Zendesk just launched AI Agents. Most teams will switch them on. Few will make them resolve.
The gap between the two is a configuration and operations problem — and under Zendesk's new pricing, a potentially expensive one.
The Premise
The promise of AI is that most tickets never reach a person.
Containment is the share that never does.
Adopting Zendesk's AI and configuring it properly gets most teams to around 20–30% containment. Done well, it can climb toward 60–80%, and the downstream numbers move with it — response times, resolution times, SLA attainment, satisfaction.
What moves it is everything after go-live: tuning the AI against live ticket data, working the routing, connecting the integrations that let it finish a task, and keeping the knowledge base it reads from current. That's what we do every day inside the Zendesk environments we run for our clients.
One Zendesk Services engagement, January 2025 – March 2026
Optimizing Zendesk has always paid off. But now neglecting it comes with a cost.
Why It Matters Now
Under outcome-based pricing, a bad resolution is a bill.
The invoice can't tell the difference.
Zendesk now bills per resolution. Here's the problem: AI closing tickets that aren't actually resolved. You pay once when it closes the ticket, and again when the customer comes back through another channel. The leak never appears as a line item, so almost nobody is auditing it.
In the environments we audit, the causes are nearly always the same: AI switched on and never tuned, routing untouched since go-live, integrations half-connected, a knowledge base that has drifted out of date.
Every one of those is a resolution you're paying for twice.
What We Do
We make the resolutions genuine, and keep them that way.
Configure it around the work. We map how your business operates, then build the AI agents and the agentic procedures that finish a real task end to end: issue the refund, reschedule the order, update the account.
Connect it to your stack. Secure API connections to Salesforce, Shopify, and your custom systems, including MCP and A2A, so the AI can read and write where the answer lives and close the task itself.
Tune it against live data. Continuously, and for as long as we run it. Tuning is a standing job, and we staff it that way.
Staff what automation can’t reach. Mods work the complex remainder on the same environment we built, so the design holds up in production.
Why ModSquad? Glad you asked.
Extensive experience. One of Zendesk's longest-tenured partners, with direct access to senior Zendesk resources most partners can't reach.
First certified on Zendesk AI. ModSquad was the first partner Zendesk certified on its AI — the newest part of the platform, and the one changing fastest.
We do this every day. Building, optimizing, and running Zendesk environments for some of the world's best-known brands is the day job.
The Session
Your next step: a free deep dive with our Zendesk experts.
Same session either way. What we look at depends on whether you are already running Zendesk.
Already on Zendesk
Your AI is live and containment has plateaued.
What we'll do together
- Your real containment rate — and how much of it is genuine end-to-end resolution
- Routing logic and integration coverage: what is connected, and what has not changed since go-live
- The health of the knowledge base feeding your AI
- Your top ticket drivers, mapped to what can automate fully, what can automate partway, and what stays human
What you'll walk away with
A Resolution Gap Snapshot Three to five prioritized fixes, an estimated containment-lift range, and the specific places your outcome-based spend is leaking.
Not on Zendesk yet
You are evaluating Zendesk, or weighing whether to build AI in-house, and want to see what good looks like before you commit.
What we'll do together
- Your current stack and operation, mapped to a Zendesk and AI Agents target state
- A live demo against your own top use cases — order status, refunds, information updates
- How outcome-based pricing works, and a phased path: license, implement, run
- The build-versus-buy question head on, including the compliance load of owning your own model
What you'll walk away with
A Target-State Blueprint The recommended configuration, the first use cases worth automating, a phased rollout, and the commercial path.
Who to bring. Your CX or support lead should be on the call. Ops and IT are welcome and usually worth having. If you are already on Zendesk, bring someone who can navigate the admin panel so we can look at the real thing together.
Before the call. Once you book, we send a short three or four question intake — stack, volumes, top ticket drivers — so we arrive with a hypothesis already formed.
Questions we get
Why do we need a partner? We can go direct to Zendesk. +
Zendesk sells you the platform. Someone still has to configure it, integrate it, tune the AI, and run it day to day. ModSquad is one of Zendesk’s longest-tenured partners and its first AI-certified one, and we run these environments for global brands every day — so you’re hiring people who do this for a living.
Why not just build our own AI, or point ChatGPT at it? +
Standalone LLMs hallucinate and can be manipulated, and in customer service that lands on your reputation and your revenue. Zendesk’s AI is trained on CX-specific data and is transparent about what it did. Building in-house also drains engineering time you would rather spend on your own product.
What automation rate can we realistically expect? +
It depends on your industry and how complex your cases are. Watch the trajectory: most teams stall at 20–30% because the AI was switched on and never tuned. We take it toward 60–80% by tuning continuously against live ticket data.
What is a Brain Bar? +
A free working session with a Zendesk expert who runs these environments for a living, not a sales call. Bring your setup — the AI that has plateaued, the routing nobody has touched since go-live, the integrations that were never finished — and we will show you where the fastest wins are. No pitch, no commitment.
Free Zendesk AI Agents Brain Bar Session
A Brain Bar is a 45-minute working session with a ModSquad solutions lead who runs Zendesk environments for a living. One question up front routes you to the right version of it — here's what each one covers.
Free, no obligation. Your takeaway lands within about three business days. Estimates are illustrative, based on comparable engagements.