A practical guide to using Freshdesk AI collect info blocks

Let's be honest, spending half your day gathering basic information from customers feels like running in place. You know the drill: that endless back-and-forth of "What's your order number?" or "Could you describe the issue one more time?" before you can even begin to figure out what’s wrong. It’s a huge time sink for support teams, and it’s not exactly a stellar experience for customers, either. They just want their problem solved, not an interrogation.

What if you could automate that whole initial conversation? That’s what using AI inside your helpdesk promises. This guide will walk you through exactly how to use Freshdesk AI collect info blocks, what that term actually means in practice, and where you'll likely hit the platform's limits. We'll also look at a different approach to get much better results without having to ditch the tools you already use.

What are Freshdesk AI collect info blocks?

First things first, "collect info blocks" isn't an official feature name you'll find scrolling through Freshdesk's documentation. It’s just a practical way to describe a core function of Freddy AI, Freshdesk’s own AI engine. At its heart, it’s about creating automated, conversational flows that pull specific bits of data from users before a human agent ever has to get involved.

Think of it as a smart intake form that actually talks back. Through a chatbot on your website or an automated email reply, the AI can ask for and capture key details, a customer's name, email, order ID, or the type of issue they're having. It's the digital equivalent of a receptionist who gets all the paperwork sorted before you see the doctor.

This workflow illustrates how Freshdesk AI collect info blocks can automate the customer support process from initial contact to resolution.

The goal is simple: give your support agents all the context they need from the get-go. When a ticket finally lands in their queue, it’s already filled with the necessary background info. That means less time spent chasing down details, fewer repetitive questions, and much faster resolutions. It's a foundational step for any team looking to build a more efficient, modern support system.

How to set up Freshdesk AI collect info blocks

Getting AI to collect information in Freshdesk means rolling up your sleeves and configuring Freddy AI. You'll typically do this within the chatbot (Freddy Self Service) or email bot settings. While it’s all integrated into the platform, the process can feel a bit rigid. Still, it gives you a solid starting point for automation.

Building your Freddy AI agents

Here’s a rough idea of what it takes to get this up and running:

1. Head over to the AI settings: Your journey starts in the Freddy AI configuration panel inside your Freshdesk admin settings. This is the command center for managing your bot flows and any other AI-powered automations.

2. Create a conversational flow: You'll need to build a new flow from scratch or tweak an existing one. This is basically a step-by-step map of the conversation the bot will have with a customer. You get to define the bot's greetings, the questions it asks, and how it responds.

3. Define your "info blocks": This is where the magic happens. For each piece of information you need (like an order number), you'll add a step in the flow where the bot asks a specific question. You can then map the customer's answer to an existing ticket field (like 'Subject' or 'Email') or a custom field you've already created (like 'Order ID').

4. Set your triggers: Finally, you decide when this flow should actually kick in. You can have it activate on specific channels, like your website chat widget or for incoming support emails. You can also set conditions so it only runs for certain types of requests, like anything containing the word "refund."

The pros and cons of native Freshdesk AI collect info blocks

While Freshdesk’s built-in AI has the convenience of being part of the system you already use, it’s important to understand both its strengths and where it falls short. That tight integration is a definite plus, but it often comes with trade-offs in flexibility and raw power.

Where native Freshdesk AI shines

• It’s built right in: This is probably the biggest advantage. You don’t have to manage a separate subscription, worry about a third-party tool breaking, or deal with complicated APIs. The entire setup is contained within the Freshdesk ecosystem you're already familiar with.

• A single view for agents: The information Freddy AI collects is passed directly into the ticket. This gives your agents all the context they need right where they work, inside the familiar Freshdesk interface, without having to jump between different browser tabs.

Where you might hit a wall with native Freshdesk AI

• It only knows what’s in Freshdesk: Freddy AI primarily learns from your Freshdesk knowledge base articles and canned responses. If your company’s real source of truth lives somewhere else, you're pretty much out of luck. It can’t easily connect to other critical knowledge hubs like Confluence, Google Docs, or Notion, where your deeper technical guides or internal policies are often stored. This means the AI’s answers are bound to be incomplete, and it won't be able to handle more complex questions.

• The workflows can be very rigid: The flow builder, while straightforward, can be restrictive. If you need to create complex conditional logic (if the customer says X, then do Y, but if they say Z, do something else entirely), you'll quickly find the options are limited. Custom actions, like doing a real-time order lookup in your Shopify store, are often difficult or impossible to implement without jumping through some serious technical hoops.

