I tested the top 5 Serval AI alternatives for 2025 (and the results are surprising)

If you’ve typed ‘Serval AI’ into a search bar recently, you might have ended up scratching your head. I know I did. The search results are a jumble of academic papers, IT service tools, and even a Linux distribution named "Teal Serval." It’s a bit of a mess.

It turns out "Serval AI" means different things to different people. But after digging around, I realized most of us are looking for the same thing: a smart AI platform that can help with support, answer questions, and make all our company knowledge easier to find.

So, I decided to cut through the noise. This post will clear up what you’re probably looking for and give you a straightforward, no-fluff list of the best practical alternatives I found for teams that want to automate support and get their knowledge in one place in 2025.

What is Serval AI and why look for Serval AI alternatives?

Before we jump into the alternatives, let’s quickly untangle this "Serval AI" situation. To find the right tool, it helps to know what you’re replacing (or what you were looking for in the first place).

Here’s a quick breakdown of the different "Servals" out there:

• Serval (the ITSM Platform): This is an AI-native IT Service Management (ITSM) platform built for internal IT support. If you’re looking for AI to handle IT tickets for your own employees, this is likely the "Serval" you’ve heard of.

• SERVAL (the Research Paper): This is a deep-cut academic paper on an AI method for "Surprisingly Effective Zero-Shot Visual Document Retrieval." It’s about using AI to find info in charts and graphs. Cool, but it’s a concept, not a product you can buy.

• The Serval Project: This is an older, open-source project for creating phone-to-phone networks when there’s no cell signal. Definitely interesting, but not what a business needs for support automation.

• Teal Serval (AlmaLinux): This is just the codename for a version of the AlmaLinux operating system, a free alternative to Red Hat. Again, not an AI support tool.

After sifting through all that, it’s pretty clear: when people search for Serval AI alternatives, they’re looking for modern AI tools for IT support, customer service, and internal knowledge management. And that’s what this list is all about.

How we picked the best Serval AI alternatives

I wanted this list to be genuinely useful, not just a roundup of the companies with the biggest marketing budgets. I focused on the things that actually matter when you’re in the trenches with a support or IT team.

Basically, I asked:

• Can I set it up myself? How fast can you get going without having to sit through a sales demo or rope in a developer? Does it plug into the help desk you already use?

• Is it smart? Can the AI actually learn from all your scattered knowledge, like past support tickets, internal docs, and public help articles?

• Am I in control? Can you easily tell the AI how to behave, what it should (and shouldn’t) know, and which types of tickets it’s allowed to touch?

• Can I test it safely? Is there a way to see how the AI will perform before you let it talk to actual customers?

• Is the pricing honest? Is it clear and predictable, or is it hidden behind a "Contact Us" button and weird fees that pop up when you’re not looking?

A quick comparison of the top Serval AI alternatives

Here’s a bird’s-eye view of how the top tools stack up.

Feature	eesel AI	Serval (ITSM)	Moveworks	Forethought	Ada
Best For	Self-serve support automation	AI-native ITSM teams	Enterprise-level internal IT	Agent productivity & assistance	Customer-facing chatbots
Self-Serve Setup	✅ Yes, go live in minutes	❌ Requires demo	❌ Requires demo & implementation	❌ Requires demo	❌ Requires demo
Trains on Past Tickets	✅ Yes	Unclear	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ No
Connects to GDocs/Confluence	✅ Yes	Unclear	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Simulation Mode	✅ Yes, on historical tickets	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
Transparent Pricing	✅ Yes, public pricing page	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No

The 5 best Serval AI alternatives in 2025

After spending time with each platform, here are my top picks for the best Serval AI alternatives that can actually make a difference in your support workflows.

1. eesel AI

eesel AI is my top pick because it’s built for teams that want serious automation without the enterprise-level headaches and price tag. You can actually sign up, connect your tools, and get an AI agent running in minutes. It pulls together all your scattered knowledge and works inside your existing help desk, so you don’t have to switch to a whole new system.

Pros:

• You can be live in minutes, not months. I’m not kidding. You can set it up yourself without ever talking to a salesperson. The one-click integrations with tools like Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Slack are incredibly simple.

• It connects all your knowledge. It doesn’t just learn from your help center. eesel AI also learns from your past tickets, macros, and internal documents in places like Confluence and Google Docs. This gives its answers a ton of depth and accuracy.

• You can test with confidence. The simulation mode is a huge plus. It runs your AI agent on thousands of your past tickets and shows you exactly how it would have responded and what its resolution rate would be. This lets you see the impact before a single customer ever interacts with it.

• You’re in the driver’s seat. A simple prompt editor lets you define the AI’s tone and behavior. You can start small, letting it handle just one type of simple ticket while escalating everything else. You have complete control.

The eesel AI simulation mode, a key feature for teams considering Serval AI alternatives, allows for risk-free testing on past tickets.

Cons:

• As a newer company, it doesn’t have the huge brand recognition of some of the enterprise players on this list.

• Some of the more advanced features, like managing multiple AI agents in complex setups, are only available on the highest plan.

Pricing:

eesel AI has transparent, predictable pricing without any of those pesky per-resolution fees. You can start with a 7-day free trial to try it all out.

• Team Plan: $299/month ($239/mo if billed annually) for up to 1,000 AI interactions, 3 bots, and integrations with Slack, help centers, and docs.

