Employees want a service that is fast, simple, and located in their place of work. For instance, when someone needs to have access to a tool or could ask a question related to the benefits, the demand today is very obvious: responses should be immediate, without having to go through several portals or waiting hours for updates. The recent integration between Zendesk and Microsoft 365 answers that call. Without breaking the work rhythm, it merges HR and IT support into the everyday work apps, powered by AI. According to McKinsey, employees lose up to 9% of their total working time due to switching between disconnected workplace systems.
The present-day HR and internal help desks are transforming to be more of experience hubs rather than only ticket-processing teams. The integration is aware of that change. It changes support into a seamless, intuitive communication within Microsoft 365, i.e., staff do not have to remember, log in, and learn a different system.
Whether working conditions are remote, hybrid, or office-based, the fact remains that all employees work inside Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Therefore, it is logical that the support is also available there.
Thanks to the Zendesk + Microsoft 365 integration, the employees have an opportunity to:
File support requests right inside the Microsoft apps, which they are already comfortable with.
Get updates and also comments in the very same workspace.
Check the progress of the support request without changing the platform.
Obtain instant AI-generated proposals when a solution is at hand.
According to Deloitte's reports, organizations where frequent context switching is required experience a 40% loss of productivity.
Support is not so much about the process of opening a ticket but rather the quick conversations that provoke the resolution.
The integration implements the long-awaited changes and greatly cuts down on the time employees have to wait. However, the changes also improve the effectiveness of the support team:
By means of AI triage and routing, repetitive interactions can be concluded more rapidly
Before they start their work, employees get better and more detailed information, together with the required context
The time that was used for routine ticket handling can now be devoted to meaningful, high-impact work
Support can be made very efficient and scalable without the danger of the staff getting burned out.
Gartner reports that 47% of HR leaders plan to increase the use of AI for service delivery to improve employee support.
Rather than spending hours on the manual categorization of tasks, repeated questioning, and issuing follow-ups, the IT and HR professionals may turn their attention to those requests that require expertise, sensitivity, and human judgment.
What lies underneath is Microsoft Agent 365, which is responsible for the functioning of AI support agents. Identity access, permissions, compliance rules, and audit logging work in the background to provide security for sensitive information. That security structure is of great concern for the HR, Finance, and IT support teams who deal with confidential employee details. According to Forrester, 76% of organizations prefer AI solutions that operate within their existing security and compliance frameworks.
Imagine an employee who is getting ready for a project review. While doing a task in Microsoft Teams, it dawns on him/her that he/she still doesn’t have access to the performance dashboard. Instead of looking for the HR portal at the expense of his/her time or drafting a long email, they simply submit the request through Teams.
Zendesk AI reads the request, figures out the category of the request, and sends it to the appropriate department. The agent is automatically provided with suggestions and context. After a few hours, the employee gets a brief update in Teams, "Access granted."
No interruptions. No time wasted. No frustration. The work just goes on as usual.
Now, multiply that by onboarding, payroll clarifications, tool access, and training requests, and you can see that the time savings scale across the entire organization.
Today’s office has changed. HR technologies must adapt accordingly. Support should not be distracting; it should not raise awareness of the fact that someone needs help. It has to be right there with the employees - in the tools that they already use, in their natural workflows, and at the pace that the work of today requires.
Three thoughts sum up the future of employee support:
Help should not come from outside the work context, but rather be in the flow of work.
Employees who can keep their workflow are the ones whose productivity and satisfaction increase immediately.
AI work should lessen the effort needed, not be one that takes over the human element.
While the technology takes care of the repetitions flawlessly, people are the ones to give empathy and solve the problems that require their expertise.
HR tools should be as simple as possible for employees.
Good systems are actually the ones that employees hardly notice because they are working effortlessly.
The Zendesk + Microsoft 365 partnership is a representation of that idea. It changes the internal service from being “a ticketing system” into “something which is naturally done while doing other work”.
The combined use of Zendesk and Microsoft 365 is a clear demonstration that an employee service, which does not require any special effort and is a part of everyday work, becomes more effective. Artificial intelligence speeds up the tasks that are done regularly, but human agents should be at the center for those that are sensitive or of a complex nature. When the staff is supported without any trouble, they become more productive and a pleasure to work with, and HR departments thus get more freedom to deliver a thoughtful, high-impact service. This is where the HR tech industry is heading - easy to use, safe, and designed with the employee experience in mind.
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