Zendesk integration
Connect your AI chatbot to Zendesk
Your intoCHAT agent answers visitors first. When someone needs a person, the hand-off opens a Zendesk ticket with an AI summary and the conversation, so your team replies from Zendesk. Solved tickets can teach the agent in return.
What the Zendesk integration does
The integration works in two directions, and both use the same connection: one API token from your Zendesk account. From intoCHAT to Zendesk: when your agent hands a conversation off by email, it also opens a ticket in Zendesk. The visitor's hand-off email address becomes the requester, so when your team replies from Zendesk, the answer reaches the visitor by email. The ticket carries what your team needs to pick it up without asking again: the agent's summary of the request, three to five AI-written bullet points, the page and country, the last 30 messages and a link back to the conversation in intoCHAT. The hand-off email to your team still goes out as before; the ticket is added on top. From Zendesk to intoCHAT: from the Starter plan, the agent can import your solved and closed Zendesk tickets as knowledge. Each ticket becomes a question and the public answer your team gave, with personal data removed first. Internal notes are never imported. What it doesn't do: there is no two-way sync. Replies, status changes and notes in Zendesk don't come back to intoCHAT. Your team answers in Zendesk, and the intoCHAT transcript links to the ticket.
Connect Zendesk in five steps
Turn on hand-off by email
Open your agent, go to the Setup tab and switch on Offer hand-off by email under Hand-off to your team, then save. Tickets are opened only for hand-offs by email, so this comes first.
Create an API token in Zendesk
In Zendesk Admin Center, open Apps and integrations, APIs, Zendesk API. Turn on Token access if it is off, click Add API token, name it intoCHAT and copy the token. Zendesk shows it only once.
Connect it in intoCHAT
In the Helpdesk tickets card on the Setup tab, choose Zendesk. Enter your subdomain (acme for acme.zendesk.com), the email of the agent or admin the tickets are created as, and the token, then click Test and connect. intoCHAT checks the token with a read that changes nothing.
Map ticket fields (optional)
Under Ticket fields, click Add ticket fields. intoCHAT reads your real Zendesk fields, so you pick a custom field, priority, group, assignee or tags and give each a fixed value or a variable such as the visitor's email or a contact attribute.
Test it from the Playground
Ask the agent for a person in the Playground and give an email address. A real ticket opens in Zendesk a few seconds later, marked [Test] in the subject. Then import solved tickets on the Knowledge tab if you want the agent to learn from them.
What a ticket from intoCHAT contains
Subject: [Acme Assistant] Chat hand-off: My invoice shows the annual plan, but I chose monthly. Can someone fix this?
A visitor asked for a person in the chat with Acme Assistant. Reply to them by email: anna@example.com
What they need
The visitor was charged for the annual plan but chose monthly, and wants the invoice corrected.
Summary
- Wants the invoice corrected: charged for the annual plan, chose monthly
- The AI explained where invoices are, but can't change billing
- Contact email given: anna@example.com
Visitor
Email: anna@example.com
Page: https://www.example.com/account/billing
Country: Germany
Conversation (last 4 messages)
Visitor: My invoice shows the annual plan, but I chose monthly. Can someone fix this?
AI: I can't change billing myself, but I can pass this conversation to our team by email. Which address should they reply to?
Visitor: anna@example.com
AI: Thank you. I've sent the conversation to the team, and they'll reply to anna@example.com.
In intoCHAT
https://www.intochat.ai/chatbots/…/edit?tab=activity&conversation=…An example. The headings and the AI summary are always in English; the subject and the conversation are in the visitor's words. In Zendesk this text is the ticket's first comment, added as an internal note, and the ticket is tagged intochat. The subject starts with your agent's name; your ticket fields are added on top.
What happens in Zendesk
The visitor is the requester
The email address the visitor gave for the hand-off is the ticket's requester, with their name when your lead form or identity verification provides it. Public replies from Zendesk reach them by email.
The transcript stays internal
The summary and the conversation go into an internal note, not a public comment, so they aren't emailed to the visitor. Zendesk's own triggers still run, such as the email confirming the request was received.
Your fields, priority and group
Fill custom ticket fields, priority, group, assignee by user ID and tags on every new ticket. Values can be fixed or use variables like {{contact.plan}} or {{conversation.page}}.
An AI summary on every ticket
Three to five bullet points in English say what the visitor wants and what the agent already answered, above the last 30 messages. If the summary isn't ready in time, the ticket goes in without it.
Learns from solved tickets
From Starter, import Zendesk tickets solved in the last 30, 90 or 365 days. The customer's question and your team's public replies become knowledge; emails, phone numbers and order numbers are replaced first.
