AI Intent Not Populating in Webhook Payload (Timing Issue?) | Community
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AI Intent Not Populating in Webhook Payload (Timing Issue?)

  • February 11, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

axle

I’m facing an issue with Zendesk AI intent detection and webhooks. I have AI intent detection enabled, and the intent is successfully detected on the ticket (I can see the system tags and the intent/confidence in the ticket events).

I am trying to send the detected intent to an external system via webhook. My webhook body looks like this:
{
"ticket_id":"{{ticket.id}}",
"action":"{{ticket.ticket_field_33209525892626}}",
"intent":"{{ticket.ticket_field_option_title_33190930229522}}",
"tags":"{{ticket.tags}}",
"intent2":"{{ticket.ticket_field_33190930229522}}",
}

The problem is:

  • Sometimes the webhook receives the correct intent.
  • Other times, the webhook fires but the intent field is empty.
  • In the ticket events, I can see that AI intent detection


My questions:

  1. What is the recommended way to ensure the webhook only fires after AI intent detection is completed?
  2. Is there a guaranteed event or condition that indicates AI processing has fully finished?
  3. Is mapping AI intent directly to a custom field the most reliable approach, and if so, what trigger conditions should be used?

Any guidance on the correct trigger configuration for a reliable setup would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
 

1 reply

Francis14
  • February 14, 2026
Hi Axle,
 
Zendesk’s AI intent detection runs asynchronously and may not complete immediately after a ticket is created or updated, causing triggers that fire too early to miss the intent data. To ensure your webhook reliably includes the detected intent, it’s best to create a trigger that watches for the AI intent system tags added once detection finishes and then maps that intent into a custom ticket field. You can then configure your webhook to fire only after this custom field is populated or updated, avoiding premature executions. This two-step process—detect AI intent via tags, map to a custom field, and trigger webhooks based on that field—ensures the webhook only fires after intent detection is complete and provides a consistent and reliable integration.