Agentic AI may be taking over Zendesk’s new customer service platform, and the world, but it won’t be left totally unchecked with adaptive reasoning controls and quality assurance (QA) to mark its homework promised CEO Tom Eggemeier.
The SaaS-based CRM company’s new Zendesk Resolution Platform will include transparent reasoning controls for a network of AI Agents in a “cohesive system” of interconnected human and AI workers Eggemeier told the company’s annual ‘relate’ event in Las Vegas.
Making some not so subtle allusions to rivals such as Salesforce, which recently partnered with Google Cloud to use Gemini models to power its own AI Agents, the CEO claimed agents offered by other CRM platforms operated “like flies at a picnic.”
Their networks use “one dimensional agents operating in isolation” that are “swarming, reactive and aimless” he said, while Zendesk’s new platform will offer purpose-built agents that provide “real-time visibility” of their reasoning to improve effectiveness and safety.
“AI governance isn't just about security, it's also about transparency, knowing exactly how the AI makes decisions and ensuring it aligns with your business needs,” said Shashi Uphadyay, Zendesk’s President of Product, Engineering and AI.
See also: Monday.com’s CPTO Daniel Lereya on AI failures and successes, scaling up
QA controls will also provide insight into whether the agents are actually working, validating their answers and using GenAI to create report cards on their success, allowing customers to feel more assured in the potential of the technology, says EMEA CTO Matthia Goehler.
He told The Stack: “Customers are concerned about things like data security, data privacy. [They’re asking] if I use AI how can I make sure that there’s no bias in it and it’s not starting to hallucinate but it’s giving accurate answers.
“[But], in the customer conversations I have, they all see the potential. And I don’t have a single conversation with customers that is not about AI these days.”
All the shiny new tools are part of what the CEO calls a “resolution revolution”, supporting Zendesk’s take on the AI pricing issue which focuses on “outcome-based pricing”, something Eggemeier says Zendesk’s competitors have yet to truly offer. Crudely put, outcome-based pricing means customers pay for tangible results - say sales generated or time saved - rather than simply for access to or use of a service.
“Some of our competitors, traditional SaaS players … have stood on stages like this and declared outcome-based pricing will be the way of the future. But the furthest any of them have gone is offering consumption, or interactions-based pricing,” he said.
