How to add AI live chat to Intercom or Zendesk: A complete overview

So, your support team is running on a solid platform like Intercom or Zendesk. You’ve got your workflows down, but you’re probably wondering if AI could help you get a handle on the ever-growing ticket volume. It’s a good question, and one that’s on everyone’s mind right now. But the deeper you look, the more questions seem to pop up. How much work is this going to be? Is it going to cost a fortune? Do I have to ditch the helpdesk my team already knows just to get started?

Trust me, you're not alone in asking this. The good news? You don't have to tear down your current setup to get the benefits of AI.

This article will walk you through the two main ways you can add AI live chat to Intercom or Zendesk: using their built-in tools or bringing in a specialized third-party tool. We’ll get into the pros, cons, and hidden costs of each so you can figure out what makes the most sense for your team.

What is AI live chat?

Let’s get one thing straight. When we talk about AI live chat, we’re not talking about those old-school chatbots that just spit out canned responses. Modern AI for customer support is a much smarter system. It actually understands what a customer is asking, finds the right answer from your company’s knowledge, and can solve issues all by itself, day or night.

The upside is pretty obvious. You can offer instant help 24/7, take care of all the repetitive tickets automatically, and let your human agents focus on the trickier problems that need a personal touch.

The real question isn't if you should be using AI, but how you can get it working with the tools you already have without creating a bunch of new headaches.

Two ways to add AI live chat to Intercom or Zendesk

When it comes to plugging AI into your helpdesk, you have two main paths you can take. You can use the AI features that Intercom and Zendesk built themselves, or you can integrate a dedicated AI tool that works on top of what you already have. Let's break them both down.

Option 1: Use the built-in AI

This usually feels like the path of least resistance. The AI is already part of the system you’re paying for, so you just flip a switch and it works, right? Well, not exactly. This approach often comes with some serious trade-offs in what it costs, how flexible it is, and how long it takes to get going.

Intercom's Fin AI agent

Intercom’s own AI agent, called Fin, is built to resolve customer chats by pulling answers from your Intercom Help Center. It can answer questions, handle a few basic tasks, and pass things over to a human agent when it’s stumped.

The biggest gotcha with Fin is its pricing. You pay $0.99 for every single resolution the AI handles. This is on top of your monthly seat costs, which can range from $29 to $85 per seat per month. This pay-per-resolution model means your bill can go through the roof during a busy month, making it almost impossible to predict your costs.

Things to think about:

• Unpredictable costs: Paying for every resolution means you get penalized for being successful. As more customers get help from your AI, your bill goes up. It feels a bit backward.

• Tough setup: While turning it on is easy, getting Fin to do more than answer basic questions takes a lot of time. You'll be deep in settings, tweaking prompts, and mapping out conversation flows.

• Limited knowledge: Fin really only knows what’s in your Intercom Help Center. But let's be real, most teams have important info scattered everywhere, from technical guides in Google Docs to internal wikis in Confluence. Fin can’t see any of that.

Zendesk's AI agents

Zendesk bundles its AI into its larger product suite, and it mostly focuses on deflecting tickets by suggesting articles from your knowledge base. It can generate replies for agents and gives you reports on how many tickets it automates.

Zendesk's pricing is also a bit of a maze. The AI features are part of their more expensive plans, like the Suite Team plan at $55/agent/mo. But here's the catch: these plans include a tiny number of "automated resolutions" each month. For instance, the Suite Professional plan ($115/agent/mo) gives you just 10 free resolutions per agent. After that, you're paying $1.50 to $2.00 for each one. Just like with Intercom, your costs can become a runaway train.

Things to think about:

• Clunky setup: Many users find that getting Zendesk’s AI configured just right is a slow and often frustrating experience. The workflows aren't as straightforward as what you’d get with a tool built specifically for AI.

• Trapped knowledge: Much like Intercom, Zendesk's AI works best when all your knowledge lives inside Zendesk. If your documents are spread out across different apps, it’s a huge pain to bring it all together for the AI to use.

• Forced upgrades: To get the AI, you have to buy into their pricier suite plans, which often come with a bunch of other tools and features you might not need or want.

Option 2: Integrate a third-party AI

There's a much more flexible way to do this that doesn't involve throwing out your current helpdesk. You can integrate a specialized AI platform that simply sits on top of the tools your team already uses.

The benefit here is straightforward: you keep the helpdesk your team knows and loves, but you give it a major boost with a powerful AI layer.

These third-party tools are built to solve the exact problems we just talked about. They’re typically faster to set up, can connect to all your knowledge sources, and have much clearer pricing. A great example of this is eesel AI.