• Testing is a leap of faith: Freshdesk doesn't offer a great way to simulate how your AI will perform on thousands of historical tickets before you set it loose on live customers. This makes it incredibly hard to predict its accuracy, estimate your potential deflection rate, or find gaps in its knowledge. You’re essentially forced into a "launch and see what happens" strategy, which can be a bit nerve-wracking when your customer experience is on the line.

• It’s a one-size-fits-all AI: Customizing the AI's personality and tone of voice to match your brand can be a real challenge. The logic for escalating to a human is often basic, too. This makes it tough to create nuanced rules for when to hand off a conversation based on the customer's sentiment or how complicated their problem seems to be.

These limitations are pretty common with the built-in AI tools you find in helpdesk platforms. For teams that need more control and want to unify all their company knowledge, a dedicated AI layer like eesel AI that plugs directly into Freshdesk can make a world of difference.

Understanding Freshdesk AI pricing

Freshdesk's pricing can get complicated, especially once you start looking at the AI features. These capabilities are often bundled into higher-tier plans or sold as add-ons with usage-based billing, which can lead to some surprisingly high and unpredictable monthly bills.

Based on their official pricing page, here’s a general idea of how it works:

The main thing to watch out for is how they define a "session." In Freshdesk's world, a session is any unique interaction, and every single bot response on email or voice counts as one. This pay-per-interaction model makes it almost impossible to forecast your costs accurately. A busy week or an unexpected surge in customer questions could cause your bill to jump without warning, which is a tough conversation to have with your finance team.

A more flexible alternative: Adding eesel AI to Freshdesk

Instead of being boxed in by Freshdesk's AI limitations and unpredictable pricing, you can integrate a more powerful and flexible AI layer right on top of it. eesel AI is designed to work with your existing helpdesk, giving you full control without making you switch all your tools or change your team's workflows.

Go live in minutes, not months

eesel AI is completely self-serve. You can connect to Freshdesk with a single click and build your first AI agent in just a few minutes. There are no lengthy onboarding processes, mandatory demos, or sales calls you have to sit through just to get started. This is a huge shift from the weeks or even months it can take to properly configure and deploy most native AI tools.

Instantly unify all your knowledge

This is where the difference really becomes clear. eesel AI connects to all your knowledge sources, not just what’s sitting inside your help center. You can pull information from Confluence, Google Docs, your entire library of past tickets, and dozens of other places. This allows the AI to give customers comprehensive and genuinely accurate answers, not just surface a few outdated FAQs.

This infographic demonstrates how eesel AI unifies knowledge from various sources, a key advantage over native Freshdesk AI collect info blocks.

Test with confidence, not guesswork

Remember the risk of the "launch and see" approach? eesel AI gets rid of that with a powerful simulation mode. You can test your AI setup on thousands of your own historical tickets in a completely safe environment. This lets you see exactly how it will perform, what its resolution rate is likely to be, and where you might have gaps in your knowledge base, before a single customer ever interacts with it. No more crossing your fingers and hoping for the best.

This image shows the eesel AI simulation feature, which allows you to test your setup on historical data before going live.

Get full control and predictable pricing

With eesel AI's customizable workflow engine and prompt editor, you can define the AI's exact tone of voice, personality, and the specific actions it can take. More importantly, eesel AI's pricing is transparent and predictable. Plans are based on the capacity you need, with no sneaky per-resolution or per-interaction fees. Your bill won't give you a heart attack after a busy month, allowing you to scale your support automation with confidence.

The eesel AI pricing page shows a clear and predictable cost structure, which is a great alternative to the usage-based model of Freshdesk AI collect info blocks.

Moving beyond basic Freshdesk AI collect info blocks

Freshdesk's native AI is a decent starting point for basic automation. It lets you dip your toes in the water and see what's possible. However, it comes with some real limitations in flexibility, knowledge sources, testing, and pricing that can stop you from truly scaling your support.

For teams that are serious about automating their support workflows and giving customers a top-notch experience, a dedicated AI platform that integrates with their existing tools is almost always the better choice. It offers more power, more control, and a much clearer return on your investment.

Ready to see what a truly flexible AI can do for your Freshdesk workflow? Try eesel AI for free and you can build your first AI agent in the next ten minutes.