Most of IntelliDesk's AI works without any setup: IntelliDesk's own AI account is used. You can also connect your own AI key, which lets you choose the model, and it's required for the features that write directly to your customers (the live chat AI and AI-written acknowledgement emails) and for Learn from past tickets.
What each feature needs
| Feature | Without your own key | With your own key |
|---|---|---|
| AI triage & assist (priority, type, flags, suggestions, reply checks, duplicates), Best match (AI) and AI checks in triggers | Works, using IntelliDesk's AI | Uses your key if it's an OpenRouter key; otherwise IntelliDesk's AI |
| Draft with AI, Summarize with AI, the AI refine menu, and the "generate with AI" buttons | Works, using IntelliDesk's AI | Uses your key and chosen model |
| Live chat AI answers | Off: every chat goes to your team (or, on an AI only desk, straight to a ticket) | Answers from your help articles |
| Write the acknowledgement with AI (email tickets) | Can't be switched on: your normal auto-reply template is sent | Writes the acknowledgement from your help articles |
| Learn from past tickets (Settings → Knowledge Base) | Not available | Suggests help articles from your closed tickets |
The live chat AI and AI acknowledgements write directly to your customers, so IntelliDesk never uses its own account for them.
Triage also has to be switched on per desk. See Turning on AI triage for a help desk.
Connecting your own key
Only an organisation admin can change the provider, key or model. Others can view the page.
- Go to Settings → AI.
- Choose a Provider:
- Anthropic: Claude models, direct. Get a key from console.anthropic.com.
- OpenRouter: many models from different companies with one key. Get a key from openrouter.ai/settings/keys.
- Paste your API Key.
- Choose a Model from the list, or Custom model ID to paste any model your provider offers. Each model in the list has a short note on speed, quality and price.
- Click Save changes, then Test. Connected means it worked. If you see Error, the message beside it says why (usually a mistyped key or a model your account can't use).
Your key is stored encrypted. Afterwards only the last few characters are shown. Click Change to replace it.
To switch provider, choose the other one and enter a key for it: keys only work with the provider that issued them.
Removing your key
Click Remove. Drafting, summaries and the other writing features go back to IntelliDesk's AI. The live chat AI stops answering, and chats go straight to your team. AI-written acknowledgements stop, and your normal auto-reply template is sent instead.
What does it cost?
IntelliDesk doesn't charge per AI message or per resolution: AI drafting is included in your plan, and triage needs no key of your own.
With your own key, your AI provider bills you directly for what IntelliDesk's features use, at their prices. If your key is an OpenRouter key, Jev's triage decisions are also billed to it. The live chat AI has built-in limits so costs stay predictable: at most 20 AI answers per conversation and 500 per workspace per day.
How the AI talks about your business: the workspace AI profile
Also under Settings → AI is the card How the AI talks about your business. It tells the AI about your business once, for every desk. It's used by live chat answers, AI-written acknowledgement emails and Draft with AI.
Fill in any of these fields, then click Save:
- Tone: Friendly, Professional or Brief.
- About your business: a short description of what you do (up to 1,500 characters).
- Words you use: terms your customers or team use, one per line as term = meaning (up to 1,500 characters). For example: desk = help desk.
- Always: rules the AI should always follow, one per line (up to 1,000 characters).
- Never: things the AI should never do or promise, one per line (up to 1,000 characters).
- Always hand to a person: topics your team always handles personally, one per line (up to 800 characters).
The AI treats About your business, Words you use, Always and Never as trusted notes alongside your help articles.
Always hand to a person works differently: Jev checks every chat message and every email against these topics. When one matches, a chat is handed to your team, and an AI acknowledgement email falls back to your normal auto-reply template. The hand-off note on the ticket says it's a topic your team always handles personally.
These are structured fields, not a free-text prompt. IntelliDesk's own safety rules always come first: the AI answers only from your help articles and these notes, never asks for passwords, and ignores instructions in a customer's message.
The desk-level Notes for the AI assistant (in each desk's live chat settings) add to the workspace profile for that desk. Only managers can change the profile, and changes are recorded in the Audit Log.
Knowledge Search (RAG): connecting a document library
Below the AI settings, Knowledge Search (RAG) connects IntelliDesk to an external document-search service, so your team can search manuals and documents you've uploaded there. Fill in the RAG API URL, API Key and Collection ID your service gives you.
Once it's connected:
- A Search knowledge base button appears in the reply toolbar. It opens Knowledge Base Search, where you ask a question and get an answer with its Confidence and Sources. Insert into reply or Copy it.
- Draft with AI uses the service's answer as extra context, when it's reasonably confident.
This is separate from your IntelliDesk help articles (Settings → Knowledge Base), which the AI always uses. You don't need Knowledge Search for the chat AI.
Related: What is Jev? The AI in IntelliDesk explained · Drafting replies with the AI assistant · What data does the AI see? AI and your privacy