How Freshdesk AI recommends solution articles during reply (and its limitations)

If you're in customer support, you know the drill: resolve tickets faster, but don't let the quality drop for a second. It's a constant balancing act. AI has been talked about as the one-size-fits-all solution, promising to give agents the right information at the right time.

But let’s be real, not all AI is created equal. Most help desks, Freshdesk included, have some AI features baked in, but how well they work can be all over the map. A tool that just pulls up a few basic links isn't the same as one that actually understands what's going on and helps get the work done.

This guide will walk you through exactly how the Freshdesk AI to recommend solution articles during reply feature works. We’ll look at the good parts, the benefits, and the very real limitations you’ll probably run into. Then, we'll talk about how you can get around those limits by adding a smarter AI layer to the Freshdesk setup you already have.

What is Freshdesk's AI article suggestion feature?

Freshworks' built-in AI is named Freddy AI. It's a collection of tools meant to help with both customer self-service and agent productivity. When we're talking about suggesting articles, we're looking at a piece of the Freddy AI Copilot, which handles things like the "Solution Article Suggester" and "Reply Suggester."

Think of these tools as an agent's little helper, designed to find relevant knowledge base content so the agent doesn’t have to switch screens and search for it themselves.

How it works: From ticket to suggestion

The process itself is pretty simple. When a new ticket lands in your inbox or support portal, Freddy AI gets to work.

It scans the ticket’s subject line and description, picking out keywords to guess what the customer is asking about. Based on that analysis, it digs through your Freshdesk Knowledge Base to find solution articles that look like a match. The key thing to remember here is that its search is limited only to what's in your official, published knowledge base. If the answer is hiding somewhere else, Freddy is not going to find it.

For the agent, these suggestions appear right in the ticket view. They might see a "Freddy Suggests" box in the sidebar or even some grayed-out "ghost text" right in the reply editor. Agents can also hit a keyboard shortcut to pull up the suggestions. From there, they can click to pop the full article text or just a link into their response.

A screenshot showing the Freddy AI Copilot suggesting solution articles within the Freshdesk ticket interface.

The main benefits of Freshdesk's AI article suggestions

To be fair, for teams that have put a ton of effort into building and maintaining a perfect knowledge base, this feature can be pretty helpful. It's a decent first step toward using AI to make your support team's job a bit easier.

Get new agents up to speed faster

Training new hires takes a lot of time and energy. When AI can point them toward the right, company-approved answers for common questions, they can start handling tickets with a lot more confidence. It means they don't have to constantly ask a senior agent for help, which frees up everyone to work on the trickier problems.

Keep replies consistent

When every agent is pulling answers from the same set of solution articles, your customers get a much more consistent experience. The information is always correct and sounds like it's coming from your brand, no matter who is handling the ticket. This is huge for maintaining your company's voice and service quality.

Spend less time searching

We all know those simple, repetitive questions that fill up the queue. For those tickets, this feature can save agents a few valuable minutes each time. Instead of having to open a new tab and search the knowledge base, the most likely answer is right there for them. For teams dealing with a high volume of tickets, those minutes can add up and really help with overall efficiency.

The limitations of Freshdesk's AI article suggestions

This is where the cracks start to show. While the native tool is a good starting point, many teams find they hit a wall as their support needs get more complicated. If you rely only on Freshdesk's built-in AI, you're going to have some big gaps.

Limitation 1: It only knows what's in your knowledge base

The single biggest problem is that Freddy AI lives and dies by your knowledge base. It has to be perfect, complete, and always up to date. But let's be honest, whose is? The reality is that a ton of your team's most useful knowledge is scattered all over the place.

It’s in the resolution notes from thousands of old tickets. It's in internal process docs on Confluence. It's in product guides buried in Google Docs. If the answer isn't in a polished, published solution article, Freddy can't find it. Period. Your agents are back to hunting for it on their own.

This is where a different approach, like the one from eesel AI, really makes a difference. eesel connects to all of your company's knowledge. It securely integrates with Freshdesk to learn from past tickets, but it also plugs into Confluence, Google Docs, Slack, and over 100 other tools. That means it can generate answers based on the combined knowledge of your entire company, not just the official handbook.

Limitation 2: It only helps with the first reply

According to Freshdesk's own help docs, the Reply Suggester is built to work on the first message in a ticket. But think about your support queue, how many conversations are actually solved in one go?

Real support gets complicated. There are follow-up questions, requests for more information, and plenty of back-and-forth. Freddy is nowhere to be found after that first reply, which is usually when agents are dealing with the toughest part of the problem and could use the most help.

