What is resolution rate?

Resolution rate is the share of conversations the AI handled that ended with the problem solved. It is the metric that matters most and the one with the least agreed definition, because "solved" has to be decided by someone: the visitor, the vendor's model or a timer. The formula is resolved conversations divided by conversations the AI joined; everything depends on what goes in the numerator.

Where definitions split, as of October 2026: Intercom counts a conversation as resolved when the customer confirms it or goes quiet for 24 hours after Fin's last answer, an assumed resolution. Zendesk bills only verified resolutions. Other vendors count a thumbs-up, the absence of a handoff, or an AI judgment that the question was answered. The eight-vendor comparison lays these side by side; two products reporting "80 percent resolution" can be measuring different events.

It matters because resolution is often also the billing unit, so the definition sets your bill. It runs out where silence is counted as success: a visitor who left in disgust resolved nothing. The strictest definition you can count is the one to report: the visitor confirmed or rated positively, no handoff, no ticket within a week on the same topic. Pair it with a weekly manual check of twenty answers, because no automatic definition detects a confident wrong answer that the visitor believed.