Okay, so picture your team’s inbox, but imagine it could help you out, maybe even draft replies or figure out who should handle what. That’s kind of the idea when a platform like Front, which already brings all your customer conversations together, starts adding artificial intelligence. Front is pretty popular as a central spot for customer communication, pulling in emails, chats, and other messages so teams can work together easily. Now, they’re building in AI features, often just called “Front AI,” to lend a hand with the sheer amount and complexity of messages teams deal with every day.
This move to add AI is really meant to help teams work faster, respond quicker, and maybe even add a bit more of a personal touch without burying everyone in manual tasks. But, like with any new technology, especially AI, it’s smart to ask: what can it really do, what’s it going to cost, and are there any hidden downsides?
This post is going to take a good look at Front AI – what features it has, how much you might expect to pay, and a few things to keep in mind. We’ll help you figure out if it sounds like the right AI helper for your team, or if you might find something that fits better somewhere else.
What is Front AI?
At its heart, Front is a shared inbox for teams. It’s built to make managing customer messages less chaotic. It brings conversations from different places – like email, chat, social media, and more – into one shared space, making it simpler for teams to collaborate and reply together. Think of it as a souped-up email client designed specifically for teamwork and building customer relationships.
Front AI is the layer of artificial intelligence Front is adding on top of this platform. The big picture goal is to automate everyday tasks, help agents respond faster, and offer useful insights. Ultimately, they’re aiming to help companies provide smooth customer experiences even as they grow, all while keeping that human touch. It’s about giving your team a digital assistant right inside the communication tools they’re already using.
Front AI: specs at a glance
Here’s a quick look at what Front AI generally offers:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Core Functionality | AI assistance for customer communication and workflows |
| Key Capabilities | Compose/Summarize with AI, Intelligent Triage (Advanced AI) |
| Pricing Model | Per-user, tiered plans, add-ons |
| Ideal User | Businesses already using Front, looking for integrated AI features |
| Primary Goal | Automate tasks, improve response times, enhance personalization |
Basically, Front AI plugs directly into the Front platform you might already be using, aiming to add some smarts to your existing ways of working.
Front AI pricing: a detailed look
Alright, let’s talk about the money side of things. Front’s pricing, and especially the AI part, can get a bit complicated. Like a lot of software platforms these days, Front charges per user or seat. The AI features are spread across their different plans. You get some basic stuff in the core plans, but the more advanced capabilities often require an extra add-on, which can sometimes be quite pricey.
Looking at their pricing page and some analyses, here’s a general idea of where you find the AI features:
| Plan Name | Price (Billed Annually) | Key AI Features Included | Minimum Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $19/seat/mo | Limited/Basic AI | Up to 10 |
| Growth | $59/seat/mo | AI Summarize & Compose | None |
| Scale | $99/seat/mo | AI Summarize & Compose, AI Tagging (Beta), Suggested Replies (Beta), Similar Conversations (Beta), Ask AI (Beta) | 2 |
| Premier | Contact Us | All Scale AI features, AI Answers (Add-on), Smart QA (Add-on) | 20+ |
| Advanced AI Add-On | $50/seat/mo | Intelligent Triage, Macro Insights, Generative AI for Knowledge/Agent Support | N/A |
It’s really important to notice that the “Advanced AI Add-On” for Front AI, which gives you features like Intelligent Triage, costs an extra $50 per seat per month on top of your base plan price. Plus, there are other potential add-ons like AI Answers, which they price per resolution ($0.70 each), and Smart QA ($20/seat/month).
This per-user cost, stacked with the add-ons for the key AI capabilities, can make Front AI quite expensive, especially as your team grows or if you really need those advanced features. As one comparison points out, this structure can definitely make a dent in your budget.
Key aspects of Front AI reviewed
Let’s break down Front AI based on some important things you’d probably think about when picking an AI tool for your team.
Features and capabilities
Front AI offers some pretty useful features right inside the platform you’re already using. You get things like AI Compose and Summarize, which can really help agents draft replies faster or quickly catch up on long conversations. It also supports basic automation, like setting up rules for routing messages.
However, the features that sound like they could really change how you work, like Intelligent Triage (which automatically understands and routes tickets), are often part of those more expensive add-ons.
Here are some features often requiring add-ons or having limitations:
- Intelligent Triage: Automatically understanding and routing tickets often requires the Advanced AI Add-On.
