- AI help desks at a glance
- Ten AI help desks to look at
- Matching an AI help desk to your support
- When a support ticket is really a data request
- New help desk or AI on top of your current one?
- Questions to ask before AI answers your customers
- Signs your support needs an AI help desk
- My plain advice on AI help desks
- Frequently asked questions
AI help desk software organises customer emails, chats and messages into tickets, then uses AI to sort them, draft replies and resolve common questions without a person. Some are full help desks with AI built in, others add AI agents to the help desk you already have. Ten options follow in no particular order.
Support doesn't usually break because questions are hard. It breaks because there are too many easy ones, and the hard ones wait behind them.
AI help desks clear the easy ones. The ten tools below are listed alphabetically and in no particular order, and every description comes from the vendor's own website, read this week. For help desks without the AI angle, see my round-up of help desk software for small businesses.
AI help desks at a glance
I checked the free plan column on each tool's own website, as of Oct 2026. Yes means the site names a free plan, a free version, a free account, a free edition or an open source release. Trial only means a time-limited trial. Not stated means the pages I read named neither, even where there's a button inviting you to try it, so check the vendor's page before you sign up.
| Tool | Type | Good for | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| eesel AI | Customer service agents for your help desk | Adding AI to the help desk you already have | Not stated |
| Gladly | Customer service platform for retail brands | Retail brands handling questions and orders | Not stated |
| Gorgias | Ecommerce help desk with an AI agent | Shopify brands | Not stated |
| Help Scout | AI-driven support platform | Small teams that want a friendly shared inbox | Not stated |
| Hiver | Omnichannel customer service platform | Email-heavy support across several channels | Not stated |
| Kayako | AI help desk and support platform | Email, chat and a knowledge base together | Not stated |
| Richpanel | AI support and help desk for ecommerce | Online stores wanting AI and a help desk | Not stated |
| Siena AI | Empathic agents for consumer brands | Brand-voice support and review replies | Not stated |
| Unthread | AI-native ticketing for Slack and Teams | Internal IT and support inside Slack | Not stated |
| Yuma AI | Ecommerce support and sales agents | Stores wanting tickets resolved automatically | Trial only |
Ten AI help desks to look at
eesel AI
Best for: Support teams that want AI agents working inside their existing tools, such as Zendesk, Freshdesk, Slack and Shopify, rather than switching help desk.
Gladly
Best for: Retail and consumer brands that want AI to handle customer questions at every step of the shopping journey.
Gorgias
Best for: Online shops, especially on Shopify, that want one inbox for every customer conversation plus an AI agent for customer experience.
Help Scout
Best for: Customer-first small companies that want a shared inbox with AI assistance for replies and AI automation as they grow.
Hiver
Best for: Teams that want an agentic customer service platform that brings email and other channels together for people and AI to work on.
Kayako
Best for: Small support teams that want AI email handling, 24/7 chat and a knowledge base in one help desk.
Richpanel
Best for: Ecommerce brands that want AI support and a help desk built specifically for online stores, in one product.
Siena AI
Best for: Consumer brands that want an AI customer service agent with a warm, on-brand tone, plus a reviews agent for review management.
Unthread
Best for: IT and support teams that take requests in Slack or Teams and want them tracked and solved as tickets.
Yuma AI
Best for: Online stores that want AI agents across pre-purchase questions, support tickets and social messages, with a free trial.
Matching an AI help desk to your support
- Adding AI to the help desk you have: eesel AI.
- Shopify and other online stores: Gorgias, Richpanel or Yuma AI.
- Retail brands across the shopping journey: Gladly or Siena AI.
- Small teams wanting a friendly inbox: Help Scout or Kayako.
- Email-heavy support across channels: Hiver.
- Internal requests in Slack or Teams: Unthread.
When a support ticket is really a data request
The Information Commissioner's Office says you must comply with a subject access request without undue delay and at the latest within one month of receipt.
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
Those requests rarely arrive labelled. They turn up as an ordinary email or chat asking for 'everything you hold about me'. If AI is triaging your inbox, set a rule that flags these and routes them to a person straight away, so the clock doesn't run out while a bot replies with a help article.
New help desk or AI on top of your current one?
Moving to an AI-first help desk makes sense if your current tool is the bottleneck or you're starting from a shared inbox.
Adding AI on top keeps your tickets, reports and habits, and puts AI agents to work inside them.
Either way, start with the questions you answer most and let AI take those first.
Questions to ask before AI answers your customers
- Which channels does it cover: email, chat, social, phone?
- Can it answer only from your own help content?
- How does it hand a ticket to a person?
- Can you set the tone it writes in?
- Does it connect to your shop or order system?
- What reporting shows how many tickets it resolved well?
Signs your support needs an AI help desk
- The same questions fill the queue. Automate the answers.
- Replies take a day. Draft them instantly.
- Tickets get lost between inboxes. Bring them together.
- Weekends create a backlog. Let AI cover the gap.
Do you make AI help desk software? Tool makers can ask to be considered for a featured place on this list.
My plain advice on AI help desks
Pull your last two hundred tickets and sort them by question. The top five usually make up a big share of the pile. Write great answers to those five, give them to the AI, and measure how many it resolves before you widen its brief.
When you compare vendors, my guide to what to look for in an AI customer service platform gives you a checklist.
Frequently asked questions
What is AI help desk software?
It's help desk software that uses AI to sort tickets, draft replies and resolve common questions, so your team spends time on the conversations that need a person.
Can AI resolve support tickets on its own?
For routine questions, such as order status or how-to answers, yes. Keep a clear route to a person for complaints, refunds and anything unusual.
Is there free AI help desk software?
Some tools offer free trials. Check the free plan column above and confirm on each vendor's site.
Will customers know they're talking to AI?
They should. Saying so up front builds trust, and in the EU the AI Act expects people to be told when they're interacting with an AI system.
Do I need to switch help desk to use AI?
No. Some tools add AI agents to the help desk you already use.
How do I know if the AI is doing a good job?
Track resolution rates, reopened tickets and customer ratings for AI-handled conversations, and read a sample every week.
