Problems / Support
Answer customers 24/7 with AI support agents (without losing the human touch)
Customers expect an answer in minutes, at midnight, on the channel they chose. An AI agent can resolve the repetitive half, if it's grounded in your real answers.
- 1Write down your top 20 questions and the correct answers.
- 2Add an AI agent to the inbox you already use, trained only on that content.
- 3Make the human handoff obvious and fast.
- 4Review unresolved conversations weekly and fill the gaps.
Companies & products 8
Intercom Fin
AI customer service agent that answers support conversations using your help content.
See siteCompanyZendesk AI
AI agents and copilot features built into the Zendesk service platform.
See siteCompanyTidio
Live chat and Lyro AI chatbot for small online stores and websites.
Free plan available; see siteCompanyCrisp
Shared inbox, live chat and AI chatbot for small teams.
Free plan available; see siteCompanyFreshdesk Freddy AI
Helpdesk with Freddy AI agent and agent assist features.
See siteCompanyChatbase
Build a custom AI support agent trained on your own docs and website.
See siteCompanyLindy
Build AI agents that handle email, scheduling and business tasks.
See siteCompanyHaidaa
Open-source agent knowledge protocol, plus paid integration contracting.
Open source; services see siteOpen-source tools 6
AnythingLLM
Local-first AI workspace: chat with your documents and run agents on your own hardware or cloud.
Mintplex-Labs/anything-llmOpen sourceChatwoot
Open-source omni-channel support desk (live chat, email, social), an alternative to Intercom and Zendesk.
chatwoot/chatwootOpen sourceTypebot
Self-hostable chatbot builder for lead capture, FAQs and qualification flows on your site.
baptisteArno/typebot.ioOpen sourceDify
Build agentic workflows and RAG apps on one workspace; cloud or self-hosted.
langgenius/difyOpen sourceFormbricks
Open-source surveys and feedback (Qualtrics alternative) for customer insight.
formbricks/formbricksOpen sourceBotpress
Open-source hub to build and deploy LLM chat agents.
botpress/botpressWorkflow recipes 1
Workflow recipe
24/7 website support agent with human handoff
- Clean up your top 20 FAQ answers first.
- Build a RAG agent in Dify over your help docs.
- Connect it to the Chatwoot inbox so unresolved chats route to a person.
- Prefer a hosted option? Intercom Fin does this end to end.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI customer support agent for a small business?
It depends on where your tickets live. Intercom Fin and Zendesk AI suit teams already on those platforms; Tidio and Crisp target small teams and online stores; Chatbase trains a bot on your site quickly. Our comparison guide covers the trade-offs.
Is there an open-source alternative to Intercom or Zendesk?
Chatwoot is an open-source omni-channel support desk positioned as an alternative to Intercom and Zendesk. Botpress and Typebot can add chatbots, and Dify or AnythingLLM can power answers from your own documents.
How do I stop an AI support bot from making things up?
Ground it only in your reviewed help content, keep answers short, make human handoff obvious, and review unresolved conversations weekly to fill gaps.
Can I run a support chatbot 24/7 without hiring night staff?
Yes for repetitive questions: an AI agent can answer around the clock from your help content and hand complex cases to a person the next business day. See the 24/7 website support agent recipe.