What is copilot?

A copilot, also called agent assist, is an AI assistant for your human agents rather than your customers. It sits in the inbox, drafts a reply, summarizes a long conversation, suggests a help article or rewrites a draft in a calmer tone. The person reads, edits and sends; the copilot never talks to the customer directly.

The distinction matters when you compare pricing and risk. A customer-facing agent needs grounding, a handoff and a billing unit for every reply; a copilot needs none of that, because a person checks every word before it goes out. Intercom, Zendesk and Tidio each sell one named Copilot, as of October 2026, and because staff use it, a copilot is usually sold per seat rather than per conversation.

Where it runs out: a copilot saves typing, not waiting. It cannot shorten the queue, because every conversation still waits for a person; it makes each reply faster to write once the person arrives. Teams that expect deflection from a copilot are measuring the wrong thing. Many products now ship both, an agent for customers and a copilot for staff, so check which one a feature list is describing before comparing resolution rates or prices.