Dialpad is a pretty big name in business communications, mainly because of its AI that’s built to understand conversations. The idea is to analyze every chat and call to help you sell better, support customers more effectively, and just get more done. It sounds great on paper, and for some teams, it really is.
But what exactly is Dialpad AI? This post will give you a straight-up look at its features, pricing, and, more importantly, where it falls short. If your support team already runs on a helpdesk like Zendesk or Freshdesk, you need to know if it’s the right move before you even think about switching.
While Dialpad bundles everything into one platform, you’ll see why a more flexible AI layer that works with the tools you already have, like eesel AI, might be a smarter play.
What is Dialpad AI?
First off, Dialpad AI isn’t something you can just buy and plug into your current setup. It’s the brain that powers Dialpad’s entire communications platform, which covers VoIP phone services, video meetings, and messaging. It’s built on natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning, and according to Dialpad, it has learned from over five billion minutes of business conversations.
Its main job is to listen, transcribe, and analyze conversations happening on the Dialpad platform as they happen. And here’s the important part: to get any of Dialpad AI’s benefits, your entire company has to move its phone and communication systems over to Dialpad. It’s not an add-on; it’s the whole package.
Key Dialpad AI features for call and contact centers
Dialpad comes with a full set of AI tools to help agents on the phone, give supervisors a complete overview, and automate some of the more tedious tasks. Let’s break down the main features.
Dialpad real-time call analysis and transcription
One of Dialpad‘s most talked-about features is its ability to analyze calls in real time. It gives you a live transcript, so you can literally read along with a conversation. It also uses live sentiment analysis to track the customer’s mood (positive, negative, or neutral) and listens for custom keywords you’ve programmed.
For instance, a manager can watch a dashboard of active calls and immediately see if a conversation is going south. They can then jump in to help or offer advice. For sales and support teams that live on the phone, that’s a huge plus.
A manager's view of live call analysis in the Dialpad platform.
The problem, though, is that all of this intelligence is stuck inside the Dialpad bubble. The AI only knows what it hears on a call. Imagine a customer calls about an issue they just emailed you about. Dialpad AI has no clue because it can’t see into your helpdesk. This creates a knowledge silo.
This is where an integrated AI shows its real strength. A tool that connects with your existing software, like eesel AI, can access your entire knowledge base. It learns from your helpdesk tickets in Zendesk, Gorgias, or Intercom, pulls information from internal wikis like Confluence and Notion, and even scans your Slack history. This gives it far more context for helping a customer, whether they’re on the phone, sending an email, or using a chat widget.
Dialpad post-call automation: AI recaps and call summaries
After a call ends, the work isn’t done. Agents still have to write notes, log action items, and update the CRM. Dialpad‘s AI Recaps feature helps by automatically generating a summary of the call, complete with highlights, action items, and a link to the transcript. It’s a nice time-saver that cuts down on admin work and lets agents get to the next customer faster.
An automated AI recap and action suggestions from a Dialpad call.
However, a summary is just a report of what happened; it doesn’t actually do anything for you. Modern support teams need automation that takes the next step.
A tool like eesel AI’s AI Triage goes beyond just summarizing. It works inside your helpdesk to take action based on the conversation. It can automatically tag a ticket as “Billing” or “Bug Report,” send it to the right department, or even close it if the problem is solved. It turns information into action.
Pro Tip: While Dialpad is busy summarizing a call, an integrated AI like eesel AI can kick off an entire workflow. For example, if it sees a customer asking about their order, it can find the info in Shopify and draft a detailed reply with the tracking number before an agent even sees the ticket.
Dialpad agent guidance and quality assurance
Dialpad also has tools to help agents during live calls and make the quality assurance (QA) process a little less painful. These include:
- Real-Time Assist (RTA) Cards: Think of these as digital cheat sheets. If a customer says a specific word like “refund,” a pre-written card with talking points or instructions pops up on the agent’s screen.
- AI Playbooks: This feature tracks whether sales reps are sticking to a script (like BANT) by checking if they’ve asked key questions during a call.
- QA Scorecards: Instead of having supervisors listen to hours of calls, AI Scorecards can automatically grade conversations based on your criteria, flagging only the ones that need a human review.
Real-Time Assist cards providing agent guidance in Dialpad.
