. However, you might want to allow this, especially during testing.

To allow the AI agent to respond to agent-submitted tickets

Edit the email automation trigger.

Remove the following lines from the JSON body:
"submitterRole": "{{ticket.submitter.role}}",
"authorRole": "{{ticket.comments.first.author.role}}",

Click Save.

Supporting the web form channel

By default, the email automation trigger is configured to work only on the email channel. However, you can add web form as a supported channel for your advanced AI agent.

To add the web form channel as a supported channel

Edit the email automation trigger.

Under Meet ALL of the following conditions, delete the following condition:

Ticket > Channel | Is | Email

Under Meet ANY of the following conditions, add the following conditions:

Ticket > Channel | Is | Email

Ticket > Channel | Is | Web form

Click Save.

Note: Don’t add a condition for the API channel here. Instead, you must clone the email automation trigger to support the API channel. See the section below.

Supporting the API channel

By default, the email automation trigger is configured to work only on the email channel. However, you can add API as a supported channel for your advanced AI agent.

When using the Zendesk API, tickets are always created with the authentication token’s owner’s ID as the currentUser. Because of this, the AI agent interprets these created tickets as being agent-submitted, which it’s configured to ignore. However, you can support the API channel by cloning the email automation trigger and using the copy in addition to the default trigger.

When a conversation is created through the API, only the first message’s source is marked as API, while the rest of the messages go through email. Because of that, the trigger needs to cover only the Created event for these conversations. Furthermore, the two triggers won’t overlap because the default trigger doesn’t include API as a channel condition, while the copy does.

The JSON body provided below overwrites the currentUser field with this trigger to contain the requester, making it look like it was submitted by a customer. So both the requester and currentUser will be equal to {{ticket.requester.id}}.

To clone the trigger and configure it to support the API channel

In AI agents - Advanced, select the advanced AI agent you want to work with.

Click Settings in the sidebar, then select CRM integration.

Select the Integration tab.

Click Edit automation trigger.
The trigger’s configuration page opens in Admin Center.

Click Actions in the upper-right and select Clone.
A copy of the automation trigger is created.

Under Meet ALL of the following conditions, delete the existing conditions and add the following conditions instead:

Ticket > Channel | Is | Web service (API)

Ticket > Ticket | Is | Created

Under Meet ANY of the following conditions, delete the existing conditions.

Under Actions, replace the existing JSON body with the following:
{ "botId": "<YOUR_AI_AGENT_ID>",
"message": "**{{ticket.title}}** \n\n
{{ticket.latest_comment_rich}}",
"conversationId": "{{ticket.id}}",
"type": "message",
"tags": "{{ticket.tags}}",
"channel": "{{ticket.via}}",
"requester": "{{ticket.requester.id}}",
"currentUser": "{{ticket.requester.id}}",
"submitterRole": "{{ticket.submitter.role}}",
"createdAt": "{{ticket.created_at_with_timestamp}}",
"updatedAt": "{{ticket.updated_at_with_timestamp}}" }

Click Create trigger.

Removing the authorized user condition

If you created the email automation trigger before February 11, 2026, the trigger configuration might include a condition for an authorized user. After this date, an authorized user is no longer involved in the connection between an advanced AI agent and the email channel. As a result, your email AI agent may not function correctly if you still have this condition as part of your trigger. This condition should be removed.

To remove the authorized user condition

Edit the email automation trigger.

Remove the following condition:
Ticket details > Current user | Is | (agent)

Click Save.