Sierra vs Forethought: An Honest Comparison for 2025

If you're shopping for an AI customer support tool, you’ve probably seen the names Sierra and Forethought pop up. A lot. They’re both big players with serious funding, and they both promise to completely change the game for customer service teams.

But when you’re a busy leader, you don’t have time to sift through marketing jargon. You need to know how they really work, how long they’ll take to set up, and, let's be honest, what they're going to cost.

This guide is a straight-up, no-fluff comparison of Sierra vs Forethought. We’ll get into their core features, what it’s like to get them up and running, and their pricing models so you can figure out which platform, if any, is the right move for your team.

What is Sierra?

Sierra is a conversational AI platform with some serious heavy-hitters behind it: Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor, the former co-CEO of Salesforce and current chairman of OpenAI, and Clay Bavor, a long-time Google exec. With that kind of leadership, it's no wonder it's making waves.

The big idea behind Sierra is to create AI agents that can do more than just find and deliver answers. These agents are designed to take action on their own by plugging directly into a company's backend systems, like your CRM or order management platform. This means the AI can handle complex jobs like processing a product return, upgrading a customer’s subscription, or rescheduling a delivery, all without a human needing to step in.

Sierra is definitely targeting large enterprise companies looking for a major AI overhaul. As TechCrunch reported, big brands like WeightWatchers, Sonos, and SiriusXM are already on board, which tells you it’s positioned as a premium, heavy-duty solution.

What is Forethought?

Forethought has been in the AI customer service space since 2017, long before the recent generative AI explosion. They offer a toolkit of products aimed at automating and improving the whole support process.

The platform is split into a few key products: Solve, which automates responses to common questions; Triage, which routes and categorizes incoming tickets; and Assist, which acts as a helpful sidekick for human agents. This lets companies zero in on specific problems in their support workflow instead of having to go all-in on a single, massive system.

Forethought often points out that its AI models have been trained on years of real-world customer experience data, which they argue gives them an advantage over newer platforms. They position themselves as a solid choice for medium-to-large companies that want to bring AI into their existing helpdesks, like Zendesk or Freshdesk, without tearing everything down and starting from scratch.

A head-to-head feature comparison

So, how do these two actually stack up when you put them side-by-side? Here’s a look at their core philosophies, what they can do, and how they learn.

Core philosophy: One big brain vs. a team of specialists

Sierra is built around the idea of a single, powerful AI agent that acts like an autonomous employee. The goal is for the agent to think, solve problems, and get things done on its own. This all-in-one approach is definitely powerful, but it’s not something you can just switch on. It requires a pretty significant, hands-on setup project run by Sierra’s own engineers to build all the necessary workflows and integrations.

Forethought feels more like a multi-tool. Companies can pick and choose from its Triage, Assist, and Solve products to tackle different challenges. This offers a lot of flexibility, which is great if you just want to fix one specific thing. The potential downside is that it can feel a bit disconnected, and your team might end up managing a few different AI tools instead of one unified system.

What they can actually do

Sierra’s main claim to fame is its ability to perform multi-step actions in other systems. It’s built for those tricky workflows where the AI needs to talk to multiple databases or APIs to fully solve a problem. Think of it as a tool for deep, backend automation.

Forethought, on the other hand, is more focused on giving accurate answers, deflecting common questions, and routing tickets to the right human agent. Its features are great for managing the flow of conversations, but they tend to stay inside the world of the helpdesk.

For teams that need custom actions without the enterprise-level overhead, eesel AI's AI Agent lets you build your own API calls and webhooks right from the dashboard. This lets your AI look up order information from Shopify, check a user's subscription status, or update a ticket field, and you can set it all up in minutes, not months.

How they learn

Both platforms connect to your knowledge base and learn from your past ticket conversations to get a handle on your business and brand voice. Frankly, that’s the bare minimum for any serious AI support tool these days.

But we all know that real company knowledge is rarely tucked away neatly in the helpdesk. It's usually scattered across dozens of documents and internal wikis. This is where a tool like eesel AI has a real edge. It connects to over 100 different sources, including Confluence, Google Docs, Notion, and Slack. It can even spot gaps in your knowledge base and draft new articles for you based on successful ticket resolutions, so your documentation is always getting better.