These are great for training new agents and keeping sales calls consistent. But again, they’re almost completely focused on live phone calls. What about all the support requests that come in through email, web forms, and chat?
A more adaptable solution is an AI that works where your agents do. For example, eesel AI’s AI Copilot sits right inside your helpdesk and drafts full, accurate replies for agents on any channel. It doesn’t just offer keyword-based tips; it gives complete answers by learning from every past ticket and all your connected knowledge sources. It’s agent help that’s built for today’s omnichannel support team, not just a call center.
Dialpad pricing and platform limitations
While Dialpad‘s AI features are part of its plans, its all-in-one structure and pricing come with some serious trade-offs to think about.
Dialpad’s “all-or-nothing” platform problem
Here’s the biggest catch with Dialpad: it’s a “rip-and-replace” platform. To get its voice intelligence and AI call center features, you have to move your entire business phone system to their service.
This is a huge headache for companies that have already spent time and money on tools they actually like. If your support team is happy in Zendesk, your IT team relies on Jira Service Management, and your whole company collaborates in Slack, being forced to migrate is a pain. It’s disruptive, costly, and can feel like a step backward.
Dialpad platform's "rip-and-replace" model.
This is why a flexible AI layer is so appealing. eesel AI is designed to let you bring your own stack. It connects with the tools you already use, adding smart AI features to your existing workflows without making you change your entire setup.
The pricing also shows this difference. Dialpad’s pricing is based on a per-user, per-month fee, which adds up fast as your team gets bigger. In contrast, eesel AI has a more modern, interaction-based model. You pay for what you use, the number of AI interactions, not how many people are on your team. This makes it much easier to scale and predict costs.
Dialpad vs. eesel AI: a quick comparison
This table sums up the different ways they approach AI.
| Feature | Dialpad | eesel AI |
|---|---|---|
| Model | All-in-one communications platform | Flexible AI layer for your existing tools |
| Primary Focus | Voice intelligence, sales, and VoIP | Helpdesk, ITSM, and knowledge automation |
| Pricing Model | Per user, per month | Per AI interaction, per month |
| Key Training Data | Call transcripts, some linked content | Past tickets, helpdesk data, Confluence, GDocs, Slack & 100+ sources |
| Best For | Teams needing a new phone system with built-in AI | Teams wanting to add AI to their current support stack |
| Setup Effort | Full platform migration | Fast, one-click integrations |
Is Dialpad the right AI for your support team?
So, where does that leave us? Dialpad AI is a solid choice for businesses that are mostly focused on voice calls and are already looking for a new, all-in-one communications system. If you’re building from the ground up or ready to ditch your old phone system, its real-time analysis and sales coaching tools are pretty impressive.
But for most support teams today, its biggest strength is also its biggest weakness: it’s a closed system. If your team lives in specialized helpdesks and other tools you’ve come to rely on, Dialpad gives you a tough choice: move everything over or miss out on its AI.
For those teams, a more flexible, integrated approach usually makes more sense. An AI tool should adapt to your workflow, not make you change it. A solution like eesel AI gives you smarter, context-aware intelligence that works with your existing tools. It learns from all your scattered knowledge, automates tasks right where you work, and has a more predictable cost. It’s built to make your current setup better, not replace it.
Ready to add AI to your existing helpdesk that actually understands your business? Don’t migrate, integrate. See how eesel AI can automate replies, assist agents, and clean up your ticket queue.
You can book a demo or start your free trial today.
Frequently asked questions
No, you cannot. Dialpad’s AI is built into its all-in-one communications platform, so you must migrate your entire phone and messaging system to their service to use its features. It is not available as a standalone add-on for other tools.
Dialpad is primarily optimized for voice conversations. While it offers messaging, its AI features like real-time analysis are focused on live calls, meaning it lacks context from support channels like email or your helpdesk.
The AI is primarily trained on the billions of minutes of business conversations conducted on its own platform. Its analysis is based on live call transcripts and audio, which means it doesn’t have access to your external knowledge bases or past ticket history in other systems.
The AI features are bundled into Dialpad’s pricing plans, which are charged on a per-user, per-month basis. You don’t pay for the AI separately; you pay for a license that includes the communication platform and its integrated intelligence.
