
If you're running a business, there’s a good chance HubSpot is at the heart of your operations. It’s a fantastic tool for managing marketing, sales, and service. So, as AI becomes a standard part of the toolkit, it makes sense to look for automation right inside the platform you use every day.
But here’s what many teams are starting to run into: HubSpot's built-in AI tools are convenient, but they have a pretty clear ceiling. Soon enough, you might find yourself dealing with walled-off knowledge, workflows that can’t connect to your other apps, and a setup process that feels a bit like walking a tightrope. You need AI that can keep up with your business, not hold it back.
This guide offers some practical HubSpot AI Automation Recommendations. We’ll take a straightforward look at what it can do, where it falls short, and how you can get serious about automation without having to ditch the tools you already rely on.
Understanding the core of HubSpot AI Automation Recommendations
HubSpot AI automation is a set of features, mostly bundled under the name "Breeze," that are woven throughout its platform. Essentially, it's HubSpot's way of adding AI smarts to its Marketing, Sales, and Service Hubs to help with day-to-day tasks.
You'll find it helping with things like:
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Drafting content for marketing emails and blog posts.
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Building simple workflows from plain English prompts.
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Running basic website chatbots to field simple questions.
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Providing predictive analytics for tasks like lead scoring.
For any team living deep inside the HubSpot world, it's a handy place to start. The tools are right there, ready to go. The problem is that this convenience often comes at the cost of real power and flexibility.
Key HubSpot AI features (and where they fall short)
Let's dig into the details. HubSpot's AI has some useful tricks up its sleeve, but the cracks start to show once your needs get a little more complex. Here’s a breakdown of what it does and where you’ll probably wish you had something more.
Workflows and the AI assistant
What HubSpot offers: With Breeze AI, you can type something like, "When a lead from Canada signs up, add them to the North American sales team and send a welcome email." HubSpot will then build that workflow for you. It’s a neat way to make automation accessible to people who aren’t developers.
The limitation: But here’s the catch: it all has to happen inside HubSpot. The workflows are surprisingly rigid and can only really interact with data and triggers within the HubSpot ecosystem. What if you need to check an order status in Shopify, look up a user’s subscription details in another system, or create a ticket in your project management tool? You’ll discover pretty quickly that it’s either not possible or will require a clunky, custom-coded workaround.
A more flexible approach: This is where an independent AI layer like eesel AI really makes a difference. It’s designed with a completely customizable workflow engine that puts you in the driver’s seat. You can define the AI's tone and personality, sure, but you can also tell it exactly what actions to take. That includes making live API calls to any other service you use, allowing you to pull order details, update customer records, or kick off processes across your entire tech stack.
AI chatbots and customer service
What HubSpot offers: The chatbots in HubSpot are a decent first line of defense for your website. They can greet visitors, answer frequently asked questions using your HubSpot knowledge base, and create support tickets for your team to pick up.
The limitation: The chatbot’s knowledge is stuck in a silo. It only knows what’s in your HubSpot knowledge base and CRM. Have your technical guides in Confluence? Internal FAQs in Google Docs? Troubleshooting steps in Notion? The HubSpot bot can’t see any of it. It also has a hard time learning from your past support tickets, which means its answers can feel generic instead of reflecting how your team actually solves problems.
A more unified solution: Instead of being limited to a single source of truth, eesel AI connects to all of them right away. It links up with your help centers, internal wikis, and shared drives. More importantly, it trains on your historical support tickets from the get-go. This helps it learn your brand's voice and understand how your best agents have actually resolved similar issues in the past, leading to much more helpful, specific answers.
Predictive lead scoring
What HubSpot offers: HubSpot uses AI to sift through your contact data and predict which leads are most likely to convert. It analyzes engagement, demographics, and other info to give each lead a score, helping your sales team prioritize their time.
The limitation: The whole thing can feel like a "black box." You get a score, but you're often left scratching your head about why a certain lead was rated so highly. This makes it tough to really trust the system or make it better over time. On top of that, there's no safe way to test your automations before they're live. You’re basically flipping a switch and hoping for the best, which is a risky move when it could lead to misrouted leads or a bad customer experience.
A risk-free alternative: eesel AI was built to solve this exact problem with its simulation mode. Before the AI ever speaks to a customer, you can test it on thousands of your past tickets in a safe, sandboxed environment. You can see its exact responses, check how it would tag and route inquiries, and get a clear forecast of its performance. This lets you adjust its behavior with confidence and only go live when you know it's ready.
The reality of setting up HubSpot AI
On paper, getting AI set up in HubSpot seems simple enough. But in reality, it's often a winding path of digging through settings, getting an admin to grant permissions, and then carefully building out each automation in the workflow editor.
