Getting started with AI Agent Preview

Install the Chrome extension, start a test of your AI agent and choose Show as Web Widget to see the conversation the way your customers will.

Install the Chrome extension, start a test of your AI agent and choose Show as Web Widget to see the conversation the way your customers will.

What you need

• Google Chrome 111 or later. Other Chromium browsers work if they install extensions from the Chrome Web Store.
• An AI agents role that lets you open the AI agent: Client admin, Client editor or Client user. Whoever can open an AI agent can test it with the extension. See Who can use AI Agent Preview.
• The Admin role for Support is recommended. With it, the preview uses your Web Widget design from Admin Center and the channels connected to your account. Without it, the preview uses the public configuration of your Web Widget.

The extension runs in the AI agents dashboard of your Zendesk account and on dashboard.ultimate.ai. It only changes how the test widget looks in your own browser; your AI agent and your Zendesk configuration stay as they are.

Install the extension

1. Open pluscloud AI Agent Preview in the Chrome Web Store and add it to Chrome.
2. Chrome shows which sites the extension can read: the Zendesk and ultimate.ai addresses where the AI agents dashboard runs. Access to other websites is never granted at install. The extension asks for one site at a time, and only when you use presentation mode, open a webview or switch the Web Widget inspector on for a site. Each permission is explained in The permissions AI Agent Preview asks for.
3. If the AI agents dashboard was already open, reload that tab.

Activate the extension

The first time you choose Show as Web Widget, or Show in preview in the conversation logs, the window Activate AI Agent Preview opens. You do this once.

1. Check the account under Signed in to Zendesk as: the email address you are signed in to Zendesk with, and your Zendesk address.
2. Read the short note: to help you get started, pluscloud sees who uses the extension and on which Zendesk plan, and sends you the occasional tip by email. Your test conversations stay in your browser.
3. Tick I accept the terms of use and have read the privacy policy. Both are links to the full text, which is also in this Help Center: Terms of use for AI Agent Preview and Privacy policy for AI Agent Preview. Activate only becomes available once this box is ticked.
4. If you also want pluscloud's newsletter, tick Also send me pluscloud's newsletter, with news about Zendesk AI agents. This box is optional and is not ticked by default. You can unsubscribe at any time.
5. Click Activate. The preview opens.

Not now closes the window without activating. The preview then stays off and the test widget works as usual. On dashboard.ultimate.ai the window says that the extension cannot see a Zendesk account there, and it has no newsletter box. What pluscloud receives, the tips by email and how to change your choices later are in What pluscloud receives from AI Agent Preview.

Open your first preview

1. In the AI agents dashboard, open an AI agent and click Test AI agent. In the dialogue builder you can also use Test dialogue, Test branch or Test procedure.
2. In the test widget, open the three-dots menu and choose Show as Web Widget, the item with the pluscloud label. The first time, the activation window described above opens before the preview.

The preview appears where the test widget was, with a toolbar next to it. Everything you type or click still goes through the real test widget, so the test itself behaves as before.

To return to the normal test widget, choose Back to test widget in the toolbar or in the three-dots menu. The extension remembers your choice: after Show as Web Widget, the next test opens as a preview straight away, until you go back to the test widget.

A conversation from the conversation logs can be shown in the preview too, read-only; see Viewing a logged conversation in the preview.

The toolbar

Hover over a button to see its name. From top to bottom:

• pluscloud badge: opens pluscloud.nl in a new tab.
• Preview channel: the Web Widget, a mobile SDK, a messaging app, Slack or email. See Choosing the channel to preview.
• Restart conversation, Session parameters, Open in conversation logs and Copy link to conversation log: see Testing tools in the preview.
• Test sets: saved customer messages to run against the AI agent and compare with earlier runs. See Testing an AI agent with test sets.
• Inspector: what the AI agent sent and what the channel receives. A badge counts the messages with a warning. The raw data is also in Chrome DevTools; see The AI Agent Inspector panel in Chrome DevTools.
• Preview settings: language, rich text, colours and channel behaviour.
• Presentation mode: the preview without the dashboard around it, for a demonstration.
• Back to test widget: turns the preview off.
• Close test: closes the test, the same as the X at the top of the test widget. The preview stays on for the next test.
• Hide tools: folds the toolbar in; Show tools opens it again.

The extension's window

Click the extension's icon in the Chrome toolbar. The window has a Preview mode switch, the same setting as Show as Web Widget and Back to test widget, and a Default preview for the channel a new preview starts on. On a website with a Zendesk Web Widget, the window also has a This website section, where you switch on the Web Widget inspector for that site; see Getting started with the Web Widget inspector.

The preview supports every language the Zendesk messenger ships, more than 270, including right-to-left languages. The extension's own buttons and settings are in English or Dutch, following the language of Chrome.

See also

• Who can use AI Agent Preview
• Choosing the channel to preview
• What the extension can access and store
• What pluscloud receives from AI Agent Preview
• The preview does not appear or is incomplete