A realistic guide to Atlassian Intelligence Summarize Work Item Comments

We've all been there. You get assigned a Jira ticket, open it up, and are met with a wall of comments. You find yourself endlessly scrolling, trying to piece together the history of an issue, hunting for that one crucial decision buried in a sea of updates, questions, and back-and-forths. It’s a huge time-sink, and honestly, it’s just plain easy to miss critical context.

Atlassian’s answer to this common headache is Atlassian Intelligence, a set of built-in AI tools designed to make sense of the noise. One of its most talked-about features is the ability to summarize work item comments, promising to give you the gist of a long conversation with a single click.

But is a simple summary tool enough to make your team truly efficient? Or do you need something more powerful that doesn’t just tell you what happened, but actually helps you decide what to do next?

What is Atlassian Intelligence and its Atlassian Intelligence Summarize Work Item Comments feature?

Atlassian Intelligence, which is being rebranded as Rovo, is Atlassian's collection of AI features built directly into their cloud products like Jira Service Management, Confluence, and Trello. The main idea is to help teams speed up their work by generating, summarizing, or transforming content right where they’re already working.

Besides comment summarization, its features include things like using natural language to search with Jira Query Language (JQL) and generating content for descriptions or pages. It's Atlassian’s move to keep up with the AI trend in productivity software.

The thing is, as many teams have discovered, the real-world experience can be a bit of a mixed bag, especially when you need more than a basic summary. <quote text="The general feeling is that while some features are "nice to have," they often don't deliver the kind of value that would justify a high price tag or a painful migration to the cloud." sourceIcon="https://www.iconpacks.net/icons/2/free-reddit-logo-icon-2436-thumb.png" sourceName="Reddit" sourceLink="https://www.reddit.com/r/jira/comments/1e7ihwj/jira_cloud_ai_experiences/">

How the Atlassian Intelligence Summarize Work Item Comments feature works

The concept behind the Atlassian Intelligence Summarize Work Item Comments feature is pretty simple: save you from having to read every single comment on a ticket. It’s built to give you a quick, digestible overview so you can get up to speed fast.

Using it is as straightforward as it sounds. Here’s the process inside a Jira ticket:

1. Navigate to a work item (what you probably just call a ticket).

2. Find the Activity section and click on Comments.

3. Hit the Summarize button.

The AI then generates a summary that’s only visible to you. It pulls out what it considers the key points, any decisions made, and pending action items. It’s a neat trick for getting a quick snapshot of a conversation.

But there’s a catch: this feature is only available for Jira Cloud Premium and Enterprise customers. If you’re on a Standard plan, you can't use it, which is a major hurdle for a lot of teams.

The pros and cons of the Atlassian Intelligence Summarize Work Item Comments feature

While a one-click summary sounds great on paper, it’s worth looking at the full picture. Based on user feedback and Atlassian's own documentation, here’s a realistic breakdown of where it helps and where it falls short.

Pros of the Atlassian Intelligence comment summary feature: Where it excels

• Native Integration: It’s built right into the Jira interface you already use every day. There’s no new tool to learn or switch to, which makes for a smooth experience.

• Simplicity: For its main job of summarizing, it’s incredibly easy. You click a button, you get a summary. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

• Good for a Quick Catch-Up: It’s genuinely useful for getting the gist of a long-running ticket. If an agent is taking over an issue or a manager is just checking in, it can save them a few minutes of reading.

Cons of the Atlassian Intelligence comment summary feature: Critical limitations

• Limited Knowledge Scope: The AI only knows what’s inside your Atlassian products. It has no idea what’s happening in your team's Slack channels, Google Docs, or your external help center. This means its summaries are often incomplete because they lack the full context of how your team actually solves problems.

• Summarization Isn't Action: The feature gives you a summary, and that’s it. It can't use that information to take the next step, like drafting a reply based on the context, escalating the ticket, or tagging it correctly. It points out what needs to be done but doesn't help you do it.

• High Cost and Gated Access: This is a big one. As many users have pointed out, Atlassian Intelligence is locked behind expensive Premium or Enterprise plans. On top of that, the more advanced Rovo features are expected to cost an extra $24 per user per month. For many teams, that price is just too steep for what you get.

