How to use AI in Confluence: A practical step-by-step guide

Confluence is the go-to knowledge base for countless teams. But as it grows, it can feel less like a shared brain and more like a cluttered attic. You know the information you need is in there somewhere, but finding it can turn into a full-blown investigation.

This is where AI is starting to make a real difference. By plugging AI into your Confluence space, you can turn it from a static library of documents into something that actually helps your team find answers and get work done.

This guide will walk you through exactly how to use AI in Confluence, starting with the features Atlassian has built right in. Then, we’ll get into the important part: how to work around their limitations to really tap into what your company’s collective knowledge can do.

Prerequisites for using AI in Confluence

Before we dive in, let’s make sure you have the basics covered. To use the built-in AI features in Confluence, you’ll need a few things:

• A Confluence Cloud instance.

• A Premium or Enterprise plan. This is a big one. Atlassian Intelligence isn’t available on the Free or Standard plans, which can be a deal-breaker for a lot of teams.

• Organization admin permissions. Someone with these permissions will need to be the one to flip the switch and turn on Atlassian Intelligence.

How to use Confluence’s native AI: A step-by-step guide

Atlassian Intelligence has some useful tools baked in that can help with daily tasks. Here’s how you can get them going.

Step 1: Turn on Atlassian Intelligence

First thing’s first: an organization admin has to activate the feature.

1. Head over to admin.atlassian.com.

2. Find Settings > Atlassian Intelligence in the sidebar.

3. Read through the terms, and then choose the products (make sure Confluence is on the list) where you want to use the AI features.

Step 2: Generate and tweak content in the editor

Once it’s enabled, you can use AI directly inside the Confluence editor. It’s pretty handy for getting past that "blank page" feeling.

• To create new content: Just type /ai on a new line and give it a prompt. You could try something like, “Brainstorm a few blog post ideas about team productivity” or “Write a project plan for the new website launch.” The AI will spit out a draft that you can then edit and make your own.

• To edit existing text: Highlight a chunk of text, and you’ll see a little AI icon pop up. Clicking it gives you options like “Improve writing,” “Change tone,” or “Fix spelling & grammar.”

Step 3: Summarize pages to get up to speed

We’ve all opened a massive document and just sighed. If you don’t have time for a deep read, the AI can give you the CliffsNotes version.

• Summarize a page: On any published Confluence page, click the Summarize button at the top. Atlassian Intelligence will generate a quick summary of the page’s content.

• Recap comments: If a page has a long comment thread, scroll down and click Comments recap. It’ll give you a summary of the discussion, which is great for catching up on what you missed.

Step 4: Ask questions and get real answers

Instead of just typing in keywords and hoping for the best, you can ask questions in plain English. Just type your question into the main search bar, like “What’s our remote work policy?”, and select Ask AI. It will pull an answer directly from the content in your Confluence spaces and even link you to the source pages.

Limitations of Confluence’s native AI

While Atlassian Intelligence is a decent start, you’ll probably bump into its limitations pretty quickly. The built-in tools are helpful for simple tasks, but they often fall short when you need a truly connected source of knowledge.

The silo problem: What about attachments and other apps?

One of the first frustrations you might encounter is that Confluence’s native AI can’t search inside attachments. If your most important info is tucked away in PDFs, Word docs, or presentations uploaded to a page, the AI has no idea it exists. This leaves massive blind spots.

On top of that, its knowledge is stuck inside the Atlassian bubble. What about all the critical information your team keeps in Google Docs, Notion, Slack, or Microsoft Teams? The native AI can’t touch it, which means your Confluence instance is just another silo.

Confluence and AI search... I would have thought a major use case for AI in Confluence would be to search attached documents (eg PDFs). We have so many attached documents, it's a real pain to have to open them up one by one and search them. Unfortunately it looks like Confluence AI can't do this.

Reddit

This is exactly why tools like eesel AI were created. It’s designed specifically to pull all your scattered knowledge together. By using its Confluence integration, eesel AI not only reads your pages but also connects to over 100 other apps you already use, creating one unified source of truth for your whole team.

An infographic illustrating how eesel AI breaks down silos by connecting Confluence with other apps to provide complete answers.:

The paywall problem: What if you’re not on a premium plan?

