Transfer an AI agent conversation with context to a human agent using the Zendesk AI Agents API

Steps

1. Set up a Zendesk AI agent (Advanced tier) and configure an API call step within the agent's flow to trigger the handoff to a human agent when a specific condition or user intent is detected.
2. In the API call step, POST to a backend endpoint you control, passing the conversation session context (session ID, collected variables, conversation transcript) as the request payload.
3. From your backend, use the Zendesk Messaging or Support API to create or update a ticket with the conversation context attached, and set the ticket's group or assignee to route it to the appropriate human team.
4. Optionally use the Zendesk Sunshine Conversations switchboard pattern: POST to .../passControl with switchboardIntegration set to the target integration name to transfer conversation control from the bot to a human agent workspace.
5. Subscribe to AI agent conversation events via webhooks to detect when a session ends or an escalation is triggered, enabling your backend to initiate the transfer without relying on the in-flow API call alone.
6. Validate the handoff by confirming the human agent receives the full conversation history before the transfer completes; avoid designs where context is only available in the bot session and not surfaced to the human UI.