Start from a good knowledge base, let rules and an AI agent answer the routine questions, and hand everything else to a person with the full context.
For anyone asking: How do I automate customer support with AI without annoying customers?
Each one's way of doing it, and the point where it stops.
AI agents answer on messaging, email, web forms and voice from connected knowledge, and with use cases they follow procedures and call APIs. A simulator and test widget let admins check them before launch. Where it stops: Included resolutions do not roll over; at the limit AI agents pause unless overage is allowed. AI-only conversations stay outside SLAs and routing until escalated.
The AI Agent answers from your guidance, help center and Shopify data, and with Actions it cancels orders, edits addresses, refunds or reships. It hands over to a person when a shopper gets angry or asks for a human. Where it stops: AI Agent, Shopping Assistant and Order Management need a connected Shopify store; each AI Agent resolution also counts as a billable helpdesk ticket.
Scout answers in Beacon chat and email from your Docs, web pages, files, Google Docs and text snippets. Test mode checks answers first, and reports split resolved, unresolved and escalated conversations. Where it stops: Scout takes no actions and does not answer on Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp or SMS; Free has no AI features.
Flows handle predictable moments by rule first, then Lyro answers from the knowledge you supply, shows its sources, and hands off or opens a ticket when unsure. Where it stops: Free gets a one-time Lyro allowance that never refreshes; Lyro answers only the first email of a new thread, and a customer reply goes to a person.
The AI Agent answers website chats and messaging from your websites, files and Articles, with human takeover. Its skills collect details, call external services by API and create or update tickets. Where it stops: Works in chats only, not in tickets; AI resolutions are capped per account.
Answer Bot answers customer questions from your knowledge base articles. On Enterprise, customer-facing bots in the ASAP widget and chatbots in messaging answer customers, and Zia auto-reply actions can send the first email response. Where it stops: No generative AI on Free; customer-facing chatbots wait for Enterprise.
The Email AI Agent answers new email, portal and web-form tickets from your solution articles. In shadow mode it writes a private note instead of emailing, so the team checks its answers first. Where it stops: Standalone Freshdesk has the Email AI Agent only; chat AI agents and chatbots need Freshdesk Omni. At zero sessions the AI agents stop answering.
Every verdict rests on the data in our product reports, never on a fee. How we score →