A practical guide on using Freshdesk AI to summarize call transcripts into next steps

Call recordings are supposed to be a goldmine of customer insights, right? But if you're in support, you know the reality: listening back to calls to figure out what was promised and what needs to happen next is a massive time sink.

Freshdesk has some built-in AI tools that try to help, but many teams find they’re still doing the heavy lifting. You get a summary, but you still have to manually pull out a concrete plan. This guide will walk you through how to use Freshdesk's own AI for call summaries, talk honestly about its limits, and show you a much better way to automatically turn your call transcripts into a clear list of things to do.

What does it mean to summarize call transcripts into next steps?

Using AI to summarize call transcripts isn't just about shrinking a long conversation into a short paragraph. It's about turning a raw audio file into something genuinely useful for a support agent. This happens in two main steps.

First, the AI does the grunt work of transcription and summarization. It listens to the call, types out everything that was said, and then boils it all down to the most important points. This alone is a huge win, saving agents from having to re-listen to a 20-minute call just to remember the key details.

But the second part is where things get really interesting: identifying actionable next steps. A smarter AI can actually understand the conversation and pick out specific tasks, promises, or follow-ups that were agreed upon. Instead of a generic summary, you get a clean, structured to-do list. This is how a passive call recording becomes an active part of your workflow, ensuring nothing gets missed.

Summarizing call transcripts with native Freshdesk AI

Freshdesk has a feature called the Voice Transcription Summarizer, which is part of its Freddy Copilot AI package. It’s built to give agents a quick rundown of phone calls that take place within Freshcaller. Let's take a look at how it works and where it might leave you wanting more.

The process with Freddy Copilot

To get a summary from Freddy AI, you need to jump through a few hoops. An admin has to go into your Freshcaller account and turn on call transcriptions for your phone numbers. Once that’s done, after a call ends, a transcript is automatically created.

From there, an agent can go into the conversation and click a "Summarize" button. The AI chews on the transcript for a moment and then adds a summary as a private note on the ticket. It’s a decent high-level overview for getting the gist of a past conversation.

A screenshot showing the Freddy AI Copilot feature in Freshdesk, which agents use to summarize call transcripts into next steps.

The catch: Limitations of Freshdesk's native AI

While a basic summary is better than nothing, Freshdesk's tool has some real limitations that stop it from being a true time-saver.

• It gives you a summary, not a to-do list. This is the biggest letdown. The tool spits out a paragraph. It doesn't give you a neat, bulleted list of next steps. Your agents still have to read that paragraph and figure out what they actually need to do, which kind of defeats the point of using AI for automation. You can't tell the AI how to format the summary or what specific info to look for.

• It’s a pricey add-on. The Voice Transcription Summarizer isn't part of the standard Freshdesk plans. It’s an add-on for Freddy Copilot, which you can only get on the Pro and Enterprise plans. This means another cost to worry about, and you often have to get on a sales call just to find out the price.

• You're locked into their world. The feature only works with Freshcaller. If your team uses a different VoIP provider, you're out of luck. This pretty much forces you into their ecosystem and leads to messy, inconsistent workflows if you happen to use more than one call provider.

• The summary doesn't do anything. Because the summary is just a private note, it can't trigger any other actions. You can't use it to automatically tag a ticket, assign it to a different department, or create a task in your project management tool. The information just sits there, and it's back on your agent to do something with it.

Why you need more than native Freshdesk AI

The limitations of built-in tools are exactly why so many support teams start looking at third-party AI platforms. These tools are built specifically to integrate with helpdesks like Freshdesk and turn them into smart, automated systems instead of just places to store tickets. They go way beyond simple summaries to build workflows that actually save time and prevent mistakes.

Stepping outside the Freshdesk box

Third-party AI tools give you a level of control and flexibility that you just can't get with native features. They can connect to all sorts of knowledge sources, not just call transcripts, to give you more accurate and context-rich answers. For instance, a more advanced AI can look at your help center articles, past ticket resolutions, and even internal wikis in Confluence or Google Docs to get the full picture of a customer's problem.

This is where a tool like eesel AI really shines. Instead of just adding a note to a ticket, eesel AI works like an intelligent engine inside your helpdesk. It brings all your company knowledge together and lets you define exactly how you want the AI to behave. You can get it set up in minutes, no sales call required, and plug it right into the Freshdesk setup you already have.

