Ferndesk
Assistant

How to enable AI assistant answers

You can enable AI-powered answers in two locations: your help center and your embedded widget. Both use your knowledge base to answer customer questions, but can be enabled independently based on your support strategy.

Before you begin

Make sure you have:

  • Admin or editor role in your Ferndesk account

  • At least one published article in your knowledge base

An empty knowledge base will cause the AI to respond with "I couldn't find information" for most queries. Publish core content before enabling.

Enable AI answers in your help center

  1. Navigate to Help Center → Customize in your dashboard

  2. Find the AI Answers section in the customization sidebar

  3. Toggle Enable AI answers to ON

  4. Preview the sparkles icon in the help center header

  5. Click Save to apply your changes

Use the preview panel to see how the AI sparkles icon and panel appear before saving changes.

What happens next

Once enabled in your help center, users can:

  • Click the sparkles icon in the help center header

  • Ask questions in the AI panel that opens

  • Receive instant answers with clickable citations

  • Provide thumbs up/down feedback on responses

  • Start new conversations as needed

Enable AI answers in your widget

  1. Navigate to Help Center → Widget in your dashboard

  2. Click Customize to open the customization panel

  3. Find the AI Assistant section in the sidebar

  4. Toggle Enable AI answers to ON

  5. Click Save at the top of the panel

Make sure you've embedded the widget on your site before enabling AI features.

What happens next

Once enabled in your widget, users visiting your site can:

  • Open the widget and navigate to the chat tab

  • Ask questions in natural language

  • Receive instant answers with clickable citations

  • Provide thumbs up/down feedback on responses

  • Contact support directly if answers aren't helpful

Using both together

You can enable AI answers in both your help center and widget to provide a consistent self-service experience across all touchpoints. Each can be enabled or disabled independently.

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