The top 5 KMS AI alternatives to consider in 2025

Let’s be real: most Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) are like digital junk drawers. They’re clunky, hard to search, and a nightmare to keep updated. And while adding "AI" to the name sounds fancy, many of these tools just lock you into their platform and require a massive setup project before you see any results.

The truth is, your team’s knowledge isn’t sitting in one neat folder. It’s scattered all over the place, in old help desk tickets, random Slack channels, buried in Google Docs, and living on Confluence pages. A genuinely useful KMS AI tool shouldn’t make you move all that stuff. It should connect to it, right where it is.

That’s what this article is about. We’re looking at five KMS AI alternatives that actually work with your existing knowledge to help you automate support, give your agents a hand, and deliver quick, accurate answers.

What are KMS AI tools?

KMS AI tools use artificial intelligence to completely change how a company finds, shares, and uses information. It’s a big step up from the old way of doing things. A traditional KMS is basically for storing information. A KMS AI tool is about understanding and using it. Instead of just being a library you can search, these tools can run chatbots, suggest replies for agents, and find solutions on their own.

At their core, they do a few key things really well:

• They understand what you mean: They look at the intent behind your search, not just the keywords you typed.

• They help manage content: They can automatically sort information, suggest new articles based on solved tickets, and even point out content that’s getting old.

• They give direct answers: Instead of sending you a link to a long article and making you read the whole thing, they can pull out the exact answer you need.

All this adds up to faster ticket resolution, less repetitive work for your team, and happier customers.

How we evaluated the best KMS AI alternatives

To find the best options out there, we focused on what support and IT teams actually need day-to-day. We looked past the marketing fluff and judged each tool on four simple things:

1. How fast can you get it working? We looked for tools you can set up yourself, without needing a team of consultants or weeks of training.

2. Does it connect to your other tools? The best tools don’t make you move your knowledge. They plug into your help desk, chat apps, and document platforms to bring everything together.

3. How much control do you have over the AI? You should be able to decide what the AI automates, how it sounds, and what it’s allowed to do. Having that control is key to trusting it.

4. Is the pricing straightforward? We looked for clear, predictable pricing. No one wants a surprise bill because they had a busy month, so we avoided tools that charge you for every ticket the AI touches.

Comparison of the top KMS AI alternatives

Feature	eesel AI	Guru	Bloomfire	Document360	Zendesk AI
Best For	Unifying existing knowledge for full automation	Building an internal company wiki	Enterprise knowledge discovery	Creating a formal, public knowledge base	Teams committed to the Zendesk ecosystem
Setup Time	Minutes (self-serve)	Days to weeks	Weeks (demo required)	Days to weeks	Hours (within Zendesk)
Connects All Sources?	Yes (Help desks, chat, docs, etc.)	Limited (focus on its own platform)	Yes, but complex setup	No (focus is on its own KB)	No (Zendesk only)
Trains on Past Tickets?	Yes, automatically	No	No	No	Yes
Simulation Mode	Yes, on historical tickets	No	No	No	Limited
Pricing Model	Flat monthly fee (no per-resolution cost)	Per user, per month	Custom (Quote required)	Tiered, based on features	Per agent add-on / per resolution

A closer look at the 5 best KMS AI alternatives

Alright, let’s dive into the details. Here’s a breakdown of each platform and what they’re all about.

1. eesel AI: The best among KMS AI alternatives for unifying and automating your existing knowledge

eesel AI is built on a simple idea: you shouldn’t have to start from scratch. Instead of forcing you to build a new knowledge base, it connects directly to the tools you’re already using. It plugs into your help desk, Slack, Confluence, Google Docs, and more to pull all your knowledge together.

This approach means you can get set up in minutes. You can connect your help desk with a single click and have an AI agent learning from your past tickets right away. There are no mandatory sales calls or demos, so you can see if it’s a good fit immediately. It also has a really helpful simulation mode that lets you test the AI on thousands of your old tickets. This way, you can see exactly how it will perform and figure out your ROI before it ever talks to a real customer.

The other thing that makes eesel AI a strong contender is its focus on control and transparent pricing. You get to decide which tickets the AI handles, what its personality is like, and what actions it can take (like looking up order info). And the flat monthly fee means your bill won’t suddenly jump if you have a busy support month.

Pros:

• You can go live in minutes with a setup you can do yourself.

• It integrates with over 100+ sources, so all your scattered knowledge gets connected.

• It automatically learns from your team’s past ticket replies to match your brand’s voice.

• The simulation mode lets you test everything without any risk.

• Pricing is predictable, with no hidden fees for each resolution.

Cons:

• As a newer tool, it doesn’t have some of the legacy features you might find in older KMS platforms.

Pricing: Starts at $299/month, which includes up to 1,000 AI interactions across all products (Agent, Copilot, Chatbot, etc.).

2. Guru: A top choice among KMS AI alternatives for building a collaborative internal wiki

Guru is a really popular tool for creating a central wiki or internal knowledge base. It’s designed for teams to write down and share information using a "Card" system. A lot of people like its browser extension, which lets you look up or save knowledge without switching tabs.

The catch is that Guru is a destination. You have to actively create and manage all your content inside its platform, which means you’re building another silo that needs constant upkeep. While it connects with tools like Slack, its main job isn’t to automatically handle support tickets by learning from them, the way eesel AI does. Getting it set up and keeping everything organized can also be a big job, especially for larger teams.

