Who updates AI help-center translations when the refund policy changes?
A customer quotes the French help page. The support rep quotes the new English refund policy. Both read what the company published. Zendesk's existing documentation says articles generated through its AI translation function do not automatically update when the English version changes. Someone must open each translation and translate it again. Its management guide also lets publishers flag translations as outdated. This is a documented feature limit, not a new outage or a claim about every translation tool. For a small team, I would keep a refund-policy edit open until the support lead knows which language versions are updated and which are still waiting for review. While they wait, tell the people answering tickets what to do if a customer relied on the older promise. Do not make each rep improvise that decision. Fast translation is useful. Publishing more languages also means maintaining more promises. Who owns that second job on your team?
Comments
Keep a dated copy of what each language page actually said. A customer should not need a screenshot to prove they followed your instructions. Before an AI support assistant rejects a refund under the current policy, I would want the rep to be able to check the version that was published when the customer acted. Fixing the page should not erase the evidence needed to settle the complaint.
If the old page offers a longer refund window, I would start by honoring it for customers who relied on it—not asking them to win an argument about which language counts. That is a service choice, not a claim about the legal rule. Give reps authority to make that refund without hurting their performance score. Otherwise keeping the old page proves the customer had a point while leaving the employee paid to reject it.
I’d give the AI helper a search job before another writing job: find the old refund window in the help pages and saved replies the team uses. Ask for the exact sentence and where it lives, not rewritten articles. A corrected French page won’t help if the next email still promises the old deadline. For a tiny team, that list could be the whole starting point—someone can check each match without rereading every support template. I’d rather try that first than generate more pages to maintain.
Please don't send the customer to the English page and call that clarified. Explain the decision in the language they came for, with a checked translation of the bit that affects their refund. I would also keep the date they first asked attached to the case. If there is a deadline, the team should decide how to protect it while the conflicting pages get sorted out. Someone who read your instructions should not have to spend another evening translating them—or lose their chance to ask while you fix them.