At its annual Relate conference in Las Vegas, Zendesk unveiled the Zendesk Resolution Platform, a unified solution that integrates the company’s diverse technology offerings. Building upon AI, this platform is designed to provide increasingly sophisticated and personalised customer service experiences.
“Resolution is the ultimate metric in customer service”, says Tom Eggemeier, CEO of Zendesk. “Our Resolution Platform makes AI truly effective for service, resolving issues efficiently. We’re also pioneering outcome-based pricing, where customers pay only for resolved issues, not just interactions. This is the future of customer service.”
Underpinning the Zendesk Resolution Platform are five core capabilities:
- Zendesk AI agents: AI Agents that provide precise, adaptive responses to complex inquiries as well as copilot enhancements that integrate knowledge sources and external systems for automated workflows.
- Comprehensive knowledge graph: A knowledge builder, that creates knowledge bases using AI analysis of past tickets.
- Actions and integrations: Action Builder enables no-code automation of AI and human agent workflows.
- Governance and control: AI reasoning controls provide real-time visibility into AI agent decision-making.
- Measurement and insights: Custom Quality Assurance (QA) analyses generating actionable insights.
Mitch Young, Senior Vice President, APAC, Zendesk, comments, “Zendesk experienced a meteoric rise in the CX space, but I believe the Resolution Platform marks an even greater wave of growth. Zendesk’s key differentiator is its simplicity and speed of implementation. Unlike traditional platforms requiring months or years of IT involvement, Zendesk empowers businesses to quickly realise value. Features like the App Builder, which uses natural language prompts, exemplify this”.
“In Asia Pacific, customers prioritise rapid value delivery. They often lack the resources for complex, lengthy implementations. Zendesk’s agile approach is a perfect fit for the region”.
Kellie Hackney, Regional Vice President, Australia and New Zealand, Zendesk adds, “Australian and New Zealand CX leaders are navigating a complex and challenging time. As they grapple with cautious consumer spending, rising cost pressures, and heightened customer expectations for issues to be resolved quickly, they’re looking for more efficient ways to meet the impetus for fast outcomes. The Zendesk Resolution Platform is the first and only AI-powered service platform that helps businesses move beyond simply deflecting an issue to a resolution. By focusing on whether an issue is resolved, organisations are driving better business outcomes and ultimately a boost to their bottom line.”
Freeing up IT bottlenecks
Jason Maynard, CTO, APAC, Zendesk comments, “We’re seeing a major shift with AI agents. Generative AI is transforming automated interactions across all channels. Tools like co-pilots are streamlining agent workflows, providing instant access to relevant information, moving beyond basic macros and sidebar apps. That’s becoming standard”.
“What’s truly exciting from our announcements this week is how we’re empowering CX operations teams to break free from IT and engineering bottlenecks. Traditionally, building an app involved three layers: user interface, logic/reasoning, and data storage. We’ve simplified this. Now, CX teams can:
- Use prompts to create interfaces.
- Build workflows and logic with a no-code builder, connecting to third-party systems and Zendesk APIs.
- Integrate AI reasoning engines like OpenAI or Anthropic for tasks like summarization.
- Utilise custom objects for data storage”.
“For example”, adds Maynard, “imagine a direct-to-consumer manufacturer receiving daily PDF reports. Previously, extracting and processing that data would require IT development. Now, a CX ops team can build an app in a day or two that takes the PDF, uses OpenAI to extract key data, stores the data in Zendesk and displays the information in an agent-friendly application”.
“This eliminates the need for IT backlogs, allowing CX teams to create productivity tools they previously couldn’t. Essentially, we’re unlocking the potential of ‘tech savvy’ CX operators to solve problems quickly, limited only by their creativity.”
Complex AI agent systems
“Our AI agents are sophisticated systems, far beyond simple model calls. They mimic human reasoning by orchestrating multiple AI models. For example:
- Task decomposition: One model breaks down customer issues into a hierarchical set of tasks.
- Task reasoning: Another model determines the specific task the customer is currently addressing.
- Dialogue generation: A third model generates conversational dialogue to gather necessary information”.
“This multi-model approach allows for complex reasoning, with each AI agent handling specific slices of the overall task. Our goal is to integrate AI agents into every aspect of CX, enhancing productivity and effectiveness” explains Maynard.
By unifying Zendesk’s diverse technologies and empowering CX operations teams with no-code tools and sophisticated AI agents, the platform promises to redefine issue resolution and streamline customer interactions. With its emphasis on rapid value delivery, particularly crucial in the Asia Pacific market, and its commitment to simplifying complex processes, Zendesk is positioning itself as a leader in the next wave of AI-driven CX.