In contrast, eesel's AI Copilot reads the entire conversation, so it can provide relevant, context-aware draft replies at any point in the ticket. It understands the full story, not just the opening line.

An example of eesel's AI Copilot drafting a context-aware reply about a refund policy within Freshdesk, demonstrating its ability to handle ongoing conversations.

Limitation 3: You can't test or simulate its performance

With Freshdesk’s built-in AI, you basically have to turn it on and hope for the best. There's no way to see how it would have handled last month's tickets or get a solid prediction of its impact before you unleash it on your team. You're flying blind.

That feels like a big risk, which is why eesel AI includes a powerful simulation mode. You can run the AI in a safe environment on thousands of your past tickets. You get to see exactly how it would have responded, get an accurate forecast of the percentage of tickets it could solve, and even spot gaps in your knowledge, all before it ever touches a live customer conversation. It’s about being confident in your AI, not just hopeful.

Limitation 4: It gives suggestions, not real automation

Freddy AI is an assistant. It suggests articles, but the agent still has to do all the work: read the suggestion, click to insert it, and hit send. It can’t do anything on its own, like add a tag, update a field, or look up order details in Shopify.

It helps, but it doesn't automate. An AI Agent from eesel AI, however, can be set up with custom actions. You can create workflows where the AI not only answers a question but also automatically tags the ticket as "Billing Inquiry," escalates it to Tier 2, or even calls an external tool to check a customer's subscription status. That’s the difference between a simple helper and intelligent automation.

Pricing for Freshdesk's AI feature

Freddy AI’s features don't come with every Freshdesk plan. To get the AI Copilot and its article suggestions, you usually need to be on a higher-tier plan and then buy it as a paid add-on.

Here’s a rough idea of the costs:

• Freshdesk Support Pro Plan: Starts around $49 per agent/month (billed annually).

• Freshdesk Support Enterprise Plan: Starts around $79 per agent/month (billed annually).

• Freddy AI Add-on: The AI features are often an extra add-on that can cost about $29 per agent/month.

This means you’re paying an extra fee for every single agent, regardless of how much they actually use the AI. This per-agent pricing can make your costs hard to predict and even harder to scale.

This is a big difference from eesel AI's transparent pricing, which is based on the number of times the AI is used, not how many agents you have. There are no per-seat fees, and you can start with a flexible monthly plan, so your costs are tied directly to the value you're actually getting.

A smarter way: Enhance Freshdesk with eesel AI

The answer isn't to ditch your help desk. You can keep the Freshdesk workflow your team is used to and just plug in a more powerful AI brain. eesel AI works with Freshdesk to unlock real automation without forcing you through a painful migration.

Get started in minutes, not months

You can connect eesel AI to your Freshdesk account with a single click. It's a self-serve platform, so you can get everything set up and running in simulation mode in just a few minutes, without needing to talk to a salesperson.

Train on what your team actually says

The real power comes from training the AI on your past ticket resolutions. eesel reads through thousands of your old conversations to learn your brand's unique voice and, more importantly, what answers have actually worked for your customers. It learns directly from your best agents.

Customize your workflows with full control

With eesel’s prompt editor and automation rules, you're in complete control. You can tell the AI exactly which types of tickets to handle (like "how-to" questions) and what it should do with everything else (like escalate any ticket that mentions a "refund"). This gives you the confidence to roll out automation at your own pace.

Here’s a quick comparison of the two approaches:

Feature	Freshdesk Native AI (Freddy)	eesel AI Integration for Freshdesk
Knowledge Sources	Freshdesk Knowledge Base only	Past tickets, KB, Confluence, Google Docs, Slack & more
Automation Scope	Suggests articles for agents	Drafts full replies, triages tickets, takes actions (API calls)
Testing & Simulation	Not available	Powerful simulation on historical tickets before going live
Customization	Limited to feature toggles	Granular control over AI persona, prompts, and automation rules
Setup	Admin configuration	1-click integration, fully self-serve

From simple suggestions to smart automation

Freshdesk's built-in AI for suggesting solution articles is a decent feature, especially if you have a perfectly organized knowledge base and need a hand with common questions. It’s a good starting point.

But its total reliance on a single knowledge source, its inability to be tested beforehand, and its limited automation power put a hard cap on how helpful it can be. It can give your agents a nudge in the right direction, but it can’t really change how your support team works.

For teams that want a more powerful, flexible, and intelligent solution that learns from all your company's knowledge and delivers real, end-to-end automation, adding a dedicated AI platform like eesel AI on top of Freshdesk is the logical next step.

Ready to see what your support AI could do if it had access to all your knowledge? Try eesel AI with your Freshdesk account for free or book a demo to see it in action.