Moving from summaries to automated workflows

The real difference here is the shift from a passive summary to an active, automated workflow. A native tool tells you what was said; a platform like eesel AI understands what needs to be done and helps you do it.

With Freshdesk's built-in AI, the process looks like this: a call ends, a transcript is made, an agent clicks a button, and a summary gets added as a note. The agent then has to read the note and figure out the next move.

With an integrated solution like eesel AI, the workflow is a loop. A call ends, and the transcript is analyzed automatically. The AI pulls out a summary and a list of next steps based on rules you create, and then it immediately takes action, tagging the ticket, drafting an email, or assigning tasks. All the agent has to do is review and approve. This is how you scale a support team without drowning your agents in manual post-call work.

A better way to summarize call transcripts in Freshdesk

Instead of making do with basic summaries, you can use a dedicated AI platform to get exactly what your team needs from call transcripts. With eesel AI, you can build a completely custom and automated process that reliably pulls out scannable summaries and genuinely actionable next steps, all from within Freshdesk.

Tell the AI exactly what you want

One of the coolest things about eesel AI is its customizable prompt editor. You're not stuck with some generic, one-size-fits-all summary. You can give the AI agent specific instructions to format the output just the way you like. For example, you could tell it to:

• "Give me a one-sentence summary of the customer's main problem."

• "Create a bulleted list of all action items under a heading called 'Next Steps'."

• "Point out any promises the agent made and list them separately."

• "Pull out the customer's order number and their general sentiment."

This level of control means you get a consistent, easy-to-scan, and useful output from every single call transcript, perfectly tailored to your team's workflow. You set up the structure once, and the AI follows it every time.

Turn next steps into automatic actions

eesel AI takes it a step further by letting you turn those extracted next steps into automated actions. You can set up your AI agent to:

• Triage and tag tickets: Automatically add tags like "follow-up-needed" or "feature-request" based on what was discussed in the call.

• Update ticket fields: Change the ticket's status, priority, or even assign it to a different agent or team.

• Talk to other tools: You can have it create a task in Jira, update a customer's file in your CRM, or kick off just about any other workflow in your tech stack by calling an external API.

Best of all, you can try it all out without any risk using Simulation Mode. Before you let it loose, eesel AI can run your new AI agent over thousands of your past tickets. It will show you exactly how it would have summarized them and what actions it would have taken. This lets you build confidence in your automation before it ever touches a live ticket, something you just don't get with the native tools.

Pricing comparison: Freshdesk vs. eesel AI

Let's talk money. One of the headaches with software is trying to figure out what it'll actually cost you.

Freshdesk (Freddy Copilot Add-on)

Freshdesk's pricing for its AI features can be a bit confusing. The Voice Transcription Summarizer is part of the Freddy Copilot add-on, which means you first need to be on a Pro ($49/agent/month) or Enterprise ($79/agent/month) plan. The add-on itself is an extra fee, and you usually have to talk to their sales team to get a quote, which makes it hard to budget.

eesel AI

eesel AI offers transparent and predictable pricing with no surprises. All the core products, including the AI Agent for summarizing calls, are included in every plan. You pay based on how much you use the AI, not by how many agents you have, which keeps costs predictable as your team grows.

Unlike a lot of companies that lock you into annual contracts, eesel AI has a flexible monthly plan you can cancel whenever you want. This lets you get started without a big, long-term commitment.

Automate call summaries and next steps in Freshdesk

So, what's the takeaway? Freshdesk's built-in AI offers a starting point for call summaries, but it leaves the most important part, figuring out what to do next and actually doing it, to your agents. That manual step slows everything down and opens the door for things to get missed.

To really scale your support, you need a solution that automates, not just summarizes. By connecting a powerful AI engine like eesel AI to your Freshdesk account, you get complete control over what happens after a call ends. You can automatically pull out clear next steps, trigger workflows, and give your agents more time to focus on what they're best at: helping customers.

Ready to turn your call transcripts into a well-oiled, automated machine?

See how eesel AI can automatically turn your Freshdesk call transcripts into actionable next steps. Try it free or book a quick demo.