A complete guide to Dashworks AI (and the best alternative now it's shutting down)

So, you just got the news about Dashworks AI. When a tool you rely on every day gets acquired and announces it's shutting down, it’s never fun. It usually kicks off a frantic search for a replacement, and that's the reality for anyone who used Dashworks.

After being bought by HubSpot, the standalone Dashworks service is officially winding down, with all logins being disabled as of July 16, 2025. For the teams that leaned on it to find answers buried in company docs, this leaves a pretty big hole.

This guide will walk you through what Dashworks AI was all about, what made it tick, and most importantly, help you find the best alternative so your team can make a smooth transition without skipping a beat.

What was Dashworks AI?

At its core, Dashworks AI aimed to be the central brain for all your company's internal knowledge. It plugged into dozens of the apps your team already uses, like Slack, Google Drive, Confluence, and Zendesk, to create one unified search bar for everything.

Instead of having to remember whether that one crucial bit of information was in a Google Doc or a random Slack thread, you could just ask a question in plain English. Dashworks would then piece together an answer from all those different sources and even show you where it got the information from.

The whole point was to break down information silos, those invisible walls that keep valuable knowledge trapped in different apps. By putting an intelligent search layer over everything, Dashworks helped cut down on repetitive questions, get new hires up to speed faster, and generally make life easier for everyone from support agents to engineers.

What you'll probably miss about Dashworks AI

To find a solid replacement, it helps to remember what made Dashworks AI so useful in the first place. Its features really boiled down to three main things: bringing all your knowledge together, creating custom assistants, and fitting neatly into how you already work.

Dashworks AI: One search bar for everything

The main draw of Dashworks was its ability to search across all your connected apps at once. But it didn't just dump a list of links on you. It used AI to figure out what you were really asking, pull information from a few different places, and give you a straight answer with citations.

Think about how many times you've tried to find the "official" version of a document. That's what this solved. It was smart enough to find the most up-to-date info and could automatically answer frequently asked questions by digging through wikis, past support tickets, and help articles. It didn't matter if the information was in a doc, a PDF, or a spreadsheet, it could handle it.

Custom Dashworks AI bots for different teams

This was another neat trick. Dashworks let you build specialized AI bots for different departments. You could tell a bot exactly which documents to learn from and give it specific instructions on how to behave.

This meant you could have things like:

• An IT Helpdesk Bot that was only trained on technical guides to help with common computer problems.

• An HR Policies Bot that stuck to HR docs in Confluence to answer questions about vacation days or benefits.

• A Customer Support Bot that learned from your help center and past tickets in Zendesk or Intercom to help agents find answers faster.

You could get pretty creative, building bots for everything from helping engineers review code to helping the sales team fill out proposals.

Dashworks AI worked where you worked

Dashworks was designed to be right there when you needed it, not some separate website you had to remember to open. You could access it in a few different ways:

• Web App: A central dashboard for searching and managing everything.

• Slackbot: You could ask questions right inside a Slack channel or DM, and the bot would pop in with an answer.

• Chrome Extension: A handy side panel that let you use Dashworks on any webpage, so you didn't have to break your flow by switching tabs.

This approach made finding information feel like a natural part of the workday instead of a chore.

This video provides a brief overview of how the Dashworks AI assistant streamlines knowledge and collaboration for teams.

The old Dashworks AI pricing (and why it's ancient history)

Before the acquisition, Dashworks had a pretty standard per-user pricing model. While the details are just for historical context now, it's good to know how they structured things when you're looking at alternatives.

Plan	Price (Billed Yearly)	Key Features
Team Plan	$10 per seat/month	Core integrations, file uploads, Slackbot, workflows.
Business Plan	$12 per seat/month (10 seat min)	Everything in Team, plus custom bots, choice of LLMs, org-wide integrations.
Enterprise Plan	Custom	Everything in Business, plus SSO/SCIM, API access, custom data retention.

