> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.get-hive.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# AI for customer support: triage tickets and never miss a reply

> How support teams use Hive with Zendesk, Intercom, Gmail, Outlook and Slack to triage tickets, surface urgent issues and draft replies that a person approves.

Support teams don't usually lose customers over hard problems. They lose them over slow answers: the urgent ticket buried under routine ones, the reply that sat in a shared inbox over the weekend. Hive reads your support tools and inboxes, flags what's urgent or waiting, and drafts the response. A person on your team approves it.

## The problems Hive solves

* **Urgent tickets hide** among routine ones until a customer escalates.
* **Replies wait** in shared inboxes because everyone assumes someone else has it.
* **Tagging and routing** take time that should go on answering customers.
* **Context is scattered** across the helpdesk, email, CRM and Slack.

## What Hive catches

| Signal | Source | What it means |
| - | - | - |
| Awaiting reply | Gmail or Outlook | A customer's email is waiting on you. |
| Went quiet | Gmail or Outlook | You asked the customer for something and they haven't replied. |
| Unusual movement | Zendesk, Intercom or another connected tool | A metric Hive monitors, such as open tickets or new conversations, moved well outside its usual range. |

Hive reads open Intercom conversations (their priority, state and age) and Zendesk tickets, so it can answer questions about them and use them in workflows. Custom monitoring of any connected tool is proposed by Hive and shown under [Coverage](/signals/coverage), where your team can switch metrics on or off.

## Ticket triage every hour

The **Ticket Triage** template runs hourly:

```mermaid theme={null}
flowchart LR
  A[Schedule: hourly] --> B[Agent: read new Zendesk tickets]
  B --> C[Loop: for each ticket]
  C --> D{Urgent issue?}
  D -->|Yes| E[Internal notification: alert the support team]
  C --> F[Zendesk: tag each ticket with its urgency]
```

Change the agent step's prompt to match your definition of urgent. Add a second condition for VIP accounts. Or swap the internal notification for a Slack message to your on-call channel (that step goes through approval). See [Workflow templates](/workflows/templates) and [Workflow steps](/workflows/workflow-steps).

## Draft replies, reviewed by people

With a helpdesk connected and its autonomy set to **Draft**, Hive can propose:

* **Intercom:** reply to, assign, close or reopen a conversation;
* **Zendesk:** create a ticket, add a comment, assign, update its status, or add tags;
* **Gmail and Outlook:** draft or send a reply.

Each proposal shows the exact message and the evidence behind it in the review panel. Nothing is sent until someone chooses **Approve & run now**. The **Email Keeper** template takes the same approach for a shared Outlook inbox: it flags anything unusual and drafts replies as Outlook drafts for a person to send.

## Build a support agent

In [Agent Studio](/agents/agent-studio), create an agent grounded in your help articles, refund policy and tone-of-voice guide from the [Library](/library/library). Give it a form input for the ticket ID, connect Zendesk or Intercom, and keep its autonomy on **Draft**. Your team gets consistent, on-policy first drafts, and you can use [evaluations](/agents/publish-and-evaluate) to check answer quality after every change.

## Ask Hive during a shift

* *What are the five oldest open tickets in Zendesk, and who are they assigned to?*
* *Summarise this customer's last three Intercom conversations.*
* *Is anyone else reporting login problems today?*
* *Draft a reply to ticket 4821 using our refund policy.*

You can also ask Hive from Slack or Microsoft Teams: mention **@Hive** or send it a DM. Signals and approvals stay in Hive. See [Slack and Teams](/integrations/slack-and-teams).

## Guardrails

* **External messages always ask first** until you decide otherwise in [Policy & autonomy](/admin/safety-and-control).
* **Destructive actions** such as deleting a ticket are irreversible, so they always need approval.
* **Receipts.** Every reply Hive sends is recorded in the [audit log](/approvals/audit-log).

## Related

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="CRM and support integrations" icon="address-book" href="/integrations/crm-and-support">
    Zendesk and Intercom in detail.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Triage signals" icon="filter" href="/signals/triage-signals">
    Act on, snooze or dismiss what Hive raises.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Card title="Try Ticket Triage on your helpdesk" icon="arrow-right" href="https://app.get-hive.ai">
  Start a 14-day trial with no card required. Connect Zendesk or Intercom read-only.
</Card>