Atlassian is rolling out Rovo, a new AI teammate that’s supposed to act as a central brain for all your company’s information. The big idea is to tear down those annoying information silos and help you find answers without having to jump between a dozen different tabs. The real power behind this promise comes from a feature set called Rovo Chat Actions / Plugins.
But what does that actually mean in practice?
In this guide, we'll cut through the marketing-speak and give you a straight-up overview of what Rovo can and can't do. We'll break down what these actions and plugins are, how your team can use them, and where Rovo’s focus on its own ecosystem might actually slow you down. While Rovo looks promising for teams living entirely in the Atlassian universe, it's a good idea to understand its limitations before you go all-in.
Understanding the Atlassian Rovo suite
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, it helps to know that "Rovo" isn't just a single tool. It’s a group of connected AI features, and knowing who's who makes it easier to see how the actions and plugins fit into the bigger picture.
Rovo Chat: The conversational interface
Think of Rovo Chat as the front door. It’s the chat window you’ll see inside Atlassian products like Jira and Confluence, and it also comes as a browser extension. When you want to ask a question or tell the AI to do something, this is probably where you'll do it.
Rovo Agents: The task specialists
Agents are basically specialized AI assistants built to handle specific jobs. You can use Atlassian’s ready-made agents (like one that drafts release notes) or build your own from scratch. These agents are the ones that actually use the plugins to find information and the actions to get tasks done.
Rovo Studio: The agent builder
Rovo Studio is the workshop where you can build and tweak your own agents. It’s a no-code/low-code setup that lets your team decide what an agent should do, what information it can access, and which actions it has permission to take.
A deep dive into Rovo Chat Actions / Plugins
So, what's the actual difference between an "action" and a "plugin"? Atlassian's documentation keeps it pretty simple. They are the building blocks that let Rovo do more than just search for stuff.
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Plugins are how Rovo reads, searches, and understands your information. When you ask Rovo to find a specific Confluence page or check a Google Doc, it’s using a plugin to go and grab that data.
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Actions are what Rovo does with that information. Once a plugin has fetched what you need, an action lets you create or update something. Think creating a Jira ticket, sending a Slack message, or adding a comment to a page.
Without these, Rovo would pretty much just be a fancy search bar. With them, it becomes an assistant that can actually do things for you.
To give you a clearer idea, here are some of the main Rovo Chat Actions / Plugins you can use:
| Category | Name | Plugin or Action | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlassian (Jira) | Create issue in Jira | Action | Makes a new Jira issue from a simple prompt. |
| Transition issue | Action | Changes a Jira issue's status (e.g., from "To Do" to "In Progress"). | |
| Comment on issue | Action | Adds a comment to a Jira issue for you. | |
| Jira JQL | Plugin | Finds Jira issues using a JQL query for more specific searches. | |
| Atlassian (Confluence) | Create page in Confluence | Action | Drafts and publishes a new page in a Confluence space. |
| Edit Confluence page | Action | Adds new content to the bottom of a page that already exists. | |
| Page search | Plugin | Finds Confluence pages using different search filters. | |
| Third-Party Tools | Send Slack message | Action | Posts a message to a Slack channel or person from Rovo Chat. |
| Create Google Doc | Action | Creates a brand new Google Doc. | |
| Send MS Teams message | Action | Sends a message to a channel, group, or person in Microsoft Teams. | |
| Content read | Plugin | Reads content from Atlassian links and some third-party sources like Google Docs and SharePoint. |
How different teams use Rovo Chat Actions / Plugins
Things get interesting when you start combining these building blocks to handle everyday work. Here’s how a few different teams might put them to use.
Use cases for IT and support teams
Picture this: a user reports a bug in that one super-busy Slack channel. Instead of manually copying and pasting everything over to Jira, a support agent can just call on Rovo Chat. The AI can use the "Content read" plugin to get the context from the conversation, the "Create issue in Jira" action to log a new ticket with all the details, and then the "Send Slack message" action to drop the new ticket number back into the channel. It’s a slick way to turn messy conversations into organized work, as long as you have the exact pre-built actions you need.
Use cases for software development teams
A developer is focused on their code and needs to double-check the specs for a new feature. Using the Rovo browser extension, they can ask the AI to find the right document in Confluence with the "Page search" plugin. Once they have it, they can ask Rovo to summarize the key points and then use the "Create issue" action to make a sub-task in their Jira sprint. All of this happens without them ever needing to leave their coding environment.
Use cases for marketing and content teams
Let's say a marketing team just finished a brainstorming session and all the notes are sitting in a shared Google Doc. A team member can ask Rovo to use the "Create page in Confluence" action to turn those rough notes into a proper project brief. From there, they could use an action to assign follow-up tasks in Jira to different people, making sure nothing gets forgotten.
Key limitations of Rovo's ecosystem-first approach
While Rovo is a neat tool for teams who live and breathe Atlassian, its design comes with some real-world trade-offs. If your company uses a mix of different tools or you just want to get things done quickly, these limitations are worth thinking about.
A restrictive walled garden
Rovo is built to play best with Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket. It can connect to some outside tools, but its best features are saved for its own products. If your company's knowledge is spread across a Zendesk help center, Notion wikis, and SharePoint folders, Rovo is probably going to have a hard time pulling all of that together for one accurate answer.