• Lack of Customization and Control: You get what you get. There's no way to tweak the AI's tone of voice, define a specific persona, or control how it structures its summaries. It’s a one-size-fits-all tool that can't adapt to your brand or your team's specific ways of working.

Beyond comment summaries: Using a dedicated AI platform for knowledge and automation

Built-in tools are convenient, but their limitations often mean you’re only solving a tiny piece of a much bigger puzzle. A dedicated AI platform can offer a much more powerful and flexible approach by integrating with your entire tech stack, not just one part of it. This is where a tool like eesel AI really changes the game.

Go beyond the Atlassian ecosystem

While Atlassian Intelligence is stuck inside its own world, a platform like eesel AI connects to all your knowledge sources. It plugs into Jira and Confluence, of course, but it also pulls information from your Google Docs, Notion, Slack conversations, and even your historical tickets in help desks like Zendesk or Freshdesk.

The benefit here is huge: you get a single source of truth. The AI has the full picture, so it can generate summaries and answers that are far more accurate and well-rounded than a siloed tool ever could.

An infographic illustrating how eesel AI connects to various knowledge sources, going beyond the limitations of the Atlassian Intelligence Summarize Work Item Comments feature.

Turn summaries into automated workflows

Here’s where things get really interesting: eesel AI doesn't just summarize, it acts. It turns insights into automated workflows that save your team real time.

For example, eesel AI can:

• Analyze a long comment thread and automatically draft a complete, on-brand reply for your agent to review and send.

• Identify an issue's category and urgency from the conversation, then automatically triage the ticket by adding the right tags and assigning it to the right team.

• Perform custom actions, like looking up an order status in Shopify or checking a customer’s subscription details from your internal database, all without an agent lifting a finger.

A workflow diagram showcasing eesel AI's support automation capabilities, a step up from the basic Atlassian Intelligence Summarize Work Item Comments feature.

Test with confidence before you go live

One of the best parts of eesel AI is its powerful simulation mode. You can test your entire AI setup on thousands of your own historical Jira tickets to see exactly how it would have responded and what actions it would have taken. This lets you fine-tune its behavior, get accurate forecasts on resolution times and cost savings, and roll it out knowing it will work. It's a level of control and predictability you simply don't get with Atlassian's built-in tool.

A screenshot of the eesel AI simulation mode, which offers more advanced analytics than the Atlassian Intelligence Summarize Work Item Comments feature.

Pricing comparison: Atlassian Intelligence vs. eesel AI

The cost of Atlassian Intelligence is often hidden behind a much bigger decision. To get access, you have to upgrade your entire organization to a Jira Premium or Enterprise plan. And with the new Rovo features costing an additional $24/seat/month, the total expense can quickly spiral.

On the other hand, eesel AI offers a more transparent and predictable pricing model that isn’t tied to per-seat licenses.

Plan	Monthly Price (Billed Monthly)	Key Features
Team	$299	Copilot for help desk, Slack integration, train on docs.
Business	$799	Everything in Team + train on past tickets, AI Actions, bulk simulation.
Custom	Contact Sales	Advanced actions, custom integrations, unlimited capacity.

With eesel AI's pricing, you pay for what you use (based on AI interactions), and there are never any surprise per-resolution fees. This makes your costs predictable and allows you to scale without being penalized for having a busy month.

Why a connected AI is a smarter choice than a simple summary feature

The Atlassian Intelligence Summarize Work Item Comments feature is a decent starting point, especially for teams already on a premium plan who just need a basic way to get caught up on long tickets. But at the end of the day, it’s a siloed tool that only solves a small part of a much larger workflow challenge.

It summarizes what’s happening in Jira, but it can't connect that knowledge to the rest of your tools or use it to automate the work that comes next. For teams that are serious about efficiency, a summary just isn't enough.

A platform like eesel AI is a smarter investment. It’s a flexible, self-serve tool that plugs into your existing workflows (including Jira) to deliver real, end-to-end automation, from summarization and drafting replies to intelligent triage and custom actions. Why settle for a summary when you can have a fully autonomous agent?

Try a more powerful alternative for Jira summaries today

Ready to see what a real AI support agent can do for your Jira workflows? eesel AI integrates seamlessly with Jira, Confluence, and over 100 other tools to automate support, triage tickets, and draft perfect replies.

You can get started in minutes, not months. Start your free trial today and see how much time you can get back.

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