How to create a Freshdesk AI agent: A step-by-step guide

If you’re running a support team, you’re probably all too familiar with the endless stream of repetitive questions. They’re necessary to answer, but they can really bog down your team, pulling them away from the trickier issues where they’re needed most. This is where AI agents come in, promising to handle the simple stuff so your team can focus.

Freshdesk has its own AI, called Freddy AI, built to do just that. In this guide, we’ll walk through how to create a Freshdesk AI agent using their native tools. But we'll also show you how to enhance your setup with a specialized AI companion that connects to all your company's knowledge and gives you extra flexibility.

How to create Freshdesk AI: What you'll need to get started

Before we dive in, let’s make sure you have everything ready. Setting up an AI agent in Freshdesk is a straightforward process that provides a solid foundation for your support automation.

• Admin access to your Freshdesk account: This is a must. You'll need to be an administrator to create new agents and play with the AI settings.

• A supported Freshdesk plan: The Freddy AI features we're talking about are available on the Pro and Enterprise plans, which are designed to support growing and enterprise-level teams in 2026.

• A knowledge base: Your AI needs something to learn from. This means having your solution articles, FAQs, and other help docs set up within Freshdesk.

• A clear idea of what to automate: It helps to have a goal in mind. Are you trying to deflect common "how-to" questions? Or maybe handle simple information requests? Start with a specific target.

How to create Freshdesk AI using native tools

Freshdesk’s built-in AI, Freddy, lets you build AI agents to field customer questions. The whole process boils down to creating a dedicated user for your AI, telling it what to learn and how to act, and then turning on features like the Email AI Agent.

Let's get into the details.

Step 1: Create a new agent user

First things first, you need to create a "user" that will act as your AI agent. This allows the platform to track what the AI is doing separately from your human agents, keeping your reporting clean and organized.

1. Head over to the Admin panel in your Freshdesk dashboard.

2. Under the "Team" section, click on Agents.

3. Hit the New agent button.

4. Fill in the details for your new bot. It’s a good idea to give it a clear name like "AI Support Bot." You’ll need to give it an email address and set its role. Making it an Administrator ensures it has access to the necessary automation rules.

5. Define the agent's scope to control which tickets it can access.

6. Click Create agent, and you're done with step one.

Step 2: Configure knowledge sources and persona

Now that your AI agent has a profile, it's time to provide it with the right information. AI agents learn from the knowledge sources you feed them.

1. In the Admin panel, find AI Agents and Chatbots.

2. Click Create new, give your bot a name, and choose the AI Agent option.

3. Under the Knowledge sources tab, you can add website URLs, upload files (like .txt, .docx, or .pdf), or connect your existing Freshdesk solution articles.

4. Next, hop over to the Persona tab. This is where you can give your AI some personality. You can set its name, avatar, and tone of voice. You can also give it specific instructions, like when it should gracefully hand a conversation over to a human.

Step 3: Set up the Email AI Agent

One of the most useful parts of Freshdesk's AI is the Email AI Agent, which can automatically reply to incoming email tickets.

1. Go to Admin > Freddy > Self Service > Email AI Agent and click Configure.

2. Set up trigger conditions: This is where you define the workflow for your bot. You create rules that tell it which tickets to respond to, such as tickets with the status "Open" or those from a specific customer group.

3. Manage languages: Pick the languages your AI agent should speak. Your account's main language is the default, but you can add more if you have knowledge base articles in other languages.

4. Edit the email response template: Customize the email your AI sends out. Be sure to include the {{freddy_articles}} and {{freddy_answers}} placeholders, as this is how the AI pulls accurate answers from your knowledge base into the reply.

Once you've got all that configured, you can save and turn on your AI agent. It's a robust process that creates a highly integrated solution within your existing support platform.

How to create Freshdesk AI in minutes: A faster way

While the native setup is a comprehensive starting point, you might want to enhance your Freshdesk ecosystem with an AI that is even more flexible and easy to manage.

That’s exactly what eesel AI is for.

eesel AI is a platform built to plug straight into helpdesks like Freshdesk, so you don't have to change how you work. It’s designed to be completely self-serve, working alongside Freshdesk to give you even more control.

