How to enable AI in Jira: A 2026 step-by-step guide

It feels like everyone is talking about AI in project management these days, and honestly, it makes sense. Teams are looking for any advantage they can find to automate tasks, speed up their work, and generally make life a little easier. Atlassian has definitely lead the way, rolling out its own AI features (now part of "Rovo" and "Atlassian Intelligence") to help with everything from summarizing endless ticket threads to writing tricky JQL queries.

Turning these features on is a straightforward process once you know the right path through your settings. This guide is here to ensure a smooth setup experience for Jira admins by walking you through the correct permissions and steps.

We’ll walk you through exactly how to enable AI in Jira, step-by-step, so you can stop searching and start using it.

Prerequisites for enabling AI in Jira

Before you open the settings panel, let’s get a few things sorted out first. Taking a couple of minutes to check these prerequisites will ensure a quick and successful activation.

1. A Jira cloud subscription First off, this is a must-have. Atlassian’s AI features are available on their Cloud plans, which include Standard, Premium, or Enterprise. Atlassian is focusing its most advanced new development, especially AI, on its cloud platform to provide the best possible performance and scale. If you’re not sure what you’re on, it’s worth checking your subscription details first.

2. Organization Admin permissions This is a key detail for a smooth setup. To activate Atlassian Intelligence, you need to be an Org Admin, not just a Site Admin. This ensures that high-level changes like AI activation are managed with the right level of oversight. A Site Admin has power over a specific Jira site, while an Org Admin manages the entire Atlassian organization for your company, including all your Jira sites and Confluence spaces.

Think of it like this: a Site Admin is the manager of a single store, while the Org Admin is the regional manager for the entire chain. Only the regional manager has the authority to roll out a big new initiative like AI. If you follow this guide and can’t find the menus we’re talking about, you may just need to check in with your Org Admin for their help.

3. A rough idea of what you want to achieve You don’t need a detailed strategy document here, but it helps to have a simple goal in mind. Jira's AI can help your support team get up to speed on long tickets or assist developers in drafting more consistent bug reports. Having a clear, simple use case will help you see the value from the AI features much faster once they’re live.

A step-by-step guide

Alright, once you’ve confirmed you have the right cloud plan and the Org Admin permissions, the rest is actually pretty straightforward. Just follow these steps.

Step 1: Navigate to Atlassian administration

First things first, you won’t find the AI settings in your usual project or site-level administration areas. You need to go to the central command center for your entire Atlassian organization.

Log in to admin.atlassian.com with your Org Admin account. If you happen to be a part of multiple organizations, you’ll be prompted to pick the right one from a list. This is the main hub where you manage billing, users, and high-level settings for all your products.

Step 2: Locate the AI settings

Once you’re in the Atlassian Administration portal, take a look at the main navigation menu, usually on the left-hand side. Atlassian is known for its modern, evolving interface, so you’re looking for something related to your applications and AI.

As of right now, you can typically find it by going to Apps > AI settings > AI-enabled apps. You might also see it under a top-level "Settings" menu with a label like "Atlassian Intelligence."

Step 3: Activate AI for your Jira products

This screen is where the magic happens. You’ll see a list of all the Atlassian products active in your organization, like Jira Software, Jira Service Management, and Confluence. The cool thing is that you can activate AI for each product individually, giving you precise control.

Click the "Select apps to activate" button. A list will pop up, just check the boxes for the Jira products you want to enhance with AI. You'll need to review and accept the terms and conditions, and then hit the "Activate" button. The change should roll out across your organization almost instantly.

Step 4: Verify that AI features are active

Now for the fun part, let's make sure it actually worked. Pop over to one of your Jira projects and start looking for the new AI-powered features. They’re usually marked with a little sparkle icon.

Here are a few things you can check right away:

• The "Summarize" button: Find a ticket with a really long comment history. In the "Activity" section, right above the comments, you should now see a "Summarize" button with the AI icon. Give it a click and see what it does.

• The AI icon in the editor: Go to write a new comment or edit a ticket description. You should see that same sparkle icon in the editor's toolbar. You can also just type /ai on a new line to bring up a menu of commands for drafting, editing, or changing the tone of your text.

• Natural language JQL: For those who work with JQL, this is a neat one. Go to the advanced issue search (JQL view), and you should see an option to write your query in plain English. For example, you can type "show me all unresolved bugs in the Phoenix project assigned to me" instead of writing out the formal JQL syntax.

If you can see these features, then congratulations! You’ve successfully enabled AI in your Jira instance.

Tips and common mistakes to avoid

Flipping the switch is just the beginning. To really get value out of these tools, it helps to know what to expect and what common pitfalls to look out for.

Common mistakes

• Checking permission levels: If you can’t find the "AI settings" in the admin portal, the first thing to check is your permission level to ensure you have Org Admin rights.

• Cloud focus: Remember, these innovative AI features are currently a highlight of the Cloud platform.

• Human-led AI: Atlassian's native AI is designed to be a highly capable assistant. It's fantastic for speeding up tasks like summarizing text or drafting replies, and it works best when guided by your team's expertise.

Pro tips

Going beyond the basics: Getting full control of your support automation

Enabling Atlassian's built-in AI is a fantastic first step. It's a powerful tool for agent assistance, helping your team members summarize, draft, and search faster within Jira.

For teams looking for specialized support automation, there are platforms that work alongside Jira to handle specific use cases, such as deflecting common questions or learning from a wide variety of company knowledge bases.

This is where a platform like eesel AI comes into the picture. It’s designed to layer on top of your existing help desk, including Jira Service Management, and works as a complementary tool within your ecosystem.

Here’s how it works alongside Jira:

• It connects diverse knowledge sources: While Atlassian AI provides deep integration with Confluence and Jira, eesel AI can connect to additional sources. It can pull from Google Docs, Notion pages, and Slack conversations to supplement the data already in your Jira instance.

• Simulate your automation: Before going live, eesel AI lets you run simulations on your past tickets. This helps you understand how the AI handles queries and allows you to find gaps in your knowledge base in a safe environment.

• Custom workflow control: You can define specific workflows for the AI to handle, determining when it should assist and when it should escalate a ticket to a human agent in Jira.

Here’s a quick comparison of how these tools can work together:

Your journey starts now

So there you have it. You now know how to check your prerequisites, find your way through the admin panel, and officially enable AI in Jira. It’s a solid move that gives your team a nice productivity boost and starts chipping away at time-consuming manual tasks.

While Atlassian's native AI is a great starting point for helping your agents work more efficiently, teams who want to explore additional automation options can layer on specialized tools. Jira's mature ecosystem makes it easy to find the right balance for your specific needs.

Ready to see what a fully controllable AI agent can do for your Jira workflows? Try eesel AI for free and build your first AI support agent in just a few minutes.