Connecting an AI agent to email (AI agents - Advanced only)


After youcreate an AI agent, you need to connect it to Zendesk Support before the AI agent can begin responding to customers by email. Email responses sent by the AI agent are sent as thesystemuser, meaning no agent seat is required for an email AI agent.


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This article applies only to customers who bought
AI agents - Advanced before March 10, 2026. For other customers, AI agents for email are
automatically connected when they're created.
After you create an AI agent, you need to connect it to Zendesk
Support before the AI agent can begin responding to customers by email. Email responses sent
by the AI agent are sent as the system user, meaning no agent seat is required for an
email AI agent.
You should connect only one AI agent to email. For advice on how to handle brand-specific
information within a single AI agent, see Can I connect multiple AI agents to a single Zendesk account?
This article covers the following topics:
Connecting an AI agent to your subdomain
Creating the automation trigger and turning on the automation engine
Disconnecting an AI agent from email




Connecting an AI agent to your subdomain

The first step in connecting an AI agent to email is to connect to your production or
sandbox environment.
To connect an AI agent to your subdomain


In the AI agents workspace, select the AI agent you want to work
with.
Click
Settings in the sidebar, then select CRM integration.
Click Select your CRM and select Zendesk Support.
Select the Integration tab.
Click Choose subdomain and select the subdomain for either your production or
sandbox environment.

Under Sender, click the drop-down field and select the user that appears in
tickets as the sender of the AI agent response. This user appears as the sender only
when the ticket is viewed in the Agent Workspace. When a customer receives an AI agent
email response in their inbox, the sender appears as the brand name and support address you’ve selected
in Admin Center.
For more information on this setting, see Configuring the sender of AI agent email
responses.

In the confirmation dialog, click Continue.






Creating the automation trigger and turning on the automation engine

After you connect to your subdomain, you need to create the automation trigger and turn on
the automation engine. This allows the AI agent to send replies to customer requests on the
email channel.


Important: If you don't set up the automation trigger, any
replies made by human agents during conversations in which the email AI agent also
participated don't appear in the conversation logs. As a result, automated resolutions might be consumed for conversations they
shouldn't be.


To create the automation trigger and turn on the automation engine
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 Create automation trigger.
The trigger is automatically created.
You can view the details of the JSON in a read-only text window, and edit the trigger if needed.


Select the Overview tab.
Select Automation engine to toggle it on.



Your AI agent is now connected to email. At this point, you may want to:


Manage the automation trigger to reorder it in your list of
triggers or edit its default configuration.

Import ticket data to populate the AI agent’s conversation logs
with historical data from Zendesk Support.




Disconnecting an AI agent from email

If you no longer want an AI agent to be connected to email, you can turn off the automation
engine and deactivate the trigger.

To disconnect an AI agent from email
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 Overview tab.
Select Automation engine to toggle it off.
In the confirmation dialog, select Turn off. At this point, the AI agent is
still technically connected to the email channel, but it won’t respond to customer
requests.

Select the Integration tab.
Click Deactivate automation trigger.
(Optional) Select the Overview tab again, click Remove integration, and
then click Confirm in the confirmation dialog.


Your AI agent is no longer connected to email.


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