Step 1: Connect Freshdesk and your knowledge in one click

Getting started with eesel AI as a Freshdesk companion is remarkably simple.

1. Sign up for eesel AI: You can get started for free, no sales call required.

2. Connect Freshdesk: Just authenticate your Freshdesk account with a single click. eesel AI integrates seamlessly without any complex API work.

3. Connect all your knowledge sources: This is where eesel AI offers additional flexibility. In addition to Freshdesk's native knowledge capabilities, you can connect Google Docs, Confluence, Notion, Slack, and over 100 other apps. The AI learns from everything, providing your Freshdesk setup with a much broader knowledge base.

Step 2: Customize your AI agent’s workflow and persona

eesel AI provides a powerful prompt editor and workflow builder so you can define exactly how your AI should behave within Freshdesk.

• Selective Automation: You can create rules to decide which tickets the AI should handle. This makes it easy to start small by only automating your most basic questions.

• Custom Persona & Actions: Use the prompt editor to dial in the AI's tone. You can also tell it to perform custom actions, like looking up an order status in Shopify or updating ticket fields directly in Freshdesk.

• Scoped Knowledge: You can tell the AI to use specific knowledge sources for certain types of questions, ensuring it stays relevant and accurate.

Step 3: Simulate performance and go live with confidence

When launching an AI, it is important to feel confident in its performance. eesel AI provides a specialized simulation mode to help with this.

• Test on historical tickets: Before you let your AI talk to a single customer, you can test it on thousands of your past Freshdesk tickets.

• Preview responses and forecast ROI: The simulation shows you exactly how the AI would have replied to those old tickets, giving you a clear forecast of your resolution rate. This allows you to fine-tune the AI until you're completely confident to go live.

Feature	Native Freshdesk AI (Freddy)	eesel AI
Setup Time	Detailed configuration for deep integration	Rapid self-serve setup
Knowledge Sources	Integrated help articles, URLs, and files	100+ integrations (Confluence, Slack, etc.)
Custom Actions	Reliable built-in automation rules	Flexible API-driven actions and ticket updates
Pre-Launch Testing	Integrated live environment testing	Simulation on historical tickets
Control	Standardized and reliable automation	Fine-grained control over specific ticket types

This video explains how to use Freddy AI to generate knowledge base articles, a key step in how to create Freshdesk AI.

How to create Freshdesk AI: Common mistakes to avoid

No matter which tool you use, launching an AI agent in 2026 is an exciting step for your team. To ensure success, here are a few things to keep in mind.

• Not having a clear goal: Don't just switch on AI because it's popular. Figure out the top repetitive questions that are eating up your team's time and target those first. A focused approach gets you real results, faster.

• Forgetting about your knowledge base: Your AI is a reflection of the information it learns from. Freshdesk makes it easy to maintain your docs, and keeping them updated ensures your AI gives the best answers.

  • How eesel AI helps: eesel AI can help you identify gaps in your knowledge and can even generate draft articles based on successful ticket resolutions.

• Launching without testing: It's always best to know how your AI will behave before it goes live. Testing ensures that your customers get the most accurate information possible.

  • How eesel AI helps: The simulation mode acts as a helpful safety net, letting you perfect your AI on your own historical data.

• Having no escape hatch: Your AI is a powerful assistant, but it works best when it knows when to bring in a human. Freshdesk's robust platform makes it easy to set up clear hand-off rules so customers can always get to a human agent for more complex issues.

Beyond how to create Freshdesk AI: Get more from your bot

Putting an AI agent to work in Freshdesk is a huge win for scaling your support and making your team more efficient. Freshdesk is a mature, reliable platform that powers customer service for thousands of companies, and its native Freddy AI gives you a solid suite of tools to get started.

For teams that want to move even faster or require specific advanced customizations, a solution like eesel AI is a powerful complementary option. By connecting all your company knowledge and providing a risk-free way to test everything, you can enhance your Freshdesk setup with a smarter, more flexible AI assistant.

Ready to see how you can further upgrade your Freshdesk support in 2026? Start your free eesel AI trial today and see how it can work alongside Freshdesk to power your support team.

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