Previewing an email AI agent in Gmail or Outlook

Updated

Plan requirement

App pluscloud AI Agent Preview
Subscription Suite Team or higher, Support Team or higher
Access Client admin, Client editor, Client user

An email AI agent's replies appear as an email thread in Gmail or Outlook, in a window that matches your operating system and with a sender address you choose.

Open the email preview

  1. Start a test of your email AI agent and choose Show as Web Widget in the test widget's three-dots menu. With the channel on Automatic, an email AI agent opens in Gmail.
  2. To switch, open Preview channel and choose Gmail or Outlook under E-mail (desktop).
  3. Type the customer's email in the reply box and click Send. The AI agent's answer arrives as the next mail in the thread. You write the customer's follow-ups the same way.

Choose the sender address

In Preview settings, under Appearance, Sender address sets who the AI agent's mails come from in the preview:

  • Default: the default support address of the AI agent's brand. When the extension finds none, it shows support@ followed by your Zendesk address.
  • Any support address of your account: the list shows the addresses your Zendesk account knows, with their names. The extension reads them with the Admin role for Support.
  • Custom address…: type a Sender name and an Email address of your own.

Preview settings next to a Gmail preview. Sender address is set to Custom address, with the sender name Bluebird Bikes Service and the address service@bluebirdbikes.example. In the Gmail thread the AI agent's reply comes from that name and address.

The choice is stored per Zendesk account and only changes the preview. The address the AI agent sends from in production is set in Zendesk, see Connecting an AI agent to email.

What is different from chat

  • No buttons. Email cannot show buttons, so the preview puts them in a separate box under the mail, marked as not shown in email. Click them there to continue the test.
  • No welcome reply. In email the customer writes first, so the welcome reply is hidden behind a one-line note. Click Show to see it dimmed. See Setting the welcome reply.
  • Window and theme. Window style follows your operating system, or you pick macOS, Windows or Linux. Dark mode shows the dark theme of the mail client.
  • No limit checks. The channel limit simulation does not apply to email.

See also

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