Help Scout
Help Scout is a shared support inbox and help centre with AI that drafts replies for a person to check and send, plus an optional AI Answers agent that replies to customers on its own in the website or in-app chat widget.
Not tested by JuicyAgents · Reviewed 2026-10-15
- Can replace
- Zendesk, Intercom
- Integrations
- SlackSalesforceHubSpotShopifyJiraLinear+3 more
OVERVIEW
About Help Scout
Help Scout is a shared inbox, live chat and help centre for small and growing support teams. Its AI Drafts feature suggests a reply based on past conversations and your help content, and a person edits and sends it. Other inbox tools summarise long threads and change the tone, length or language of a reply. The help centre, called Docs, has a report that lists failed searches: what customers looked for and did not find. That report comes from real searches, not from AI.
AI Answers is a separate paid add-on that replies to customers on its own in the chat widget on your website or app. It answers from your help centre, web sources and custom instructions, and customers can pass the conversation to your team with a couple of clicks. Start with AI Drafts on real tickets before you switch on AI Answers. Check how often drafts need heavy edits, and read AI Answers conversations to see whether they were really resolved. Someone still needs to own the help content, the instructions and a regular review of AI conversations.
What the workflow does
- AI Drafts: Suggests a reply from past conversations and help content; an agent reviews, edits and sends it. Listed as unlimited on the Plus and Pro plans.
- Summaries and text edits: Summarises long conversations into a few bullet points and can expand, shorten, fix or translate a reply.
- AI Answers: A paid add-on that answers customers on its own in the website or in-app chat widget, using the help centre, web sources and custom instructions, with a route to a person.
- Docs help centre: A help centre you can build without code; articles can also appear inside the chat widget, and AI can help expand, tighten or translate them.
- Failed-search report: Docs reports show searches that found nothing, alongside the most viewed articles and article ratings.
FROM INPUT TO RESULT
How the workflow works
You provide
- Your support email addresses and chat widget settings.
- Help centre articles and saved replies.
- Past conversations that show good answers.
- Custom instructions and hand-over rules for AI Answers.
You get
- Reply drafts ready for an agent to check, edit and send.
- Long conversations summarised before a hand-over.
- Simple chat questions answered from the help centre, with a route to a person.
- A list of failed help-centre searches that points to missing or hard-to-find articles.
- 1
Connect a support inbox and write or import help articles for your most common questions.
- 2
Use AI Drafts on real tickets for two weeks and note how often agents rewrite them.
- 3
Review the failed-search report and fix or add the articles customers could not find.
- 4
If you add AI Answers, set a monthly spending cap, start small and read every AI conversation in the first weeks.
WHAT IT OFFERS
Key features
AI Drafts
Suggests a reply from past conversations and help content; an agent reviews, edits and sends it. Listed as unlimited on the Plus and Pro plans.
Summaries and text edits
Summarises long conversations into a few bullet points and can expand, shorten, fix or translate a reply.
AI Answers
A paid add-on that answers customers on its own in the website or in-app chat widget, using the help centre, web sources and custom instructions, with a route to a person.
Docs help centre
A help centre you can build without code; articles can also appear inside the chat widget, and AI can help expand, tighten or translate them.
Failed-search report
Docs reports show searches that found nothing, alongside the most viewed articles and article ratings.
IS IT A GOOD FIT?
Who it’s for
A good fit for
- Small and mid-sized support teams that want inbox, live chat and help centre in one product.
- Teams that want AI suggestions in the inbox while a person still sends every email reply.
- Help-centre owners who want to see which searches find nothing.
Not the best fit for
- Teams that want to keep their current helpdesk and only add an AI layer on top.
- Teams on a tight budget that need AI Drafts; unlimited drafts are listed only on Plus and Pro.
Strengths
- Long-term customers value the help centre and the support team.
- Capterra reviewers rate the product highly overall.
Limitations
- Trustpilot reviews are few and mostly older than a year, so they may not reflect current customers.
- One reviewer reported a large price rise to get AI drafts and more seats.
- No cited review measures the accuracy of AI Drafts or AI Answers.
CONNECTED TOOLS
Integrations
Listed tools for this workflow. Confirm current support and setup with the provider.
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- Recipe
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