The process demands a solid grasp of HubSpot's inner workings and a fair bit of trial and error, all of which happens in your live environment. One wrong click could send a broken workflow to hundreds of your customers.
This is a world away from the approach taken by eesel AI. The entire platform is built so you can get started yourself, right away. With one-click integrations, you can connect your helpdesk (whether it's Zendesk, Freshdesk, or another) and all your knowledge sources in minutes. You don't need a developer, and you don't have to sit through a sales call. You can have a working AI agent running simulations in less time than it takes to find the right settings page in HubSpot.
Understanding the HubSpot AI pricing structure
HubSpot does offer some AI tools on its free and lower-priced plans, but the really useful automation features are kept behind the paywall of its "Professional" and "Enterprise" subscriptions.
If you want full access to AI-powered workflows and chatbots, you usually have to upgrade your entire Service Hub or Marketing Hub. And that’s not a small ask. The Service Hub Professional plan starts at $450 per month (billed annually) for just five users, while the Enterprise tier climbs to $1,200 per month.
This creates an all-or-nothing problem. You might only need one or two AI features, but to get them, you're pushed into a pricey platform upgrade that comes with a ton of other tools you may not even use.
A more focused solution has a clear edge here. eesel AI's pricing is straightforward and isn't bundled with a massive platform subscription. With monthly plans you can cancel whenever you want, you just pay for what you need. And since there are no per-resolution fees, you won't get hit with a surprise bill for your AI doing its job well.
The better alternative: Improve your stack with eesel AI
Relying only on a platform's built-in AI, like HubSpot's, means you have to live with its trade-offs: disconnected knowledge, inflexible workflows, a risky setup, and bundled pricing.
A smarter approach is to use an intelligent AI layer that works with the tools you already have, making them better instead of forcing you to replace them. eesel AI acts as that powerful layer, sitting on top of your current helpdesk and knowledge sources to deliver automation that’s actually connected to your business.
Here’s a quick comparison:
Feature | HubSpot AI Automation | eesel AI |
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Setup Time | Hours or weeks of complex configuration | Minutes; self-serve with 1-click integrations |
Knowledge Sources | Mostly HubSpot KB & CRM data | Unified: past tickets, Confluence, GDocs & 100+ sources |
Customization | Limited to pre-set, HubSpot-only actions | Fully customizable actions & live API calls to any system |
Testing | Live testing in production (high risk) | Risk-free simulation on thousands of historical tickets |
Pricing Model | Bundled with expensive platform upgrades | Transparent, flexible plans; no per-resolution fees |
Moving beyond built-in HubSpot AI Automation Recommendations
HubSpot's AI is a decent starting point for basic automation, especially if your team’s entire world is inside the HubSpot ecosystem. It can certainly help with simple tasks and give you a feel for what AI can do.
But for teams that need genuine flexibility, full control, and a quick path to seeing results, a specialized AI platform is the way to go. By connecting all your knowledge and building workflows that span all your tools, you can get past the limits of a built-in solution. An independent AI layer gives you the freedom to automate processes your way, without having to make compromises.
Ready to see what a truly flexible AI layer can do for your team? Get started with eesel AI for free and you can have a powerful AI agent up and running in minutes, not months.
Frequently asked questions
HubSpot's built-in AI, primarily "Breeze," assists with tasks like drafting content for marketing emails and blog posts, building simple workflows from natural language prompts, running basic website chatbots, and providing predictive analytics for lead scoring. These features are designed for convenience within the HubSpot ecosystem.
HubSpot's workflows are largely confined to its own ecosystem, making it difficult to connect with data or trigger actions in external applications like Shopify or project management tools. This limitation often necessitates clunky custom workarounds or leaves many cross-platform tasks unautomated.
HubSpot's native chatbots are generally limited to information stored within your HubSpot knowledge base and CRM. They struggle to access and learn from external documents like Confluence guides, Google Docs, or Notion pages, which can result in less comprehensive and generic answers.
HubSpot's setup process typically involves building automations directly in a live environment, making safe pre-deployment testing challenging. This "flip a switch and hope" approach carries risks of misrouted leads or negative customer experiences due to untested workflows.
While some basic AI tools are available on HubSpot's free and lower-priced plans, the more advanced and truly useful automation features generally require a Professional or Enterprise subscription for the Service or Marketing Hubs. This can lead to costly platform upgrades just to access specific AI capabilities.
An independent AI layer like eesel AI sits on top of your existing tools, providing unified knowledge from all your various sources and flexible, customizable workflows that can make live API calls to any system. This allows for more powerful and connected automation without requiring you to abandon your current HubSpot setup.