- AI Answers: Priced per resolution ($0.70 each) as an add-on.
- Smart QA: Priced per seat per month ($20) as an add-on.
- Training Sources: While it can connect with your knowledge base, the ability to train it on other sources, like past tickets or internal documents outside of a standard help center, might not be as deep compared to some AI platforms that specialize in that.
Overall Take: If you’re already using Front, the integrated AI features are a nice bonus for everyday tasks. But getting access to the truly powerful automation stuff will cost you extra.
Usability and implementation
Since Front AI is built right into the Front platform, folks already using Front might find it relatively easy to start using the basic features they see in their inbox. Front also works with partners who say their solutions, integrated with Front, are simple to get up and running.
That said, setting up more advanced AI capabilities isn’t always just a simple flip of a switch. Connecting it with all your existing tech tools can bring technical challenges. You need solid infrastructure and ways to handle your data.
Challenges to consider during implementation:
- Technical Hurdles: Connecting Front AI with all your existing tech tools can bring technical challenges, requiring solid infrastructure and data handling methods.
- Change Management: Getting your team ready to work alongside AI requires managing that change, providing training, and maybe even rethinking some roles.
- Interface Complexity: Some users have mentioned the interface can feel a bit complex compared to other options out there.
Overall Take: While the basic AI features are right there in Front, getting the most out of the advanced Front AI capabilities might mean dealing with some notable technical hurdles and putting in the effort to get your team on board.
Pricing and value for money
Front AI’s pricing model, where you pay per user with different plan levels and add-ons, can really add up quickly. The cost of the core platform goes up with every agent you add, and then you pile on the cost of the Advanced AI add-on per agent, plus potential fees based on how much you use features like AI Answers.
Downsides of the pricing structure:
- Escalating Costs: Costs go up directly with your team size and how much you use specific features, potentially leading to high bills that are harder to predict.
- Less Cost-Effective for Growth: This structure can feel less cost-effective than solutions that price things differently, especially for teams that are growing or handle a lot of messages.
- Minimum Seat Hurdles: The minimum number of seats required for the higher plans can also be a hurdle for smaller teams who might need those advanced features.
Overall Take: Front AI’s pricing, especially for the advanced stuff, can be a pretty big investment. You’ll really need to look closely at the per-user cost and the add-ons compared to the value you’re getting, particularly when you look at other options out there.
Limitations and challenges
Bringing Front AI into your daily work isn’t always smooth sailing. Besides the technical stuff like infrastructure and how complicated it is to connect everything, you also run into operational challenges.
Limitations and challenges to consider:
- Operational Challenges: Managing the change within your team, setting up clear rules for how the AI works, and having realistic expectations about what the AI can actually do.
- Ethical Considerations: Thinking about ethical things like customer data privacy and making sure the AI isn’t accidentally unfair or biased also needs careful consideration and management.
- Integration Complexity: Getting it to connect perfectly with every single tool your team uses might not always be straightforward.
Overall Take: Adding Front AI to your operations involves more than just setting up the tech; it means navigating complex operational and ethical questions to make sure everything runs smoothly and responsibly.
Front AI alternatives: a brief look
The world of AI tools for customer support is always changing, and Front AI is just one choice among many. There are lots of other options out there, each with different ways of pricing, different sets of features, and different approaches to connecting with your existing tools.
These alternatives often focus on specific areas. Maybe they offer deeper AI capabilities, work with a wider range of platforms, or have more flexible pricing. If Front AI’s structure or limitations feel like they might not be the perfect fit for your team, it’s definitely worth exploring these other options. This is where solutions like eesel AI come into the picture.
Front AI vs. eesel AI: a comparison
While Front AI is built right into the Front platform, eesel AI takes a different approach that might offer some advantages, especially if you’re looking for more flexibility, deeper automation, and costs that are easier to predict.
Addressing Front AI’s pricing challenges
One of the biggest differences is how they charge you. Front AI uses a per-user model with expensive add-ons for advanced features and even fees based on how much you use certain things. This means your costs go up directly with your team size and how much you use specific features, potentially leading to high bills that are harder to predict.
Implications of Front AI’s pricing model:
- Per-User Cost: Costs increase directly with the number of agents.
- Expensive Add-Ons: Advanced features require add-ons that increase the per-seat cost significantly.
