AI for Customer Support, Success & CX

AI agents, chatbots & virtual assistants

AI customer support chatbots and agents handle customer conversations directly, resolving common questions without a human agent stepping in. The current generation goes well beyond the scripted decision-tree bots of a few years ago. These tools read your help center, past tickets, and product documentation, then answer in natural language across chat, email, and increasingly voice. The better ones also take action, such as checking an order status, processing a refund, or updating account details, by connecting to your backend systems. Buyers usually evaluate this category on resolution rate, meaning the share of conversations the AI closes correctly without human help, and on how gracefully it hands off to a person when it gets stuck. Pricing models vary widely, from per-resolution fees to usage-based and seat-based contracts, so it pays to model your real ticket volume before signing anything. The vendors below range from established platforms like Intercom and Ada to newer agent-first companies like Sierra, and most will run a pilot on your historical conversations so you can verify claims before you commit.

7 tools compared Independent rankings

What it means

These are AI systems that converse with your customers directly across chat, email, and sometimes voice, answering questions from your knowledge content and escalating to humans when needed. The most capable versions can also execute tasks like refunds or account changes by connecting to your backend systems.

Who it is for

Support and CX leaders at companies with meaningful inbound volume, from funded startups to large enterprises. Ecommerce, SaaS, fintech, and travel companies adopt heavily because so much of their volume is repetitive, such as order status, billing, and account access questions.

Top tools in AI agents, chatbots & virtual assistants, compared

Ordered by our BetterBuys fit score, an editorial relevance measure. Sponsored placements are always labeled and never influence rankings. How we rank

Intercom Fin

by Intercom

Intercom's AI agent that resolves customer chats and emails from your help content, priced per resolution and deployable on other helpdesks too.

  • Answers from your help center, past conversations, and other approved content
  • Works inside Intercom or on top of Zendesk and Salesforce
  • Per-resolution pricing aligned to outcomes
View profile Publicly listed per-resolution pricing, charged when Fin resolves a conversation, on top of an Intercom plan or your existing helpdesk subscription.
92
Fit score

Zendesk AI

by Zendesk

AI built into the Zendesk suite: customer-facing AI agents, an agent copilot, and intelligent ticket triage.

  • AI agents for customer-facing self-service across messaging and email
  • Agent copilot that drafts replies and suggests next steps
  • Intelligent triage with intent, language, and sentiment detection
View profile Per-agent Suite plan pricing is published publicly; advanced AI capabilities are sold as paid add-ons on top of plans.
89
Fit score

Ada

by Ada

Enterprise AI agent platform that automates customer conversations across chat, email, SMS, and voice in many languages.

  • AI agent across chat, email, SMS, and voice channels
  • No-code configuration, testing, and coaching tools for CX teams
  • Broad multilingual support out of the box
View profile Not publicly listed
86
Fit score

Freshworks Freddy AI

by Freshworks

Freshworks' AI layer for Freshdesk and its wider suite, combining autonomous AI agents, an agent copilot, and support analytics.

  • Freddy AI Agent for autonomous customer conversations
  • Freddy AI Copilot for reply drafting, summaries, and suggested actions
  • Freddy AI Insights for support analytics and reporting
View profile Freshworks publishes per-agent plan pricing; Freddy AI Copilot is a paid per-agent add-on, with some AI agent usage billed separately.
85
Fit score

HubSpot Breeze

by HubSpot

HubSpot's built-in AI assistant, agents, and data enrichment layer for drafting content and automating work across its marketing and CRM hubs.

  • Breeze Copilot assistant embedded across HubSpot
  • AI agents for content, social, and customer-facing tasks
  • Breeze Intelligence data enrichment for contacts and companies
View profile Bundled with HubSpot subscriptions; HubSpot publishes plan pricing and many AI features require paid hub tiers.
83
Fit score

Forethought

by Forethought

AI layer that plugs into your existing helpdesk to resolve tickets autonomously, triage the rest, and assist human agents.

  • Solve: autonomous resolution of email and chat tickets
  • Triage: intent classification and routing for incoming tickets
  • Assist: in-helpdesk agent copilot with suggested answers
View profile Not publicly listed
82
Fit score

Sierra

by Sierra

Conversational AI agents for large consumer brands, covering chat and voice support with strong guardrails, founded by former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor.

  • Branded AI agents for chat and voice
  • Policy-following behavior with configurable guardrails
  • Action execution in backend systems like order management
View profile Not publicly listed
81
Fit score

How to choose

Test resolution rate on your own data rather than trusting marketing numbers; serious vendors will run a pilot or backtest on your historical conversations. Pay close attention to failure behavior, because an agent that guesses confidently is worse than one that escalates cleanly. Confirm integrations with your helpdesk and with the backend systems the AI would need to take real action. Model the pricing against your actual volume, since per-resolution and per-conversation models produce very different bills at scale. Finally, check what guardrails exist for tone, escalation rules, and which actions require human approval.

Frequently asked questions

What resolution rate should I expect?

It varies a lot by industry and by the quality of your knowledge base. Many teams see meaningful automation on routine questions, but treat any specific vendor percentage as a claim to verify in a pilot on your own tickets.

Will an AI agent replace my support team?

In most deployments it absorbs repetitive tier-one questions, which shifts human agents toward complex and high-empathy work. Teams that go in expecting full replacement usually settle into a hybrid model.

Do I need a good knowledge base first?

It helps enormously. Most of these tools answer from your existing help content, so thin or outdated articles directly limit what the AI can resolve. Some vendors help identify content gaps during onboarding.

How do these tools price?

Common models include per resolution, per conversation, and annual platform contracts. Per-resolution pricing is easy to understand but can get expensive at high volume, so model your numbers before committing.

Related categories

More categories under AI for Customer Support, Success & CX.

Contact center, voice & phone support Helpdesk, ticketing & case management Knowledge base, help center & self-service Omnichannel & channel-specific support Support analytics, QA & operations Customer success, retention & churn prevention

Last reviewed June 10, 2026. How we research categories.