Managing AI agents connected to email channels


After youcreate an AI agent for email, you can manage settings that affect how it behaves on email (including API and web form) channels.


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After you create an AI agent for email, you can manage
settings that affect how it behaves on email (including API and web form) channels.


Note: For customers who bought AI agents - Advanced before March
10, 2026, you must have selected a channel type of email when you created your AI agent.

This article contains the following topics:

Configuring the sender of AI agent email responses
Managing an AI agent's email automation trigger



Configuring the sender of AI agent email responses

Email responses sent by an AI agent can be viewed in two places:

As actual emails that arrive in the customer’s inbox
As public comments in the associated ticket in the Agent Workspace

The user listed as the sender of the AI agent’s email responses is different
depending on which channel the ticket was created through and which place you’re
viewing.
In tickets created through the email channel:

In the email in the customer’s inbox, the sender is the brand name and support address you’ve
selected in Admin Center.
In the ticket in the Agent Workspace, the sender is the system user by
default, but this sender can be configured.
If you use the default system user:
The AI agent’s response is shown as coming from the system
user.

No agent seat is consumed in your account.


If you select a different user:
The AI agent’s response is shown as coming from the selected
user, including their name, email, and signature (if configured).

An agent seat is consumed in your account by the selected user.






In tickets created through the web form and API channels:

If you use the default system user:
The AI agent’s response is shown as coming from the Zendesk user in both
the customer’s inbox as well as in tickets in the Agent
Workspace.

No agent seat is consumed in your account.


If you select a different user:
The AI agent’s response is shown as coming from the selected user,
including their name, email, and signature (if configured).
An agent seat is consumed.



Whether you should use the system user or a different user depends on your
setup and goals:

Use the system user if you:
Don’t use the web form or API channels for customer support.
Want to free up an agent seat.


Use a different user if you:
Use the web form or API channels in addition to the email channel for
customer support.
Want increased branding and customization for the AI agent’s responses
as seen in tickets in the Agent Workspace.



If you use a different user as the sender of AI agent email responses, it’s
recommended to create a dedicated user that’s used only for this purpose. You
shouldn’t reuse a human agent’s account as the sender of the AI agent’s email
response. Doing so can cause confusion about whether the human agent or AI agent
sent the response.
To create and configure the sender of agent email responses


(Recommended) Create a unique company email address for your AI agent.

Add the AI agent as a user with
the following roles:

Support: Admin

AI agents: Client admin



Create a group and add only the AI
agent user to that group. Don't add the AI agent user to any other
groups.


Give the AI agent user API access
for ticketing.
In the AI agents workspace, select the AI agent you want to work
with.
Click
Settings in the sidebar, then select General.
Under Sender, click the drop-down field and select the user you
created above. This user appears in tickets as the sender of the AI agent
response.

Click Save.

Edit the AI agent's email automation
trigger to update its conditions as necessary to account for the
selected user.





Managing an AI agent's email automation trigger

When you create an AI agent, a trigger is automatically created to control how the AI
agent responds to customer requests on the email channel. You can manage this
trigger at any time in Admin Center.


Note: If you bought AI agents - Advanced before March 10,
2026, you created the trigger as part of connecting an AI agent to
email.

This section contains the following topics:

About the email automation trigger
Reordering the email automation trigger
Editing the email automation trigger



About the email automation trigger

By default, an AI agent’s email automation trigger is named Ultimate.ai
Multitouch Ticket Automation: <AI agent ID> and 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.
Note: If your
workflow involves using a trigger to send an internal note
upon ticket creation, you should adjust the default
"authorRole" value in the AI agent email automation trigger.
When "authorRole" is set to
"{{ticket.comments.first.author.role}}", a configuration
issue can arise if an internal note is sent at the same time
as the webhook fires. In this scenario, the webhook might
send the user's role as agent instead of an end user, which
prevents the AI agent from replying to the conversation. As
a workaround, replace the "authorRole" value with
"{{ticket.comments.last.author.role}}"
instead.









Reordering the email automation trigger

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



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 the AI agents workspace, select the AI agent you want to work
with.
Click
Settings in the sidebar, then select General.
Under Channels, click Go to triggers. 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
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 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 the AI agents workspace, select the 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 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.






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