As we mentioned, Atlassian keeps its AI features locked behind its pricey Premium and Enterprise plans. This puts a lot of small and medium-sized teams in a tough spot: either pay for a big upgrade you might not need or miss out on AI completely.

eesel AI offers a more straightforward alternative. The pricing is transparent and predictable, so you can get more powerful AI features without being pushed into an expensive plan. You can start with a simple monthly subscription and cancel whenever, which gives you more flexibility as your team grows.

The control problem: What if you need to customize it?

The built-in AI gives you some basic prompts, but it doesn’t offer much in the way of deep customization. You can’t really define the AI’s personality, connect it to your own tools for live data (like checking an order status), or build out more complex automations for your team.

In comparison, eesel AI gives you a workflow engine you can fully control. You can use its prompt editor to define the AI’s exact tone and voice. With Custom Actions, you can even teach it to look up live information from any system that has an API, so your team gets real-time, accurate answers every single time.

A screenshot showing eesel AI’s customization options, a key feature for how to use AI in Confluence effectively.:

A better way: How to use AI in Confluence with eesel AI

Instead of just using AI for basic writing help, you can use a dedicated platform to turn Confluence into the central hub for your company’s knowledge. Here’s how simple it is to get started with eesel AI.

Step 1: Connect all your knowledge in minutes

Getting started is surprisingly straightforward. You don’t need to book a long onboarding call or pull in a developer. You can connect all your tools with a few clicks.

1. Sign up for eesel AI.

2. From the dashboard, click "Add Source."

3. Connect Confluence, Google Docs, Notion, your help desk, and any other places your team stores information. The whole process is self-serve and only takes a few minutes.

The eesel AI dashboard where users can connect Confluence and other apps, an advanced method for how to use AI in Confluence.:

Step 2: Put the AI where your team already works

The best tools are the ones people actually use, and that means meeting them where they are. With eesel AI, you can deploy a Q&A assistant right inside Slack or Microsoft Teams that answers questions using information from Confluence and everything else you’ve connected.

So, when a teammate asks in a Slack channel, “What are the specs for the new feature?” the bot can instantly find the answer on the right Confluence page without anyone having to switch apps. With the native Confluence AI, that person would have to go to Confluence to ask, and the AI could only search Confluence pages. With eesel AI, they can ask from Slack, and the AI will search everywhere, Confluence pages, attached PDFs, Google Docs, Notion, to deliver a complete answer.

An example of the eesel AI bot answering a question in Slack by pulling information from Confluence.:

Tips for success with AI in Confluence

No matter which tool you end up using, following a few good habits will help you get better results.

• Keep your documentation tidy. Your AI is only as smart as the information you give it. If your Confluence pages are a mess of outdated info, you’re going to get messy answers. Make a habit of archiving old pages and using clear headings.

• Encourage normal questions. Get your team in the habit of asking questions like they would to a coworker, not just typing in keywords like it’s a search engine from 2005.

• Start small. Don’t try to boil the ocean. Pick one or two areas where an AI assistant could have a big impact, like answering common IT questions or finding product specs, and nail that first.

• Test before you launch. Before you roll out an AI assistant to the entire company, it’s a good idea to know how it will perform. eesel AI has a simulation mode that lets you test your setup on historical data, so you can see how it will respond and build confidence before it goes live.

The simulation mode in eesel AI, which helps teams test their setup before going live, an important step in how to use AI in Confluence.:

From a simple wiki to a real company brain

So there you have it, you now know how to use AI in Confluence to speed up tasks, find information, and create better content. The built-in Atlassian tools are a fine starting point, but they’re held back by some pretty big gaps when it comes to knowledge sources, pricing, and customization.

If you really want to turn Confluence into your company’s single source of truth, you need something that can break down silos and connect all of your knowledge. With a platform like eesel AI, you can plug everything in, get full control, and give your team the fast, accurate answers they need to do their best work.

This video provides a great introduction to Atlassian Intelligence and how to use its AI features in Confluence Cloud.

Ready to see what your Confluence knowledge can really do? Try eesel AI for free and connect all your knowledge sources in minutes.