The 6 best AI for customer experience platforms in 2026

Support teams often face high volumes of customer inquiries. Customers expect fast, personalized answers 24/7, and traditional chatbots may struggle to meet these demands. Many users have experienced interactions with bots that could not understand their queries, highlighting the need for more advanced solutions.

The industry is shifting from basic bots to advanced AI platforms that function as integrated team members. They are designed not just to deflect tickets, but to learn from your team, collaborate with human agents, and improve over time.

This article provides a comparison of the top platforms that offer advanced AI for customer experience, based on key criteria for support teams.

What is an AI for customer experience?

AI for customer experience (CX) today is a comprehensive system designed to improve workflows for both customers and agents. It can be considered an efficient addition to a support team.

Modern CX AI typically includes three components, and the leading platforms integrate them for a cohesive experience:

1. Customer-facing AI agents: These bots handle frontline conversations autonomously. They can interpret a customer's intent beyond keywords to perform actions like processing a return, checking an order status, or answering complex product questions. An AI Agent can be trained to manage these tasks, which can help free up your team.

2. AI copilots for agents: These tools work alongside human agents, enhancing their capabilities. They can draft replies in a specific brand voice, summarize long ticket threads, and instantly find relevant help center articles. A well-designed AI Copilot can help make human teams faster and more effective.

3. Behind-the-scenes automation: This is a key component of CX AI. It handles operational tasks that consume team resources, such as routing tickets to the appropriate person, tagging issues by urgency, and automatically filtering spam. An effective AI Triage system helps keep support queues organized.

The most effective systems are those where these three parts work together, creating a true AI teammate that enhances the entire support operation. This visual guide breaks down how these components function as a cohesive unit.

Our criteria for choosing AI tools for customer experience

To provide a clear comparison, we based our list on criteria that are important for a busy team, focusing on practical value.

• Speed to value: How quickly can it be implemented without a team of developers? Can you see results in minutes, or does it require a months-long project?

• Quality of AI: Does it understand customer inquiries? Can it hold a natural conversation, match your brand voice, and take action without fabricating information?

• Control and customization: How much can you fine-tune its behavior? Can you easily limit its knowledge base, define its personality, and set rules for human handover without writing code?

• Integration depth: Does it connect easily with your existing tools? This includes one-click connections to help desks like Zendesk and Freshdesk and knowledge sources like Confluence and Google Docs.

• Pricing transparency: Is the pricing model simple and predictable, or does it include per-resolution fees that could lead to unexpected costs?

Comparison of top AI for customer experience platforms

Platform	Best for	Starting price	Key AI feature	Human-in-the-loop
eesel AI	Teams that want an AI teammate they can hire and train	$299/mo	Collaborative drafting & progressive autonomy	Yes (by default)
Zendesk AI	Existing Zendesk users needing integrated AI	$55/agent/mo (Suite Team)	AI agents & intelligent triage	Yes
Kustomer	Combining CRM data with AI for personalization	Contact for pricing	AI agents fueled by a unified CRM	Yes
Freshdesk AI	Omnichannel support and self-service	$29/agent/mo + AI add-ons	Freddy AI Copilot & AI Agent	Yes
Ada	Enterprise-level, automated brand interactions	Contact for pricing	Ada Reasoning Engine	Yes
Forethought	AI-driven ticket classification and agent assistance	Contact for pricing	Multi-agent AI system (Solve, Triage, Assist)	Yes

The top 6 platforms for AI customer experience in 2026

Here is a closer look at the platforms on our list, including their strengths and potential considerations.

1. eesel AI

eesel AI is designed to function as an AI teammate that you invite to your help desk and train. The setup process connects to Zendesk or Freshdesk and begins learning from past tickets, macros, and help articles. The platform is built around collaboration rather than just automation. For teams that use it, it achieves an average resolution rate of 81% for automated conversations.

• Pros and cons: One of the main advantages of eesel AI is its speed to value. It can go live on the first day by starting in a human-in-the-loop mode, where it drafts replies for agents to approve, edit, or reject. This approach minimizes risk. Its personality and actions can also be adjusted using plain English. Its self-serve approach may differ from the implementation process some enterprise teams are accustomed to.

• Pricing:

• Team: Starts at $299/month for up to 1,000 AI interactions.

• Business: $799/month for up to 3,000 AI interactions and unlocks advanced features like training on past tickets.

• Custom: Custom plans are available for unlimited interactions. A 20% discount is available for annual payments.

2. Zendesk AI


Zendesk is a world-class platform in customer service, and its AI is built directly into its mature ecosystem. For teams already using Zendesk for ticketing, adding its native AI features is a logical and powerful next step that enhances an already industry-leading setup.

• Pros and cons: The primary benefit is the seamless integration. Zendesk AI features like AI agents and intelligent triage fit directly into existing setups, providing a unified and reliable experience for current users. Zendesk offers a variety of tiered plans and add-ons, ensuring teams can access the specific capabilities they need, such as the Copilot feature, which is available for an additional $50 per agent, per month.