• Business Plan: $799/month ($639/mo if billed annually) for up to 3,000 AI interactions, unlimited bots, and unlocks training on past tickets, AI Actions (like triage), and bulk simulation.

• Custom Plan: Custom pricing for unlimited interactions, advanced actions, and bespoke security controls.

2. Serval

As the namesake, Serval had to be on the list. It’s an AI-native platform built specifically for IT Service Management (ITSM), which makes it a direct option for teams focused on internal support for their own employees.

Pros:

• It’s purpose-built for modern IT teams and was designed with an AI-first approach.

• The marketing talks a big game about giving "superpowers" to ITSM professionals, focusing on making internal IT run smoother.

Cons:

• Because it’s so focused on ITSM, it might not be the right fit for teams that also deal with external customer service.

• There’s a real lack of transparency. You can’t find pricing or detailed features on their site, so you have to book a sales demo to learn anything useful.

• It’s hard to tell how easy it is to set up or how many tools it connects with without going through that demo process.

Pricing:

• Not public. You have to talk to their sales team to get a quote.

3. Moveworks

Moveworks is a giant in the enterprise AI world. It’s a heavy-duty platform for huge companies looking to automate internal support across IT, HR, and other departments.

Pros:

• It offers deep integrations with major enterprise systems like ServiceNow and Microsoft Teams.

• It has a long track record with a big customer base of well-known corporations.

• The whole idea is to resolve employee issues on its own, acting as a single AI helper for the entire company.

Cons:

• It’s built and priced for the Fortune 500. Getting it set up is a long, involved project that takes a lot of time and money.

• This is not a self-serve tool. You can’t just sign up and play around with it; you have to go through a full sales and implementation cycle.

• The cost and complexity put it out of reach for most small-to-medium-sized businesses or any team that needs a fast, flexible solution.

Pricing:

• Not listed publicly. Their pricing page actually leads to a 404 error and directs you to contact sales, which tells you everything you need to know about their enterprise sales model.

4. Forethought

Forethought is another big name in AI customer service. It offers a suite of different tools that are meant to cover the whole support process, from full automation to just helping human agents work faster.

Pros:

• Its platform is split into different products (Solve, Triage, Assist), so you can pick and choose which part of your support process you want to focus on.

• It puts a lot of emphasis on plugging into help desks to help agents with AI-powered suggestions and ticket summaries.

Cons:

• Having all these different products can feel a bit complicated and piecemeal to set up.

• Pricing is a complete black box. You have to schedule a demo to get a custom quote.

• It doesn’t have a true simulation mode to test the AI on your old tickets, which makes it harder to guess what kind of impact it will have before you flip the switch.

Pricing:

• Forethought’s pricing page shows three tiers but provides no actual numbers. You have to "Get a Quote" for each one, meaning you’re entering a sales process.

5. Ada

Ada is well-known as a top-tier AI chatbot platform. It’s a great choice for building complex, automated conversations for your website or app.

Pros:

• The no-code chatbot builder is really powerful and lets non-technical folks create detailed, guided conversations.

• It’s fantastic for use cases like sales and proactive support, where you want to lead the user down a specific path.

• It has strong features for personalizing conversations and analyzing how they perform.

Cons:

• At its core, it’s a chatbot that relies on conversation flows you build by hand. It doesn’t learn from your past support tickets to come up with its own answers, which can be a problem when customers ask unexpected questions.

• The focus is more on the standalone chatbot experience than on automating things inside your help desk or helping your agents.

• Getting started requires talking to sales, and the pricing isn’t public.

Pricing:

• Ada’s pricing page is a form to contact their sales team. Your price will be customized based on how many conversations you expect and which features you need.

How to choose the right Serval AI alternatives for your team

Feeling a little overwhelmed by the options? Don’t worry. Picking the right tool really just comes down to a few simple questions.

Integrate with your current tools

The best AI tool is one that works with your team, not against it. Look for something that connects easily with your current help desk (like Zendesk, Freshdesk, or Intercom) and your knowledge sources. A "rip and replace" project that forces you to move to a whole new platform is a massive, expensive headache. Your AI should make your current workflow better, not blow it up.

Try before you buy

Putting an AI in front of your customers is a big deal. You need to be sure it’s going to be helpful, not just another frustrating robot. That’s why you should look for platforms that let you lower the risk. A free trial is good, but a simulation mode is even better. Being able to test the AI on your actual past tickets gives you a real, data-driven preview of how it will perform.

Demand clear, predictable pricing

Don’t fall for vague enterprise pricing or models that charge you for every ticket the AI solves. Those costs are impossible to predict and basically penalize you for being successful. A platform with a public pricing page is confident in its value and makes it easy for you to budget. Look for a flat fee so you don’t get a nasty surprise on your bill at the end of a busy month.

eesel AI's public pricing page stands in contrast to other Serval AI alternatives that hide costs behind sales demos.

Unify your knowledge and automate support with eesel AI

The confusing term "Serval AI" might be what brought you here, but your goal is simple: find a practical, powerful, and easy-to-use AI platform to help your team.

After trying out all these tools, eesel AI really stands out. It delivers on the promise of AI automation with a self-serve experience that gets you up and running in minutes. It connects to all your existing knowledge, gives you full control over how it works, and lets you test everything risk-free with its simulation engine.

Ready to see how easily you can automate your support? Start your free eesel AI trial today and see for yourself.