A better way to add AI live chat with eesel AI

eesel AI is designed to give you the power of a smart AI agent without the common headaches. It tackles the big issues of cost, complexity, and scattered knowledge right from the start.

Get started in minutes, not weeks

Unlike the weeks (or even months) it can take to get a native AI tool properly configured, you can have eesel AI up and running in a few minutes. It offers one-click integrations with helpdesks like Intercom and Zendesk. There’s no custom coding or developer time needed. You can sign up, connect your helpdesk, and have a working AI agent without ever having to talk to a salesperson.

A look at the eesel AI dashboard, showing how to add AI live chat to Intercom or Zendesk with one-click integrations for various platforms.::alt_text=A demonstration of the simple integration process, a key aspect of how to add AI live chat to Intercom or Zendesk using a third-party tool.::alt_title=eesel AI integrations for how to add AI live chat to Intercom or Zendesk

Bring all your knowledge together

eesel AI breaks down the walls between your apps. It can instantly connect to all your knowledge sources, whether it’s your helpdesk, past tickets, internal wikis in Confluence or Notion, or files in Google Docs. This gives your AI a complete picture of your business, so it can provide answers that are actually helpful and accurate.

An infographic showing how eesel AI connects to multiple knowledge sources to provide comprehensive answers when you add AI live chat to Intercom or Zendesk.::alt_text=An infographic on knowledge integration, explaining how to add AI live chat to Intercom or Zendesk and connect all data sources.::alt_title=Knowledge integration for how to add AI live chat to Intercom or Zendesk

Test with zero risk

Jumping into AI can feel like a big commitment, but it doesn’t have to. eesel AI has a simulation mode that lets you test it on thousands of your past tickets in a safe environment. You can see exactly how it would have replied to real customer questions, get a good idea of its resolution rate, and calculate your potential savings before it ever talks to a live customer.

You also get full control over the rollout. You could start small and have the AI only handle one type of question, like password resets, while sending everything else to your team. Once you see it working well, you can gradually let it handle more. This kind of risk-free approach just isn’t possible with the all-or-nothing native tools.

The simulation mode in eesel AI, which shows how you can test performance before you add AI live chat to Intercom or Zendesk.::alt_text=A view of the risk-free simulation feature, which is a smart step in how to add AI live chat to Intercom or Zendesk.::alt_title=Testing and simulation for how to add AI live chat to Intercom or Zendesk

Say goodbye to surprise bills

Maybe the best part is the pricing. With eesel AI, you pay a flat, predictable monthly fee based on how much you use it. There are no sneaky per-resolution fees, so you'll never get a shocking bill after a busy month. This makes budgeting a breeze and lets you scale up your support without worrying about costs spiraling out of control.

A screenshot of the eesel AI pricing page, which shows a clear and predictable model for businesses looking at how to add AI live chat to Intercom or Zendesk.::alt_text=eesel AI's transparent pricing, an important factor for teams deciding how to add AI live chat to Intercom or Zendesk.::alt_title=Predictable pricing for how to add AI live chat to Intercom or Zendesk

A side-by-side comparison

Here's a quick side-by-side look at how the two options compare.

Feature	Intercom Fin & Zendesk AI (Built-in)	eesel AI (Third-Party Integration)
Setup Time	Days or even weeks of tweaking and tuning.	Minutes. Truly self-serve with one-click connections.
Pricing Model	Complicated. Per-resolution fees on top of already high seat costs.	Simple and predictable. A flat monthly fee you can budget for.
Knowledge Sources	Stuck with what's inside the platform's help center.	Connects to everything: your helpdesk, past tickets, Confluence, Google Docs, you name it.
Flexibility	Rigid. You're stuck with their way of doing things.	Totally customizable. You decide exactly which tickets to automate.
Testing & Rollout	Little to no testing. It's usually all-or-nothing.	Powerful simulation mode and a gradual, risk-free rollout.

Integrate, don't migrate

Adding AI to your support team on Intercom or Zendesk is a smart move. But as we’ve seen, the built-in options often create as many problems as they solve, with their unpredictable costs and frustrating limitations.

A third-party tool offers a much more powerful, flexible, and affordable path. The best way to improve the helpdesk you already have is with a tool designed to work with it, not lock you deeper into its system. With a platform like eesel AI, you can add a powerful AI live chat layer to Intercom or Zendesk today, without messing with the tools and workflows your team already depends on.

Ready to see for yourself? Start your free eesel AI trial and connect your helpdesk in under five minutes.