Would love to know this too

yo, just found this thread and honestly, i feel u on the scaling burn. but seriously, be careful... scaling too fast with AI is actually pretty risky for ur reputation if the logic isn't airtight. i've seen bots just hallucinate facts which is a total mess.

For your situation, i would suggest looking at Dixa. Just get any of their AI-heavy setups and you'll see a massive difference in routing. Another solid direction is checking out Tidio—their automation flows are super practical for staying within that $2k budget.

* Make sure to test everything in a sandbox first so u dont break ur Zendesk workflow!!
* Stick to 'agent assistance' for at least a month before letting the AI talk to customers directly.
* Watch out for hidden costs in some of those 'per-resolution' models tbh.

But yeah, just go with a reliable brand like those and you'll be fine. Just dont rush the 'full auto' part... it's better to be safe than sorry with ur customer trust. gl

Hmm, I've had a different experience. Honestly, i think going for the huge brands right away might be overkill for ur budget!!

1. I tried one of those big names mentioned earlier and basically paid a fortune for features I didnt even use.
2. My current setup is a smaller, mid-range tool that just handles routing—its sooo much cheaper and easier to manage.
3. Realized that expensive doesnt always mean better logic. Sometimes simple is best! gl!!

Honestly, I've been through this exact scaling nightmare and it's a bit of a minefield tbh. In my experience, jumping straight into full automation can actually backfire if the logic isn't airtight. I tried [[PRODUCT:Intercom Fin]] recently and, while it's slick, the costs escalated way faster than expected once we hit high volume. Plus, it struggled with some of our more *technical* nuances, which was super frustrating for our power users.

For a Zendesk setup on your budget, I'd suggest looking at these:

* [[PRODUCT:Zendesk Advanced AI]] - Since you're already on the platform, it's the safest bet for routing and basic agent assistance, though it can feel a bit limited for the price.
* [[PRODUCT:Ultimate.ai]] - Much better for complex automation and high-level categorization. It integrates deeply with Zendesk and handles the 'agent sidekick' stuff really well.
* [[PRODUCT:Lang.ai]] - If you strictly want to solve the routing/categorization mess first, this is the most reliable tool I've used for tagging.

Just be careful... I've had issues where AI-drafted responses were totally hallucinating facts from old help docs. Always keep a human in the loop for the final click! gl

sooo i totally feel u on the scaling burn... i've been in support for like 5 years and seen so many teams hit that wall. since you're already on Zendesk, i might want to consider looking at some solid alternatives that play nice with it. honestly, the "agent assist" side of things is where you'll see the fastest ROI without making customers feel like they're talking to a brick wall.

Here's a couple of options I've dabbled with:

* [[PRODUCT:Ada CX Platform]] vs [[PRODUCT:Klaus Quality Management]]: Ada is basically a powerhouse for automated resolutions and routing. It's super smart at categorization, but it can be a bit of a beast to set up perfectly. On the other hand, Klaus is actually amazing for coaching and using AI to spot where agents are struggling, though it's less about the "chatbot" side and more about productivity.
* [[PRODUCT:Forethought SupportCloud]]: This one is highkey great for Zendesk users. It has a feature called "Solve" for customers and "Assist" for agents that drafts replies based on your past tickets.

I guess I'd say be careful with the full automation right away... maybe start with the agent assistance first to keep that human touch? Anyway, good luck with the growth!! 👍

Would love to know this too

Would love to know this too

Would love to know this too

Just catching up on this thread - honestly I'm in a similar boat where I'm trying to figure out the technical side of this without breaking the bank. I’ve been experimenting with just connecting a raw LLM via API to our helpdesk lately to see if we can build our own assistant tool, but it's a bit of a learning curve for me tbh. A few things I’ve noticed or heard about that might be worth thinking about: 1. Not sure if it's just my setup, but there's a pretty noticeable delay (latency) when trying to get the AI to draft responses. It can sometimes take like 10 seconds, which kind of defeats the point of saving time lol.
2. IIRC, someone told me that managing the data is actually the hardest part? Like, if your documentation isnt perfect, the AI just makes stuff up. I think my knowledge base is a bit of a mess so it hallucinates constantly.
3. Not 100% sure about the cost-benefit yet, but token usage can get expensive if youre sending the whole ticket history back and forth every single time. Has anyone else tried building there own internal tool instead of buying a big subscription? I'm curious if that's even feasible for a small team or if its basically a total waste of time.

Ive been running a support desk for a tech startup for a while now and honestly, im really satisfied with how we managed to automate things without losing the human vibe. We were so worried about bots hallucinating but taking a slow, cautious approach really paid off for us. No complaints here lately. Before I can really point you in the right direction though, I gotta ask a few things:

• What does your knowledge base actually look like?
• Are we talking mostly technical docs or just simple FAQs?
• How messy is your current Zendesk tagging system? Knowing that makes a huge difference for the agent assist side. To be honest though, I saw an amazing video on YouTube about this like two weeks ago. If you just search for something like zendesk ai agent assist workflow it should be the first or second result. It walks through the whole setup process for your exact budget. Also, definitely check the official help docs on their site, they have a massive guide on this that everyone misses.

Wait, late to the party but I gotta jump in! I’m still pretty new to the AI support world, but honestly, I disagree that you *have* to go with the big names like Zendesk's own AI or Intercom to get good results. I’ve been lurking in a few support lead communities lately and there are some smaller, AI-native tools that people are saying are sooo much more flexible for that $1k–$2k budget range. From what I’ve been reading, these might be worth a look:
* Zowie - People say it’s awesome for the routing and categorization stuff you mentioned, and it handles the scaling part without getting crazy expensive.
* Yuma AI - I’ve seen some great reviews for this one specifically for the 'agent assistant' drafting. It’s supposed to be reallyyy good at learning ur brand voice.
* Capacity - This one gets brought up a lot for automated workflows that don't feel like a total robot. Does anyone have experience with these smaller guys?? I feel like they might be more agile than the big platforms. Just a thought since I'm still learning too!!

Man I wish I found this thread sooner. Would have saved me so much hassle.