Pros:

• Great for building a structured internal knowledge base where information is verified.

• The browser extension makes it easy to access knowledge from anywhere.

• Has strong features for team collaboration and content reviews.

Cons:

• Requires you to manually create and organize content inside Guru.

• It’s less focused on having an AI that can take action in your help desk.

• Can get complicated and time-consuming to manage as your team grows.

Pricing: Starts at $15 per user/month.

3. Bloomfire: A leading KMS AI alternative for enterprise-grade knowledge discovery

Bloomfire is a hefty knowledge platform built for big companies. Its most impressive feature is an AI-powered search that can dig through all kinds of content, including videos and slide decks, to make everything searchable. It also has Q&A features to get people talking and sharing information.

The downside is that its long list of features can be too much for teams with simpler needs. Getting started usually involves a longer, sales-led process, so you can’t just sign up and try it out. The pricing is also kept under wraps, which is a deal-breaker for teams who want to know what they’re getting into. It acts more like a central search engine than an AI that can actually do things in your other systems.

Pros:

• A powerful search that can index pretty much any type of content.

• Good for encouraging employee engagement and collaboration.

• Built to scale for the needs of a large enterprise.

Cons:

• You have to talk to a salesperson to get pricing.

• It can be too complicated if you just need a straightforward solution.

• The setup process can take a lot of time and effort.

Pricing: Custom pricing available upon request.

4. Document360: A key KMS AI alternative for creating structured product documentation

Document360 is a fantastic tool if your main goal is to create a polished, customer-facing knowledge base. It gives you great editing tools, version control, and solid options for organizing your content. The built-in AI can help with writing and summarizing articles to make the process a bit smoother.

The thing is, Document360 is laser-focused on being a tool for building a standalone knowledge base. It’s not made to connect all the knowledge you have scattered in other places or to learn from messy data like support tickets and Slack chats. If you want to build a beautiful help center from the ground up, it’s a solid choice. But if your goal is to use the knowledge you already have to automate support, it just ends up being one more silo to manage.

Pros:

• Excellent features for creating and managing a formal knowledge base.

• Includes version control and workflows for content management.

• Offers a clean, customizable design for public help centers.

Cons:

• It’s a closed-off system and doesn’t connect to external knowledge sources.

• It’s not built to resolve tickets on its own based on historical data.

Pricing: Starts at $199 per project/month.

5. Zendesk AI: A notable KMS AI alternative for teams fully invested in the Zendesk ecosystem

If your team lives and breathes Zendesk, then their native AI add-on is worth a look. It’s built right into the help desk, offering things like AI-powered ticket summaries, smart routing, and bots that use content from your Zendesk Help Center. Since it’s a native feature, setting it up is pretty straightforward.

The biggest drawback is that you’re stuck in the Zendesk bubble. Zendesk AI mainly works with knowledge that’s already inside Zendesk. It can’t connect to your team’s Confluence, Google Docs, or those important Slack threads where so much real problem-solving happens. On top of that, the pricing is often based on how many resolutions the AI performs, which can get expensive and unpredictable as your support volume grows. You end up being punished for successfully automating more tickets.

Pros:

• Smooth integration for teams already using Zendesk.

• Can learn from past Zendesk tickets and your help center.

• Everything happens within a single platform.

Cons:

• It locks you into the Zendesk ecosystem and can’t use outside knowledge.

• The pricing can become expensive and hard to predict as you scale.

• It lacks a good way to simulate and test the AI across all your knowledge sources.

Pricing: Available as an add-on to Zendesk plans, with pricing often tied to usage or resolutions.

How to choose the right KMS AI alternatives for your team

Picking the right tool really comes down to what your team needs. Here are a few things to think about:

1. Figure out where your knowledge actually lives. Before you look at any tools, do a quick audit. Is most of your useful info in a formal help center? Or is it hiding in old tickets and Slack DMs? If your knowledge is all over the place, look for a tool like eesel AI that can connect it all without a big migration project.

2. Look for a quick setup. Your team is busy. You shouldn’t have to sit through weeks of demos just to see if a tool is a good fit. Find platforms that offer a free trial or let you sign up and start testing on your own, right away.

3. Test the AI without the risk. AI can feel like a black box. A tool with a solid simulation mode is a must-have. It lets you see how the AI performs on your own data so you can build a case for it with real numbers before you commit.

4. Watch out for tricky pricing. Be careful with "pay-per-resolution" models. It sounds cheap at first, but the costs can quickly get out of hand as your automation gets better. A flat fee gives you predictability and won’t penalize you for growing.

The future of KMS AI alternatives is unified, not siloed

The best KMS AI tools don’t ask you to build yet another information silo. They understand that your team creates valuable knowledge every single day, in every support ticket, Slack message, and document. The goal isn’t just to find a better place to store your information; it’s to connect it all with an intelligent layer that makes it easy to find and use.

If you’re ready to stop managing a static library and start putting your team’s collective brain to work, give eesel AI a try. You can connect your accounts and start running a simulation in about five minutes.

Start your free trial today or book a demo to see how eesel AI can bring your knowledge together and automate your support.