Aurion Learning scales managed learning support with Zendesk AI
As demand for its managed learning services continued to grow, digital learning experts Aurion Learning turned to Zendesk AI to help scale its learner support function. Today, the organisation combines AI-powered support, self-service and human expertise to deliver responsive first-line support at scale, achieving 90% chatbot containment and 90% CSAT.
“Zendesk has helped us build a support model that works around our learners, not the other way around. It gives us the right balance between automation and human support, allowing us to scale first-line support while maintaining a high-quality experience for our clients and learners.”
Gavin Woods
Managing Director at Aurion Learning
“Zendesk has kept that nice balance. The humans are irreplaceable, and the hybrid model is the key piece.”
Justin Dougherty
Technical Director at Aurion Learning
Founded
2000
Headquarters
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Number of employees
40+
Zendesk customer
Since 2024
68%
Chatbot engagement across platforms with 7 million logins
90%
Chatbot containment rate
90%
CSAT (overall)
326,000
Learner support contacts handled in 2025
Smarter support for always-on online learning
Delivering effective online learning goes beyond content and technology. For Zendesk customer Aurion Learning, it also means providing learners and learning platform administrators with responsive support whenever they need it.
As Aurion Learning’s managed learning service offering continued to grow, the team needed a support model that could scale alongside it. Learners were accessing learning platforms 24/7, often outside traditional working hours, and support demand was increasing across multiple learning environments. Aurion wanted to strengthen first-line support, improve triage and create a more seamless experience for both learners and administrators without increasing operational complexity.
To support this next stage of growth, Aurion Learning implemented Zendesk Suite, bringing together ticketing, help centre functionality, analytics and AI-powered support into one connected service environment.
Creating a scalable first-line support experience
Aurion Learning adopted Zendesk Suite in late 2024, initially focusing on email-based support before expanding into AI-powered chat, knowledge support and workflow automation. Automated acknowledgements, SLA tracking, custom ticket forms and standardised workflows have helped create a more structured and scalable support experience across Aurion Learning’s managed learning environments.
Aurion Learning supports organisations delivering learning at scale, where users may need assistance at any time of day. Before having Zendesk in place, Aurion Learning handled around 2,000 emails and 200 phone calls per month. The team recognised the importance of building a support experience that could provide quick answers to common questions while ensuring more complex issues were routed efficiently to the right people who could help.
Using Zendesk, Aurion introduced a more connected and scalable approach to learner support. The platform has enabled the Aurion team to manage enquiries across multiple channels, while giving learners access to self-service support resources through the integrated knowledge help centre. Administrators also benefit from improved visibility of support requests and a more streamlined way to manage and track issues in real-time.
Expanding support with branded help centres
Aurion has also developed multiple branded help centres to support white-labelled learning environments, enabling support experiences to align seamlessly with different client platforms and learner audiences.
The introduction of AI-powered support has further strengthened Aurion’s first-line support capabilities. By analysing support trends and common user queries, the team designed AI-assisted workflows that help learners find answers quickly and reduce friction during key learning journeys, including registration, login support and eLearning course access. Queries that require additional support can then be escalated directly to the wider Aurion team.
For one of Aurion’s healthcare clients, they introduced a dedicated AI support agent designed to assist learners with common support journeys and provide responsive first-line support. It was carefully placed in high-traffic areas where users commonly struggled, such as registration and course navigation. The AI agent helps ensure that these routine queries are resolved quickly while more complex issues are escalated efficiently to the appropriate teams.
Using analytics to continuously improve support
A key part of Aurion’s approach is the use of Zendesk analytics and reporting to continuously refine the learner support experience. The team reviews support trends, common intents and recurring queries daily to identify opportunities for improvement across both support content and platform design.
This data-driven approach has helped Aurion strengthen its self-service resources, improve knowledge coverage and respond more proactively to learner needs when required. Insights gathered through Zendesk also contribute to wider discussions around user experience and platform enhancements, creating a valuable feedback loop between support, development and delivery teams.
The flexibility of Zendesk’s knowledge help centre functionality has also enabled Aurion to manage support resources efficiently, with user-friendly administration, version control and tailored permissions supporting different client and learner requirements.
Today, chat represents around 75% of overall contact volume, while phone support has reduced to under 5% of total contacts. Across high-volume learning environments, Aurion has also achieved chatbot engagement levels of 68% and containment rates of 90%, helping the support team scale efficiently while maintaining strong learner satisfaction scores.
Balancing AI and human support
For Aurion Learning, the role of AI is not to replace human support, but to strengthen it. AI-powered support helps the team provide faster responses to common queries and extend support coverage beyond standard working hours, while allowing support specialists to focus on more complex or sensitive issues where human interaction adds the most value.
This hybrid support model has helped Aurion scale its managed learning service offering efficiently while maintaining a high-quality learner experience for its growing client network. The majority of learner enquiries can now be resolved quickly through chat and self-service support, while escalated queries reaching the support team are often more specialist, detailed and meaningful in nature.
“Zendesk has helped us build a support model that works around our learners, not the other way around. It gives us the right balance between automation and human support, allowing us to scale first-line support while maintaining a high-quality experience for our clients and learners.” Gavin Woods – Managing Director at Aurion Learning
“Zendesk has kept that nice balance. The humans are irreplaceable, and the hybrid model is the key piece.” Justin Dougherty – Technical Director at Aurion Learning
Supporting learning that works
Today, Zendesk is a central part of Aurion Learning’s managed learning service approach. Increasingly, Aurion views support as a product, not just something that sits behind the learning platform.
By combining AI-enabled first-line support with human expertise, the team has created a support model designed around the needs of modern learners and organisations alike. Support is now embedded earlier within projects, helping anticipate common learner queries and shape more effective user experiences from the outset.
Aurion has since applied the same support model across additional public sector learning initiatives, including a national agriculture programme supporting more than 20,000 farmers. With Zendesk AI agents and automation implemented within two weeks, the team achieved strong engagement and containment levels, continuing the positive results already achieved with other initiatives.
As Aurion Learning continues to expand its managed services offering, Zendesk provides the flexibility and automation needed to support learners effectively and continue delivering learning that works.
