After activating email in your AI Agent and setting up handoffs, and testing your email setup to ensure it’s working properly, you can implement email so your AI Agent can start addressing your customer inquiries.
Your AI Agent can currently only respond on behalf of one email address. Your AI Agent’s email address should be different from the support email address used by your Human Agent team to prevent the forwarding of conversations in flight with your human team to your AI Agent.
There are two main ways to forward your email support inquiries to your email AI Agent:
You can use one or a combination of implementation methods to create your ideal email automation support flow. In this section, we’ll provide you with some example implementation options as a starting point.
With this method of implementation, customers will send inquiries to your support email, inquiries will be forwarded to your AI Agent, and your AI Agent will respond from your support email address.
The Email API allows you to send support inquiries from sources like ticket backlogs, or contact form submissions to Ada for automation. Upon receiving these inquiries, your AI Agent will reply to end users directly in their inbox to continue the conversation and drive resolution autonomously.
Review the benefits and Considerations of the Email API below to determine if this is the right method of email implementation for you.
The Email API is an implementation of Ada’s Conversations API for the native Email channel. To use it, you’ll need either a form provider (such as Zendesk) or your own system that can make a POST
API call when an email inquiry should be sent to Ada for automation. This call sends the form submission or email content to your AI Agent through the dedicated Email endpoint.
Make sure you have an Email API key in the Ada Dashboard.
Choose the email address you want the AI Agent to use when replying to end users.
Set up your API call with the required fields:
{bothandle}
with your AI Agent’s handle.
https://{bothandle}.ada.support/api/v2/conversations/email
For details, review this section.
Set up the required automations to route inquiries to Ada (e.g., Webhook, Triggers in Zendesk).
Test your flow.
When you’re ready to route live inquiries to Ada via Email API, set up forwarding for your Bring your own domain email address. This ensures end-user replies to the AI Agent are correctly routed to the AI Agent for conversation continuity.
You may receive the following responses after your call is sent. To troubleshoot errors, first review the returned response.
That’s all you need to know to get started. Next, explore these sample workflows. Each one outlines the key steps for its respective integration. Use these examples as a guide to assist with your setup.
You can configure a Zendesk ticket form, and create a webhook and trigger to automatically forward content your customers submit to your AI Agent.
Create a webhook
Follow Zendesk’s instructions on creating a webhook, so you can use Zendesk to point to Ada’s API.
https://{bothandle}.ada.support/api/v2/conversations/email
, replacing {bothandle}
with your own bot handle.When the webhook is configured, it should look like this:
Create a trigger
Follow Zendesk’s instructions on creating ticket triggers, so Zendesk can automatically call your webhook as soon as it receives a response to your form.
If your Ticket > Form condition uses the Default Form, and this form is also shared with other channels (e.g., calls or chats), create a new basic form and set it as the new default. This will ensure you have a dedicated form for Webform Submissions. Otherwise, inquiries from other channels may be routed to Ada via the Email API.
Choose Add action > Notify by > Active webhook.
Select the webhook you created.
For the JSON body, use the following. Make sure to replace the reply_as
address with either your AI Agent’s Ada-provided email address (help@{bothandle}.email.ada.support
) or the address you’ve set up in your Bring your own domain settings.
With the two above actions, your configuration should look like this:
You can create a Salesforce case form, and create an automated process to automatically forward content your customers submit to your AI Agent. You, or someone with Salesforce Admin permissions, can
help@{bothandle}.email.ada.support
) as the value.Add your API credentials to Salesforce so it can use Ada’s API to send over email data. Follow Salesforce’s instructions to Create or Edit a Basic Authentication External Credential, and enter the following information:
Ada Email API External Credential
AdaEmailAPIExternalCredential
No Authentication
Additionally, follow the instructions in the above link to create a principal, to act as a user for the credentials you just made. Use the following information:
User
1
Named Principal
Instead of putting your authentication in the credentials, add a custom header. Follow Salesforce’s instructions to Create and Edit Custom Headers, and enter the following information:
1
Create a permission set, so you can share the credentials you just made with other admins. Follow Salesforce’s instructions to Create Permission Sets, and do the following:
Ada Email Http Callout
Ada Email API External Credential
you createdCreate a named credential. Follow Salesforce’s instructions to Create or Edit a Named Credential, and enter the following information:
Ada Email API Named Credential
AdaEmailAPINamedCredential
https://{bothandle}.ada.support/api/v2/conversations/email
, replacing {bothandle}
with your AI Agent’s handleAda Email API External Credential
you created earlierCase
A record is created or updated
All Conditions are Met (AND)
Origin
Equals
Ada Email
Status
Does Not Equal
Closed
Every time a record is updated and meets the condition requirements
Fast Field Updates
Update Status
Update_Status
Use the case record that triggered the flow
None - Always Update Record
Status
Closed
CASE: Update Ada Email Status to Closed
.Create a new flow to automatically send cases to Ada. Follow Salesforce’s instructions to Build a Flow, and do the following:
Case
A record is created or updated
All Conditions are Met (AND)
Origin
Equals
Ada Email
Status
Does Not Equal
Closed
Sent_to_ada__c
Equals
False
Only when a record is updated to meet the condition requirements
Actions and Related Records
Add a scheduled path to the flow. Follow Salesforce’s instructions to create Scheduled Paths, and add the following information:
API to Ada
API_to_Ada
Case: Last Modified Date
1
Minutes After
1
Add an HTTP callout to the flow. Follow Salesforce’s instructions to Configure an HTTP Callout Action, and add the following information:
HTTP Callout
Ada Email API Named Credential
Ada Email Invocable Action
POST
This creates an Apex class variable that you can use in step e, so you can specify individual dynamic fields to send.
Now that you’ve configured the action, add it to your flow, so you can use the API callout to send cases to Ada. Use the following information:
Send to Ada
SendtoAda
Apex-Defined Variable
AdaEmailBody
In your flow, add an assignment element before the action element you just added. You can see an example at Salesforce’s Flow Element: Assignment topic. Enter the following information:
Set Body Variables
Set_Body_Variables
Then, add each of the following variables by choosing the Apex-defined variable you created above, then the corresponding fields in your Salesforce case:
AdaEmailBody > name
Equals
$Record > Name
AdaEmailBody > replyx5fas
Equals
help@company.com
AdaEmailBody > replyx5fto
Equals
$Record > Email Address
AdaEmailBody > subject
Equals
$Record > Subject
AdaEmailBody > text
Equals
$Record > Description
AdaEmailBody > metadata > ticket
Equals
$Record > Case ID
Ensure that all of the above values are on your case creation form, with the exception of your reply-as email.
Add an Update Triggering Record element to the flow. In the New Update Records window, enter the following information:
Update Sent to Ada checkbox on Case
Update_Sent_to_Ada_checkbox_on_Case
Use the case record that triggered the flow
None - Always Update Record
Sent_to_Ada__c
True
Save and activate your flow, giving it a name like CASE: Send to Ada Email
.
Case Origin
of Ada Email
, and use a valid email address to test. You should be able to see the conversation appear in Ada, and get a reply at the email address you provided.You can use both direct email and Email API implementation methods to automate inquiries on all fronts, expanding your AI Agent’s scope of responsibility.
If you use any alternate methods to create tickets in your agent platform (outside of contact forms or direct emails), you can use the Email API to route tickets from your Agent platform to your AI Agent.