Zoho Rolls Out AI Agents to Streamline Business Operations

Small business owners looking to streamline operations, cut costs, and boost productivity may soon have a powerful new ally: AI agents built into their everyday business software. Zoho, a long-time provider of business applications, has unveiled a new wave of intelligent digital assistants—called Zia Agents—designed to take over repetitive tasks and assist teams across departments. The company’s latest offering could give small businesses access to advanced automation without the need for a dedicated IT staff or expensive enterprise tools.

At the core of the announcement is the launch of a set of native AI agents embedded directly into Zoho’s platform. These agents aren’t just glorified chatbots—they’re context-aware tools trained to handle specific business tasks. For example, the new version of Ask Zia, Zoho’s conversational AI, now includes business intelligence capabilities customized for different user personas. Data engineers can build data pipelines, analysts can create reports and dashboards through conversation, and data scientists can get help with machine learning models. While these tools cater to technical roles, the assistant remains accessible to general users as well.

Customer-facing teams also benefit from the new capabilities. The Customer Service Agent, integrated into Zoho Desk, can automatically understand incoming support requests, respond intelligently, or escalate them to human reps. This makes it easier for small businesses to deliver fast and consistent service without hiring more support staff. It’s a scalable solution for growing teams, especially those handling increasing ticket volumes with limited resources.

For small business owners interested in tailoring these tools to their unique workflows, Zoho introduced the Zia Agent Studio. This no-code or low-code tool enables users to create and deploy custom agents using prompts or rules. More than 700 pre-configured actions across Zoho’s ecosystem are available out of the box. Once built, agents can act like “digital employees,” respecting the same permissions set for human users and offering audit and performance tracking features. Admins retain oversight while automating tedious processes.

Additionally, the Zoho Marketplace now includes a dedicated Agent Marketplace, giving businesses immediate access to ready-made agents. Early examples include a Revenue Growth Specialist that spots upsell and cross-sell opportunities, a Deal Analyzer that estimates win probabilities and suggests next steps, and a Candidate Screener that ranks job applicants based on criteria like experience and skills. These pre-built agents can help small businesses automate sales intelligence, recruiting, and customer engagement without additional headcount or software.

Because these agents live inside Zoho’s broader ecosystem of 55+ applications, businesses can build solutions that span everything from CRM to finance to HR. This offers a distinct advantage for small companies trying to unify operations without patching together disparate tools. Moreover, Zoho says the same development tools its internal teams use are now available to customers, making it possible for even small teams to build customized AI-driven workflows.

Zoho also teased future features. Ask Zia will soon expand its capabilities to serve finance and customer support teams more directly. Perhaps more significantly, the company is developing an Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol that will let Zia Agents talk to one another—and potentially with agents from other platforms. For small businesses, this could open the door to fully autonomous workflows that span multiple software systems.

However, some practical considerations remain. While the tools are already being rolled out to customers on Zoho’s early access waiting list, general availability won’t arrive until the end of 2025. Pricing has yet to be announced. Businesses looking to plan around these tools may need to wait until the public release for more clarity on cost and access. As with any automation solution, small business owners should also consider how much oversight and customization will be required to integrate these agents effectively into daily operations.

Still, Zoho’s agentic approach could represent a turning point in how small businesses engage with AI. By embedding intelligent agents directly into the tools companies already use and making them accessible to non-developers, Zoho lowers the barrier to entry. For small teams striving to do more with less, this evolution may provide not only a productivity boost but a strategic advantage in a competitive market.

This article, "Zoho Rolls Out AI Agents to Streamline Business Operations" was first published on Small Business Trends