Ada on Zendesk: one wrapper, smarter handoffs

The problem

Every team that wanted the chatbot on its pages had to read Ada's documentation and repeat the same configuration. And when a chat was handed off to a live agent, it didn't carry the information needed to reach the right agent group.

What I built

Integrated Ada with Zendesk.
Built a wrapper script, so other teams could embed the bot without redoing configuration.
Added custom event-tracking hooks Ada did not offer.
In September 2019, added real-time routing data, so each live-chat handoff reached the right agent group.

The same wrapper pattern carried over when Upwork moved to Forethought in 2021.

Diagram: one wrapper embeds Ada on any page and passes routing data for live-chat handoffs — One wrapper, plus routing data so handoffs reach the right agent group.

What changed

Live-chat handoffs reached the right support agents without triage delays, and the wrapper gave the engineering team unified tracking across every page.

"Asif made significant contributions as a developer for our CX team... His collaboration with Ada led to the successful launch of the Upwork Support Chatbot."

— Joji Maekawa, Engineering Manager, Customer Experience, Upwork