• Pricing:

• Suite Team: Starts at $55/agent/month (billed annually), which includes core AI capabilities.

• Advanced AI (Copilot): This powerful add-on is available for an additional $50/agent/month.

3. Kustomer

Kustomer offers an integrated platform that combines a CRM with AI and ticketing. Its primary strength lies in using rich customer data to facilitate more personalized and accurate conversations for both its AI and human agents.

• Pros and cons: The native CRM provides the AI with a complete history of every customer interaction, leading to more informed service. The no-code AI Agent Studio is also useful for non-technical teams who want to build custom flows. The main consideration is that Kustomer is a full platform, so adopting it may require a significant migration if your team is already established with another help desk.

• Pricing:

• Kustomer does not list its full pricing publicly; you need to contact their sales team for a custom quote. Their AI Agents for Customers starts at $0.60 per engaged conversation.

4. Freshdesk AI (Freddy)

Freshdesk's AI suite, known as "Freddy AI," is a mature and reliable solution designed for teams that require a consistent presence across multiple channels, including email, chat, social media, and phone. It leverages Freshdesk's impressive ecosystem to deploy bots and agent-assist features seamlessly across the entire support operation.

• Pros and cons: Freddy AI is highly effective at managing conversations across different channels and includes powerful tools for work distribution like Omniroute. Freshdesk offers a variety of tiered plans and flexible add-ons, allowing teams to choose the specific AI capabilities that match their current size and goals. While navigating the extensive range of options takes a bit of initial planning, it ensures that businesses only invest in the tools that provide them the most value, such as the Freddy AI Agent and Copilot.

• Pricing:

• Omni plans: Start at $29/agent/month for the Growth plan.

• Freddy AI add-ons: Freshdesk offers these advanced tools as flexible add-ons, ensuring that teams only pay for the specific AI features they need as they scale. The AI Agent is $100 per 100 sessions, and the Freddy AI Copilot is an extra $29/agent/month.

5. Ada

Ada is an AI-first platform focused on automated and personalized customer interactions for large companies. It uses a "Reasoning Engine" to understand context and can be deployed across voice, email, and messaging.

• Pros and cons: Ada provides a user-friendly drag-and-drop builder for creating automated flows and offers solid reporting. However, some users have noted that building more complex logic can be technically demanding and requires API knowledge. Some users have also reported challenges with reporting consistency and data consolidation from multiple bots.

• Pricing:

• Ada does not publish its pricing online. You will need to contact their sales team for a custom quote.

6. Forethought

Forethought is an AI platform that utilizes a multi-agent system named Solve, Assist, Discover, and Triage. It is particularly effective at understanding and classifying incoming tickets, which helps with correct routing and provides agents with the context needed to resolve issues more quickly.

• Pros and cons: Forethought's AI copilot is often noted for helping agents with real-time insights and for its ticket classification, which can speed up resolutions. Conversely, some users have noted instances where escalating to a human agent was difficult, which could lead to a less-than-ideal customer experience.

• Pricing:

• Forethought also keeps its pricing private. You will need to contact their sales team for a quote.

How to choose the right AI platform for your team

Here is a checklist to help determine which platform is the right fit for your needs.

• 1. Define your main goal: What is the primary problem you aim to solve? Are you looking to deflect simple, repetitive questions, or do you want to provide your human agents with a powerful assistant? A tool like eesel AI allows teams to begin with agent assistance and gradually move toward full automation, working smoothly alongside your existing help desk.

• 2. Check your current knowledge base: Evaluate your current help center. If it is not consistently updated, you may want a tool that can learn from your past support tickets, as those conversations reflect how your team genuinely solves problems. The eesel AI Business plan, for instance, includes training on past tickets.

• 3. Think about the setup effort: Do you have developers available to assist, or does your team need a solution that can be set up independently? If it's the latter, look for a plug-and-play platform that can be running in minutes, not months.

• 4. Test it with a simulation: It's advisable to test the AI before full implementation. Ask vendors if you can test their AI on your own past tickets before it interacts with a real customer. eesel AI's simulation feature lets you do this to evaluate its performance with zero risk.

• 5. Understand the real cost: Look beyond the per-agent price. Some "pay-per-resolution" models can result in variable costs. Look for clear, interaction-based pricing or predictable agent-based pricing like Freshdesk’s tiered plans to ensure costs are manageable.

For those who prefer a visual overview, here is a video that reviews some of the top AI customer service tools available today, offering additional insights into their features and capabilities.

A video reviewing the best AI customer service software for 2026, providing a visual comparison of different AI agents and platforms.

Finding the right AI platform for your team

The most suitable AI for customer experience is more than just another piece of software; it should function as an integral part of your team. The right platform works collaboratively with your human agents.

The ideal solution learns from your experts, handles repetitive work, and allows your team to focus on complex conversations where they can provide the most value. It’s about collaboration, not just automation.

Many platforms offer trials or demos, allowing teams to test the functionality and see the value for themselves before making a commitment. This is a great way to assess if a tool is the right fit for your specific needs and workflows.

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