A headache to set up and roll out
Getting started with Rovo isn't as simple as flipping a switch. For one, it’s only available on Atlassian’s Premium and Enterprise plans. Then, you'll need an admin to set up all the permissions and connect your data sources. If you want to build custom agents, your team has to learn its way around Rovo Studio. There's no "get it running in five minutes" option here; it's a platform you have to commit to building on.
No way to test in the wild
You can test Rovo agents, but the platform doesn't have a good way to simulate how your AI would have handled thousands of your real, historical support tickets. This makes it almost impossible to predict things like automation rates or how much money you'll save before you let it loose on actual customers. You’re kind of flying blind until it's live.
Unpredictable future pricing
Atlassian is using a credit-based system for Rovo right now, but they’ve already said they plan to switch to usage-based pricing down the road. This makes budgeting a total guessing game. For teams with a lot of support tickets, a per-interaction price could lead to some surprisingly high bills that go up whenever you get busy.
A flexible alternative for cross-platform AI automation
If Rovo's limitations are ringing a bell, it's because this is pretty common with AI tools built for just one platform. For teams that need an AI that works across all their tools, a more flexible solution like eesel AI might be a better fit. While Rovo puts AI inside Atlassian, eesel AI works like an intelligent layer that connects to your entire tech stack.
Get up and running in minutes, not months
You don't need to wait for an admin or learn a whole new platform. eesel AI is designed to be completely self-serve. You can sign up, connect your help desk like Zendesk or Freshdesk, and train an AI on your actual knowledge in just a few minutes. No mandatory demos or sales calls required to get started.
Unify all your knowledge instantly
Unlike Rovo, which is focused on Atlassian data, eesel AI connects to wherever your team's knowledge is stored, right out of the box. It works with help centers, past ticket history, macros, Google Docs, Confluence, PDFs, and more. This gives your AI the full story, which means you get more accurate and helpful responses.
An infographic showing how eesel AI connects to various knowledge sources, a flexible alternative to Rovo Chat Actions / Plugins.Total control with a customizable workflow engine
Rovo’s actions are handy, but they're also pre-set. eesel AI gives you fine-tuned control with a simple prompt editor and support for custom actions. You can define your AI's exact tone of voice, create custom API calls to look up live order info in Shopify, or build workflows that match exactly how your team works.
A screenshot of eesel AI's customization rules, which offer more control than standard Rovo Chat Actions / Plugins.Test with confidence and predictable pricing
eesel AI has a powerful simulation mode that lets you test your setup on thousands of your past support tickets. You get a real, data-backed deflection rate before you turn anything on for your customers. This confidence comes with transparent, flat-rate pricing. There are no per-resolution fees, so your bill is always predictable, no matter how busy you are.
The eesel AI simulation mode, a feature not available for Rovo Chat Actions / Plugins, shows predicted automation rates.Are Rovo Chat Actions / Plugins the right tool for the job?
There's no doubt that Rovo Chat Actions / Plugins are a big step forward for teams all-in on the Atlassian suite. They offer a solid way to automate tasks and connect information within Jira, Confluence, and a few other integrated tools.
However, its focus on its own ecosystem, the involved setup process, and the uncertain pricing can be major drawbacks for a lot of teams. If your company knowledge isn't all neatly tucked away inside Atlassian’s world, you'll probably find it limiting.
For teams that need a flexible, powerful, and easy-to-use AI that works with their entire tech stack, eesel AI is the way to go. It’s built to connect all your tools, not just a select few, giving you the power to automate support and find knowledge wherever it lives.
Ready to see how AI can work with all your tools, not just a few? Start your free eesel AI trial and you can build your first AI agent in minutes.
Frequently asked questions
These are the fundamental building blocks that enable Atlassian Rovo to perform tasks beyond basic search. Plugins help Rovo read, search, and understand information from various sources, while Actions allow Rovo to create or update content based on that information.
A Plugin is designed for Rovo to access and understand data, like searching a Confluence page or reading a Google Doc. An Action, on the other hand, is what Rovo does with that data, such as creating a Jira issue or sending a Slack message.
While Rovo Chat Actions / Plugins do support some third-party integrations (like Slack or Google Docs), their core strength and deepest functionality are reserved for Atlassian products like Jira and Confluence. Teams relying heavily on non-Atlassian tools might find this restrictive.
An IT team could use them to automatically create Jira tickets from Slack messages. Development teams might summarize Confluence specs and create sub-tasks in Jira, while marketing teams could turn Google Doc notes into Confluence pages and assign follow-up tasks.
Key limitations include a strong focus on the Atlassian ecosystem, a potentially complex setup process, and the lack of robust tools to test real-world performance beforehand. Future pricing based on usage also introduces budget unpredictability.
Setting up Rovo Chat Actions / Plugins typically requires an admin to configure permissions and connect data sources, and custom agents are built in Rovo Studio. It's not a "five-minute" self-serve solution and often requires a commitment to building on the platform.
Currently, Atlassian uses a credit-based system for Rovo Chat Actions / Plugins, but they plan to transition to usage-based pricing in the future. This shift makes budgeting difficult, as costs could fluctuate significantly depending on the volume of interactions.
