A practical guide to Atlassian Rovo Chat: Features, use cases, and hidden costs

Atlassian is jumping into the AI game with its new AI assistant, Rovo Chat. On paper, it sounds great: a central brain for your company that can search all your apps, summarize long documents, and generally make work feel less like… well, work.

But there’s a catch. Many people are still waiting to get access, nobody really knows what it will cost down the line, and there are some real questions about who’s in control. So, is Rovo Chat actually ready for prime time? Let's break down what it is, what it’s good for, and the hidden problems you should know about before you commit.

What is Atlassian Rovo Chat?

Simply put, Rovo Chat is an AI assistant that lives inside Atlassian tools like Confluence and Jira. It's the chatty part of Atlassian's bigger AI toolkit, called Rovo.

The whole idea is to stop you from having to search a dozen different places for one piece of information. You can just ask Rovo Chat a question like you would a person, and it’s supposed to dig up answers from your Confluence pages, Jira tickets, and even other apps you've connected, like Google Drive or Slack. It uses something Atlassian calls a "Teamwork Graph" to figure out how all your projects, people, and documents are connected, so it can (hopefully) give you a smart answer.

Key features of Rovo Chat

Rovo Chat is designed to make it easier for teams to find and use the information they already have. Here’s a look at what it can do.

Find anything, anywhere

The main selling point for Rovo Chat is its search function. You can ask it to find a project update or track down a document in plain English, without needing to remember the exact filename or where you saved it. There's even a Rovo browser extension that lets you use this search from any webpage, which is handy.

This is great for general questions, but what if you're in customer support? You need an AI that truly gets the history and context of customer issues. That’s where a purpose-built tool like eesel AI comes in. It's trained on past support tickets, so it can deliver incredibly accurate answers right out of the box.

Get the short version of long documents

We've all been there: staring at a massive document or a never-ending ticket thread. Rovo Chat can give you a quick summary with the key points and action items. It can also help you get started on new content, like drafting a meeting agenda or a project brief from a simple prompt.

Put AI to work with Rovo agents

Rovo Chat isn't just for finding things; it can also do things. It uses "Rovo Agents," which are like little AI helpers programmed for specific tasks. Think translating a document, organizing a messy Jira backlog, or pulling together release notes. You can use pre-built agents or try to build your own.

Building your own agents can get complicated, though. If your goal is to automate the core work of your support team, like sorting tickets or looking up customer order details, you'll probably want a more focused platform. A tool like eesel AI gives you a powerful workflow engine for this kind of automation without needing a developer to set it up.

How teams can use Rovo Chat: Practical examples

Because it's a general-purpose tool, Rovo Chat can be useful for different teams across a company.

• For engineers: You could ask, "What were the latest pull requests for the mobile app?" or "Who owns the login service?" to get a quick answer without having to ping someone on Slack.

• For marketing folks: Try prompts like, "Draft a campaign brief for the Q4 launch," or "Find the latest brand style guide," pulling info from Confluence or linked Google Docs.

• For IT and internal support: They can use it to search the internal knowledge base to solve employee problems faster or get a summary of a long-running ticket to get up to speed.

The big question marks: Key limitations

While the features look good on a slide deck, some serious issues are bubbling up from early users and even in Atlassian's own documentation. These could be deal-breakers.

Anyone actually using Rovo? We have it enabled in a few places but the feedback has been lukewarm at best. It's slow, the answers aren't always accurate, and nobody knows what it's going to cost us. Hard to justify rolling it out further with so many question marks.

Reddit

The pricing mystery

Right now, Rovo is bundled into Atlassian’s Premium and Enterprise plans, which sounds good until you read the fine print. Some plans have surprisingly low usage caps, like just seven "engagements" a month per user. But the real headache is the pricing cliff coming in 2026. Nobody knows what it will cost, which makes it pretty much impossible to plan a budget around.

This kind of uncertainty can stop an AI project in its tracks. It's why tools like eesel AI stick to clear, predictable pricing. You get a flat rate based on how much you use it, with no hidden fees per ticket solved. That way, you can actually scale without worrying about a surprise bill.

A screenshot of the eesel AI pricing page, which shows clear, predictable plans, unlike the uncertainty surrounding Rovo Chat pricing.

The waiting game

Here's a simple problem: many teams just can't use Rovo Chat yet. The rollout is happening in stages, and you need a site admin to turn it on, which can sometimes involve navigating confusing "release tracks." For teams that need to solve problems today, this is a huge roadblock.

If you can't afford to sit around and wait, a self-serve platform is a lifesaver. With eesel AI, you can connect your helpdesk and knowledge base and be up and running in a few minutes, not months. No need to wait for an admin or a corporate green light.

A workflow diagram illustrating the quick, self-serve implementation of eesel AI, contrasting with the slow rollout of Rovo Chat.

Who's in control?

People are right to be nervous about giving a new AI too much power. Users have pointed out that a badly configured agent could cause real damage. Rolling out a powerful tool without a safe way to test it first is a big risk.

When you're automating conversations with customers, you need to be 100% confident. eesel AI tackles this problem with a powerful simulation mode. You can test your setup on thousands of your actual past tickets to see exactly how it would have performed. This helps you forecast how well it will work and lets you roll it out gradually, so you're always in complete control.

The eesel AI simulation dashboard, which allows teams to test automation performance on historical data before deployment, addressing control concerns with tools like Rovo Chat.

A more practical alternative for support and IT teams

Rovo Chat has big ambitions, but the fuzzy pricing, slow rollout, and lack of control make it a bit of a gamble, especially for teams that need reliable automation right now. For customer service, IT, and internal support teams, a tool built specifically for them is a much safer bet.

eesel AI is made for teams that need to get things done. It delivers:

• Speed: Go live in minutes. It's completely self-serve.

• Confidence: Test everything on your own historical data with a simulation engine.

• Control: Choose exactly which workflows to automate and when.

• Predictability: Know your costs upfront with transparent, flat-rate pricing.

Is Rovo Chat the right tool for you?

For companies that are all-in on the Atlassian ecosystem and don't mind a bit of uncertainty about future costs and features, Rovo Chat is a promising tool to keep an eye on.

However, for teams on the front lines of support, those limitations are just too big to ignore. If you need a dedicated, controllable, and cost-effective AI solution that you can start using today, you're going to need a different tool. Don't let uncertainty get in the way of your team's progress. See how eesel AI can help you automate support and streamline your workflows in minutes.

Start your free trial today.