The implementation experience: Months of setup vs. immediate value

One of the biggest things to consider when picking an AI platform is how long it takes to actually see a return on your investment. And on this point, the two platforms couldn't be more different.

The enterprise "white-glove" approach

Sierra is designed for huge, company-wide transformations. The setup is a "white-glove" service, which means their team works side-by-side with yours to build and launch the AI agent. According to a report from Upstarts Media, Sierra chooses "depth" over speed. It's a very thorough process, but it can easily take months and will demand a lot of time from your own engineering and support teams.

This video explains how Sierra enables companies to build AI agents that directly interact with customers.

Forethought also requires a hands-on onboarding. While it might not be quite as intensive as Sierra's, it’s not a self-serve tool. You'll work with their implementation team to get set up, which can add weeks or months to your timeline and push back the date you start seeing any real value.

The self-serve alternative for agile teams

For teams that can't afford to wait months to see results, a self-serve model is a much better option. This is where eesel AI is fundamentally different. You can sign up, connect your helpdesk in a single click, and start training your AI agent in minutes, all without having to talk to a salesperson.

More importantly, eesel AI gets rid of the risk of a "big bang" launch with its powerful simulation mode. You can test your AI setup on thousands of your past tickets to get a precise forecast of how it will perform before it ever talks to a live customer. This lets you see exactly what kind of resolution rate and ROI you can expect.

Once you’re happy with the results, you can roll it out slowly, maybe letting it handle just one type of ticket or questions from a single channel. This "test with confidence" approach lets you prove the value of AI and scale up at a pace that makes sense for you, without the risk of a massive, expensive project falling flat.

Unpacking the cost: A pricing model comparison

Pricing is often the deciding factor, and the difference here is night and day. If you like transparency, you’ll probably find the enterprise model pretty frustrating.

The opaque enterprise model

Neither Sierra nor Forethought lists their prices online. For both, you have to book a demo and get a custom quote. This is pretty standard for enterprise software, but it creates a few headaches for anyone trying to make a decision:

• Budget Uncertainty: You have no idea what it will cost until you’ve already sunk a bunch of time into the sales process.

• Hidden Fees: Enterprise contracts can come with extra costs for implementation, support, or extra usage that you weren't expecting.

• Hard to Scale: It’s tough to predict how your costs will change as your team or ticket volume grows, which makes it nearly impossible to budget for the future.

A transparent alternative: eesel AI’s pricing

By contrast, eesel AI's pricing is completely transparent and predictable. All the plans are listed publicly on their website, so you know exactly what you're getting from day one.

A few key advantages of this model include:

• No Per-Resolution Fees: Plans are based on a monthly volume of AI interactions (an answer or an action). This means you aren't penalized with a higher bill for having a successful AI agent that resolves a lot of tickets. You don't get punished for being successful.

• Flexible Plans: You can start with a month-to-month plan and cancel anytime, or get a discount for an annual commitment. This flexibility is perfect for teams that want to prove the ROI before locking into a long-term contract.

• All-Inclusive: All the core products, AI Agent, Copilot, Triage, and Internal Chat, are included in every single plan. There are no surprise add-ons or feature gates designed to push you into a more expensive plan later.

The final verdict: Which AI platform is right for you?

Choosing between Sierra and Forethought really comes down to your company's size, budget, and how quickly you need to move.

• Choose Sierra if: You are a large enterprise with deep pockets, looking for a long-term AI transformation project. You need to be ready for a multi-month, "white-glove" setup that will be managed almost entirely by an external team.

• Choose Forethought if: You are a mid-to-large company that wants to add a set of AI tools to your existing helpdesk and you prefer a guided, hands-on setup process from your vendor to get started.

• Consider an alternative like eesel AI if: You value speed, control, and transparency above all else. If you want to see results this week (not next quarter), test your AI without any risk, and keep full control over its behavior without a professional services contract, a self-serve platform is the clear winner.

Get started with a smarter AI in minutes

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Run your first simulation on your past tickets for free and see exactly how much time and money you can save.