Keeps the knowledge current
With Sync automatically on, intoCHAT checks daily or weekly for newly solved tickets and retrains tickets whose text changed. Sync now does the same on demand.
Linked both ways
The intoCHAT transcript shows Ticket # with a link that opens it in Zendesk, and the ticket links back to the conversation. The handoff.requested webhook carries the ticket number and link too.
Credentials kept safe
The token is stored encrypted and never shown again; the card shows its last four characters and the email. Only the account owner and admins can connect or disconnect Zendesk.
Limits to know before you connect
- No two-way sync: replies, status changes and notes in Zendesk don't come back to intoCHAT.
- Tickets are opened for hand-offs by email only. A conversation your team takes over in intoCHAT's live chat doesn't open one.
- One ticket per conversation. A later hand-off in the same conversation sends another email, but no second ticket.
- One helpdesk per agent. To use Zendesk and another helpdesk, use separate agents.
- If Zendesk doesn't answer within 10 seconds or is limiting requests, that ticket isn't created and isn't retried. The hand-off email still goes out, and the transcript says the ticket couldn't be created.
- Up to 25 ticket fields per agent, each value up to 500 characters, and up to 10 tags per ticket. Multi-select fields aren't offered.
- Ticket import reads public replies only, and is included from the Starter plan: up to 200 tickets per agent on Starter, 1,000 on Pro and 5,000 on Enterprise.
Frequently asked questions
Does intoCHAT replace Zendesk?
No. intoCHAT is the AI agent on your website that answers questions from your own content. Zendesk stays the place where your team handles what the agent can't. When a visitor asks for a person, the hand-off opens a Zendesk ticket, and your team answers from there as usual.
What do I need in Zendesk to connect it?
A Zendesk API token with Token access turned on in Admin Center, and the email address of an agent or admin in your account. intoCHAT signs in with that email and the token, as Zendesk describes for API tokens, and refuses a user who isn't an agent or admin. The token works for your whole Zendesk account, so delete it in Zendesk if you stop using intoCHAT.
Which intoCHAT plan includes the Zendesk integration?
Opening Zendesk tickets for hand-offs is included on every plan, Free too. Importing solved Zendesk tickets as knowledge starts at Starter, with up to 200 tickets per agent on Starter, 1,000 on Pro and 5,000 on Enterprise. Imported tickets also count toward the agent's training characters.
Can the visitor see the transcript in Zendesk's emails?
No. The summary and the conversation are added as an internal note, which Zendesk doesn't send to the requester. What the visitor receives are your team's public replies and any notifications your Zendesk triggers send, such as a confirmation that the request was received.
Do Zendesk replies sync back to the chat?
No. There is no two-way sync: replies, status changes and notes stay in Zendesk, and the visitor gets your reply by email. In intoCHAT, the conversation shows the ticket number with a link that opens the ticket, so you can always get from one to the other.
Can I set the group, priority or a custom field on each ticket?
Yes. Under Ticket fields you pick real fields from your Zendesk account: custom ticket fields, tags, priority, group and assignee by user ID. A value can be fixed text, a variable such as {{visitor.email}} or {{contact.plan}}, or both. If Zendesk refuses a value, for example a deleted group, intoCHAT sends the ticket once more without the mapped fields and shows a warning in the card.
How does the agent learn from our Zendesk tickets?
On the Knowledge tab, the Helpdesk tickets card imports tickets with the status Solved or Closed. Each becomes a question (the subject and the customer's first message) and an answer (your team's public replies). Comments that aren't public are skipped. Before saving, intoCHAT replaces email addresses, phone numbers, card-like numbers, order and account numbers and names in greetings and sign-offs. Use Preview to check the result first.
What data does intoCHAT send to Zendesk?
For each hand-off: the transcript, the AI summary, the visitor's email address and name when known, the page and the country, plus whatever your ticket fields add, such as contact attributes. intoCHAT doesn't read anything back from Zendesk, except the list of fields when you edit ticket fields and, if you import them, your solved tickets. Name Zendesk in your privacy policy if it isn't there already.
What happens if Zendesk is down?
The visitor never waits for Zendesk: the ticket is opened a few seconds after the agent's reply. If Zendesk doesn't answer within 10 seconds, that ticket isn't created and isn't retried, but the hand-off email to your team still goes out. The transcript shows Ticket couldn't be created, and the card in the Setup tab says if the saved credentials stopped working.
See it answer from your own website
Paste your website address and chat with an agent built from your pages. It takes about a minute.
Create your agent freeFree plan, no credit card needed.