A practical guide: How to export internal Intercom articles from your knowledge base

So, you're trying to figure out how to export internal Intercom articles from your knowledge base, and it’s not going so well, is it? You’re not alone. So many teams put a ton of effort into building a fantastic internal knowledge base in Intercom, only to realize that getting all that valuable info out again is a real headache.

While Intercom is a great tool for customer communication, its flexibility for managing your internal data can feel a bit rigid. This isn't just you missing a button somewhere; it's a common roadblock that can leave your team's best knowledge stuck in one place.

This guide will walk you through why you’re hitting this wall and, more importantly, show you a modern way around it. Instead of a clunky, one-time export, we'll cover how to connect your knowledge base so it becomes instantly useful for your entire team.

Why is it so difficult to export internal Intercom articles?

Let's cut to the chase: Intercom doesn't have a built-in, one-click feature to export your internal knowledge base. It's a known limitation of the product, not something you're just failing to find.

The official way to get any article content out of Intercom is through its API. But if you take a quick look at their community forums or developer docs, you’ll see the main issue. The API was built to handle public-facing help center articles. As many users (and even Intercom's own support staff) have pointed out, the API just doesn't support pulling internal articles.

This puts teams in a tricky situation. You’ve got this library of procedures, troubleshooting guides, and internal policies, but it’s basically locked in a silo. You can't easily move it to another platform, back it up, or use it to train other systems. This forces everyone into manual workarounds that are slow, tedious, and just don't work for a growing team.

Three ways to export internal Intercom articles

Even though a direct export is off the table, you've still got a few options. Here’s a look at your choices, from the most painful to the most practical.

Method 1: The soul-crushing copy-paste method

This is the classic, brute-force approach. It involves opening every single internal article in Intercom, highlighting all the content (Ctrl+A or Cmd+A), copying it, and then pasting it into a new home, like a Google Doc or another knowledge platform.

It sounds simple enough for one or two articles, but it quickly turns into a full-blown nightmare.

• It takes forever. If you have hundreds or even thousands of articles, this could easily eat up days or weeks of someone's time with mind-numbing work.

• It’s full of errors. Formatting almost never survives the journey. Images, tables, and special layouts often break, meaning you have to go back and fix every single article by hand.

• It’s out of date immediately. The second you finish, your export is already old news. Any new articles or updates made in Intercom won't show up in your copied version, which means you now have two competing sources of information. Yikes.

Method 2: Using third-party migration tools

There are a bunch of specialized services out there designed to move data between help desks. These tools can sometimes get in and transfer knowledge base content, automating what would otherwise be a pretty grueling manual job.

But this route has a few catches of its own:

• Cost: These services aren't cheap. They often charge based on the number of articles you need to move, and that can add up fast.

• Complexity: Setting up a migration isn't always as simple as flipping a switch. It can involve some technical setup and carefully mapping out data fields to make sure everything lands in the right spot.

• Security: You're giving a third-party company deep access to your help desk, which might hold sensitive company info. You’ll need to do your homework and make sure their security and compliance standards are up to snuff.

• It’s still a one-time fix. Just like copying and pasting, a migration is just a snapshot in time. It moves your data over once, but it doesn't keep it synced with the original articles in Intercom.

Method 3: The modern approach: Connect with AI

Instead of thinking about a one-time "export," what if you could create a live, secure connection to your knowledge? This would mean your data stays put in Intercom, but becomes instantly available to other powerful tools your team uses.

This is where a tool like eesel AI comes into play. It acts like a smart bridge, securely connecting to your Intercom account and reading your internal articles without you having to deal with a messy export.

Here’s why this is a better way to go:

• It's quick and painless. No manual copy-pasting, no complicated migration project. You just connect your Intercom account in a few clicks, and it works.

• It’s always current. The AI always has access to the very latest version of your knowledge. When someone on your team updates an article in Intercom, the AI knows about it right away.

• You can bring all your knowledge together. Why stop at Intercom? With eesel AI, you can connect all your other knowledge sources too, like Confluence, Google Docs, and even past tickets. This creates a single, unified brain for your entire team to tap into.

The better way: A step-by-step guide to connecting with eesel AI

Ready to stop exporting and start connecting? Here’s how you can unlock your internal Intercom knowledge in just a few minutes.

Step 1: Sign up and create your first AI bot

One of the biggest drags with new enterprise tools is the long sales cycle and onboarding process. eesel AI is different. You can sign up and get started all by yourself, no demo or salesperson required. After creating an account, you'll be prompted to create your first AI bot. Just give it a name, and you’re ready to move on.

Step 2: Connect your Intercom knowledge base as a source

Okay, here's the key part. In your eesel AI dashboard, head over to the "Sources" tab for your new bot. You'll see a gallery with over 100 integrations. Find Intercom and click to connect. You'll be asked to authorize eesel AI to access your account. Don't worry, it's a secure, read-only connection that doesn’t change your original articles at all. Once you're connected, eesel AI will start syncing your internal knowledge base.

A screenshot of the eesel AI platform showing how to connect Intercom as a knowledge source.

Step 3: Add your other knowledge sources

Your team's knowledge probably isn't all in one place. To make your AI truly helpful, you need to give it the full picture. In that same "Sources" tab, you can add connections to your other tools.

Go ahead and connect your public help center, internal wikis on platforms like Confluence or Notion, and shared drives in Google Docs.

Step 4: Test and deploy your AI

You should never roll out an AI without kicking the tires first. eesel AI has a simulation mode that lets you test your setup on thousands of your past tickets in a safe environment. You can see exactly how the AI would have responded using your newly connected Intercom knowledge, and you'll even get forecasts on resolution rates and potential cost savings. This gives you total confidence before you turn it on for customers or agents.

A screenshot showing the simulation mode in eesel AI to test the setup before deployment.

Once you feel good about it, you can deploy your AI in a few different ways:

• As an AI Copilot that helps agents by drafting replies right inside your help desk.

• As an internal Q&A bot inside Slack or MS Teams for your team to ask questions.

• As a fully automated AI Agent that can resolve customer tickets all on its own.

Common mistakes to avoid

As you work on making your internal knowledge more available, try to steer clear of these common slip-ups.

• Falling into the static copy trap. The biggest problem with manual exports or one-time migrations is that they create outdated silos of information. The moment you're done, the data starts to get old. Your goal should be a dynamic system that's always in sync with the latest information.

• Forgetting about other knowledge sources. A good AI strategy depends on having the complete picture. Your internal Intercom articles are a big piece of the puzzle, but don't stop there. Think about all the other places your team keeps useful info, like saved replies, internal wikis, and chat logs. A unified knowledge base is always more powerful.

• Rolling out without testing. Pushing a new AI live without proper testing is a recipe for disaster. It can lead to bad customer experiences and make your team lose trust in the tech. Always use tools that let you simulate performance and roll out gradually, like eesel AI, to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Unleash your Intercom knowledge, don't just export it

The real challenge isn't just how to export internal Intercom articles; it's about making that knowledge genuinely useful and easy to access where it matters most. Clunky, manual exports create more problems than they solve, leaving you with static documents that are instantly out of date.

Changing your mindset from "exporting" to "connecting" is the key. By integrating your knowledge sources directly with a flexible AI platform, you create a powerful, always-on resource that can help automate support, speed up agent responses, and give your entire team the answers they need, right when they need them.

Ready to unlock your siloed knowledge? Sign up for a free eesel AI trial and connect your Intercom knowledge base in under five minutes.