Only the first acknowledgement, and only if you switch it on. IntelliDesk's AI doesn't carry on email conversations by itself: every reply after the acknowledgement is sent by a person, who can use Draft with AI to write it first. There are two places the AI can write to customers directly:
- Live chat, where it answers from your help articles and every answer is labelled AI assistant.
- The acknowledgement for a new email ticket, if a desk manager has switched on Write the acknowledgement with AI (see below).
Otherwise, what a customer gets automatically when they email you is your desk's auto-reply: a fixed acknowledgement you write once. The AI can help you write that, and several other things.
The automatic acknowledgement (auto-reply)
Each help desk can send an automatic acknowledgement when a new ticket arrives by email. Set it up under Settings → Help Desks → your desk, in the Auto-reply section ("Send automatic acknowledgement when tickets are created"). Only the desk's managers can change it.
- The Template can use merge tags such as the customer's name, the ticket number and the desk name.
- It's sent once, for new tickets only, and not to automated senders (out-of-office replies, bounces and similar), so two auto-responders can't reply to each other forever.
Let the AI write the template. Click Generate with AI, describe what the auto-reply should say (for example "Acknowledge receipt, set a 24-hour response expectation, mention business hours are 9–5"), pick a Tone (Formal, Friendly or Playful), and click Generate. Review the template, change anything you like, and save. Regenerate with AI gives you another version.
See Automatic acknowledgement emails (auto-reply) for the full set-up.
AI-written acknowledgements for email tickets
In the same Auto-reply card, under the Auto-reply switch, is Write the acknowledgement with AI. When it's on, the acknowledgement for a new ticket that arrives by email is written by the AI from your published help articles (and the desk's Notes for the AI assistant), so the customer may get a real answer straight away rather than just a receipt.
- Whenever it can't answer confidently, your normal auto-reply template is sent instead. The customer always gets exactly one acknowledgement.
- Every AI acknowledgement is checked before it's sent. Jev checks that every factual claim (steps, setting names, prices, times, policies) is backed by your articles or notes, and that it answers what was asked. If not, your normal template is sent instead.
- It follows your workspace AI profile (Settings → AI, card How the AI talks about your business): your chosen Tone, what you've told it about your business, and your Always hand to a person topics. If an email matches one of those topics, the normal template is sent instead of an AI answer.
- Email tickets only. Tickets from the widget, the customer portal and the API still get the plain template.
- It uses your own AI key, so you pay your own AI provider for it.
- Only the desk's managers can switch it on, and only when auto-reply is on and the workspace has an AI key under Settings → AI. Otherwise the switch is disabled and the reason is shown (if the key is missing, the reason links to Settings → AI). Switching it off always works.
The AI repeats what your articles say, so keep them accurate: a wrong article gives a confidently wrong answer. See Your knowledge base: help articles for customers, agents and the AI.
Other places the AI writes for you
All of these put a draft in front of you. Nothing is published or sent until you save or post it, except the canned-response starter pack noted below.
- Canned responses (Settings → Canned Responses): Generate with AI writes one template from a short description, with a title, body and suggested shortcut. Generate starter pack creates 8–10 templates for the most common situations, tailored to your organisation and help desks. The pack is saved straight away, so edit or delete any you don't want.
- Notices: Draft with AI writes a notice from a few words, and Polish tidies what you've written.
- Status page incidents: Draft with AI writes a title and short description from your notes or the affected components, and Polish improves the wording of an incident or an update.
- Replies to tickets: Draft with AI, Summarize with AI and the AI refine menu. See Drafting replies with the AI assistant.
- Help articles: Learn from past tickets and Help centre gaps (Settings → Knowledge Base) suggest new articles for you to review, publish or save as drafts. See Your knowledge base: help articles for customers, agents and the AI.
These use your own AI key if you've connected one under Settings → AI, and IntelliDesk's AI if not (Learn from past tickets needs your own key). See Setting up AI: your own key, the platform AI and what each feature needs.
Answering common email questions faster
Beyond the acknowledgement, you can cut the time per email:
- Suggested replies in the reply box offer the saved replies that fit the customer's question (with AI triage & assist on for the desk).
- Draft with AI writes a reply from the conversation and your help articles, signed with your name, for you to check and send.
- Triggers and automations can email customers for routine steps, such as reminders on pending tickets. See Triggers and automations.
Related: Automatic acknowledgement emails (auto-reply) · Canned responses: reusable templates with macros · Notices: announcements in the portal, widget, status page and app · Running the status page