- Usage-Based Fees: Potential fees based on the usage of certain features like AI Answers add unpredictability.
- Harder to Predict Bills: The combination of factors makes budgeting and predicting the final cost challenging.
eesel AI, on the other hand, uses a pay-per-interaction model with no fees per agent. This makes costs much more transparent and predictable. It lets you scale your AI usage based on how many tickets or conversations you have, rather than how many people are on your team, which can often be a lot more affordable.
Smarter automation and flexibility
Front AI primarily learns from your help center content to generate responses. While that’s useful, it can limit the AI’s ability to handle questions that need information from other places.
eesel AI can train on a much wider variety of sources.
eesel AI training sources and capabilities:
- Wide Variety of Sources: Includes past tickets, internal documents like those in Google Docs or Confluence, PDFs, external wikis, and over 100 other integrations.
- Automatic Syncing: Knowledge stays current without manual updates.
- Customizable Prompting & Actions: Fine-tune the bot’s tone, behavior, and get it to do specific tasks.
- Specific Tasks: Includes closing tickets or making custom requests to other systems for things like refunds or pulling data.
- Multiple Bots: Set up multiple bots for different tasks or brands.
Ease of integration and setup
While getting Front AI connected with all your existing tech can sometimes be tricky, eesel AI focuses on getting trained and integrated quickly. They often get things set up in just 1-2 weeks with dedicated support. It’s built to connect smoothly with major helpdesks you might already be using, like Zendesk, Intercom, and Freshdesk.
Screenshot – A screenshot showing eesel AI’s integration settings page, showing multiple helpdesk apps. Alt Text: Screenshot showing eesel AI integration settings page. Alt Title: eesel AI Integration Settings
Testing and fine-tuning
Front AI doesn’t talk much about its pre-live testing capabilities, which might mean it’s harder to fully test how things will work before you roll them out.
eesel AI offers simulation features and lets you roll out the AI to just specific agents or types of tickets first.
eesel AI testing features:
- Simulation Features: Test how the AI performs in a controlled environment.
- Selective Rollout: Deploy to specific agents or types of tickets first.
- Find Knowledge Gaps: Helps you identify areas in your knowledge base that need improvement.
This means you can test and fine-tune how the AI performs in a controlled environment before it goes live for everyone. It also helps you find gaps in your knowledge base so you can keep improving the information you’re training it on.
Summary table: Front AI vs. eesel AI
Here’s a quick look at how Front AI and eesel AI stack up side-by-side:
| Feature | Front AI | eesel AI |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Per-user, tiered, add-ons, usage fees | Per-interaction, no per-agent |
| Cost Scaling | Scales with agents & usage | Scales with interactions |
| Training Sources | Primarily Help Center | Past Tickets, Docs, 100+ Integrations |
| Customization | Basic tone, limited actions | Detailed prompting, custom actions |
| Pre-Live Testing | Limited | Simulations, Selective Rollout |
| Key Differentiator | Integrated into Front platform | Flexibility, Cost-Effectiveness, Deep Training |
Final verdict: is Front AI right for you?
Front AI offers AI features built right in, which can be a helpful addition if you’re already really invested in using Front and its specific workflow. It probably makes the most sense for companies who are happy with Front as their main communication platform, have the budget for the higher plans and the necessary add-ons, and whose AI needs are mostly about automating tasks using their existing help center content.
However, the pricing based on the number of users, the cost of that Advanced AI add-on, and potentially less flexibility in customization and testing might be notable downsides. This is especially true for teams that are growing or need AI trained on a wider variety of sources.
Looking for a flexible, cost-effective AI support solution?
If Front AI’s pricing, training limitations, or customization options feel a bit restrictive, you’re definitely not alone. Many teams run into issues with high costs, limited intelligence, and scaling problems with traditional or platform-specific AI tools.
eesel AI was built to tackle exactly these pain points. It offers a flexible, cost-effective AI support agent and assistant that connects smoothly with the helpdesk you’re already using – whether that’s Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk, or another platform. By learning from your diverse data sources, including past tickets and internal documents, eesel AI provides accurate, on-brand automation that grows affordably with a predictable pay-per-interaction model.
If you need smarter automation, deeper customization, and a solution built for flexibility and value, it’s worth exploring eesel AI.
Ready to see how powerful and affordable AI support can be? Book a demo or start a free trial today – you don’t even need a credit card.
