Zendesk AI helps IRC-CEO scale trust with human dignity

Founded at the behest of Albert Einstein in 1933, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is widely respected for its response to humanitarian crises across the globe. The organization helps people survive, recover, and rebuild their lives.

But once basic needs are met, another challenge often emerges: access to credit and consumer financing. That’s where IRC’s Center for Economic Opportunity (IRC-CEO) steps in.

“I think in the United States of America, everyone deserves access to credit,” says Joshua Geary, Communications Manager at IRC-CEO. “These are people who are here rebuilding their lives—they deserve an opportunity and a chance.”

IRC-CEO expands access to credit for refugees, other newcomers, and low-income communities. Working with trusted local partners, the organization facilitates access to flexible consumer and microenterprise loans.

As demand surged, IRC-CEO needed to scale support—ensuring borrowers could navigate a complex financial system with clarity and confidence.

Scaling support for a growing mission

“We cannot fail when it comes to trust,” Geary stresses. “We’re working with people who are disconnected from traditional finance circles—and we want to offer a first-class customer experience for them.”

A nonprofit lender, IRC-CEO works through community partnerships and currently offers loans in up to 25 states.

“Our borrower population is primarily refugees and other newcomers who are resettled in the United States,” Geary explains. “We also serve U.S.-born low-income populations.”

After a loan is disbursed, IRC-CEO becomes the primary point of contact—answering questions, managing servicing, and supporting borrowers throughout repayment.

“We always treat our borrowers with dignity and respect,” says Geary. “We’re trying to show the rest of the finance world that they are not a big credit risk. These people are worthy of investment—and they will pay it back.”

Since onboarding Zendesk in 2022, IRC-CEO has delivered about $30 million of the $43 million it has deployed over its entire history—a rapid acceleration reflecting rising demand and expanded reach. Zendesk AI helped the organization realize this huge increase in scale without expending capital.

“The volume and complexity of our clients’ inquiries are increasing while our resources are not,” explains Terrence Chan, Information Systems Manager at IRC-CEO. “We needed to find a way to amplify our staff’s capacity without sacrificing the quality of our service.”

From spreadsheets to strategy

Back in 2022, borrower communications at IRC-CEO were scattered across multiple platforms. The support team monitored Outlook inboxes, fielded phone calls, and manually checked the lending system to piece together borrower information.

“We used spreadsheets to try and keep track of everything,” Chan says. “And it really slowed things down—there were a lot of duplicated efforts.”

Troubleshooting borrower cases required daily teamwide meetings just to keep up. And as IRC-CEO grew to nearly 25 staff members, it became clear that the model couldn’t scale.

“In just three years, we almost doubled the amount of loans being made,” Geary notes. “The old way of doing things just wasn’t working. We were looking for a way to be more efficient—and reach more people.”

IRC-CEO needed one centralized system where every interaction could be tracked across channels.

“We want to be focused on responsible usage of AI,” says Chan. “Keeping people in the loop instead of replacing their judgment.”

Continuity that builds confidence

One frustration for borrowers at many financial institutions is being transferred from one support agent to another—and having to explain their issue from scratch each time. One of the goals of IRC-CEO’s support team was to eliminate that aggravation entirely.

“The customer experience is not just about record keeping,” Chan says. “It’s about understanding the client’s history. And for us—that’s a form of dignity.”

With Zendesk, IRC-CEO consolidated support into a centralized omnichannel platform, bringing every borrower touchpoint—across email, phone, chat, text, and social messaging—into a unified workspace.

Agents can view a borrower’s complete conversation history in one place, regardless of where the interaction began. Instead of switching systems or asking customers to repeat themselves, teams have a real-time picture of each case—making support more seamless and efficient.

“It’s crucial that we are clear and responsive with our customers,” Chan says. “And with Zendesk, we’re able to maintain trust in every interaction.”

Clearer messages, stronger trust

IRC-CEO routinely supports five core languages: English, Spanish, Farsi, Pashto, and Ukrainian. The team itself is diverse, including staff who are immigrants and refugees, with different first languages and communication styles.

Zendesk AI Copilot helps agents—regardless of their first language—work faster and communicate more clearly and consistently, especially in sensitive situations. With Copilot’s tone shift feature, agents can instantly refine the voice of their written responses.

“Now, our agents are able to consistently use the same tone,” Chan says. “And being able to expand and summarize messages using generative AI—that’s a major equity win.”

The wrong wording can increase anxiety. The right message can calm things down.

“Money is always a sensitive topic for people in financial distress,” Chan explains. “With AI-assisted responses, it takes a lot of emotions out of that equation. Our agents can offer responses that feel respectful and composed—and that’s very important to us.”

Zendesk voice transcription and AI-powered summaries further support clarity. Agents can quickly understand the substance of a call—even when audio is unclear or a borrower is struggling to explain a complex situation in English.

“That’s probably my favorite feature,” Chan says. “You can actually see the text and what the client is trying to say without having to have them repeat things over and over. And having that summary shortens resolution time.”

The results are measurable. Today, IRC-CEO’s AI-assisted interactions hold a customer satisfaction score of 82.3 percent. And the organization’s median full resolution time is just 21.2 hours—a reduction by more than 56 percent.

“To solve a case in less than a day—that’s a huge win for us,” Chan says. “Previously, our median resolution time was 48 hours.”

IRC-CEO manages about 2,000 tickets per month—and 76 percent of tickets are resolved in a single touch. Many borrower questions are addressed without multiple rounds of back-and-forth.

“We have not increased our headcount—even though our servicing team is just three agents and our volume continues to grow,” Chan says.

Knowledge that scales

IRC-CEO uses the Zendesk help center to reduce repeat questions and empower self-service. The team builds clear, multilingual articles and uses Zendesk AI to draft and standardize content faster. This self-service layer reduces repetitive tickets and reinforces the team’s high one-touch resolution rate.

The help center content is tailored for newcomers to the U.S., where “unexpected” hurdles like downloading bank statements, connecting accounts, and verifying micro-deposits can feel unfamiliar and stressful.

“We’re able to send these articles to borrowers, eliminating the need to explain it over and over again,” Geary says. “That frees up time for our agents to focus on loan processing or more complex questions.”

Looking ahead, IRC-CEO plans to integrate Salesforce with Zendesk to create a more connected system of record—laying the groundwork for more advanced AI capabilities.

“With Zendesk, we’re able to offer consistent and dignified service at a scale that simply wouldn’t be possible otherwise,” Chan says. “It ensures we never lose sight of the human being on the other end of every interaction.”