But honestly, these numbers don't matter anymore. As of April 16, 2025, you can't sign up for a new account. And for existing customers, access will be cut off on July 16, 2025. This puts everyone on a tight deadline to find a new home for their internal knowledge. The conversation has shifted from using Dashworks to replacing it.

Why you need a Dashworks AI alternative, and fast

The shutdown of Dashworks AI means you've got to find a replacement. But look at it this way: it's also a chance to find a tool that might be an even better fit for your team. A great alternative won't just copy what Dashworks did; it should also be easier to set up, offer more control, and have pricing that makes sense.

What to look for in a Dashworks AI replacement

As you start exploring new tools, here are the things that really matter:

• Quick and easy setup: You don't have months to mess around with a complicated migration. You need a platform that you can get up and running yourself in minutes, not one that forces you into a long sales cycle just to see the product.

• Connects to everything you use: The tool has to play nice with your existing stack. That means seamless connections to your helpdesk (like Zendesk or Freshdesk), chat apps (Slack, MS Teams), and knowledge bases (Confluence, Notion, Google Docs).

• Real customization: You need to be in the driver's seat. That means being able to define the AI's personality, limit its knowledge to very specific sources, and even teach it to perform custom actions.

• Test before you go live: The ability to see how the AI would perform on your past data before you unleash it on your team is huge. It takes the guesswork out of the equation and lets you launch with confidence.

• Pricing that doesn't surprise you: Look for a pricing model that's predictable. Some tools charge per resolution, which can lead to a nasty surprise on your bill. A model based on overall capacity or interactions is usually a safer bet as you grow.

The best Dashworks AI alternative we've found: eesel AI

So, where do you start? For teams looking for a smooth switch from Dashworks, eesel AI really stands out as the ideal replacement. It handles all the core things Dashworks did but with a more powerful, transparent, and user-friendly approach.

Dashworks was great at unified search, and eesel's AI Internal Chat is built for exactly that. It lets you create an AI assistant for your team that learns from all your internal knowledge, like Confluence and Google Docs, and gives answers right in Slack or MS Teams.

Here’s how eesel AI stacks up against our checklist:

• You can go live in minutes: eesel AI is completely self-serve. You can connect your helpdesk and knowledge bases with a few clicks and launch your first AI agent without ever having to talk to a salesperson. It's built for teams that need to move quickly.

• It unifies all your knowledge: It integrates with over 100 sources. More importantly, it can learn directly from your past support tickets in Zendesk or Intercom, so it understands your business context and brand voice from day one.

• You have total control: With its prompt editor and workflow engine, you're in charge. You can define custom actions, choose exactly which types of questions to automate, and tweak the AI's tone until it sounds just right.

• You can test with confidence: eesel AI has a powerful simulation mode that lets you test your setup on thousands of your historical tickets. You get accurate predictions of how it will perform and can fine-tune everything in a safe environment before it ever interacts with a real user.

• Its pricing is predictable: eesel AI's plans are based on AI interactions, not how many users you have or resolutions it completes. This means your bill is consistent, and you aren't penalized for being busy. You always know what you're paying for.

And for teams that used Dashworks mainly for customer support, eesel’s AI Agent takes things a step further. It doesn't just find answers; it can actually do things, like tagging tickets, escalating them to the right person, or even processing a refund by connecting to tools like Shopify. It's a move from simple Q&A to real workflow automation.

eesel AI Agent automatically answering and resolving a ticket in Zendesk.

Your next move after Dashworks AI

Having a tool pulled out from under you is a headache, no doubt about it. But the shutdown of Dashworks AI doesn't have to be a crisis. If you know what made it great and what to look for in a replacement, you can use this as a chance to upgrade your team's capabilities.

The key is to find a solution that’s easy to get started with, gives you deep control, and is transparent about how it works and what it costs. While Dashworks laid a good foundation, the next wave of tools offers even more power with less fuss.

For any team looking for a capable, self-serve, and scalable replacement, eesel AI offers the most direct path forward. You can connect your knowledge sources and start building a smarter AI assistant for your team today.