What It Does
AI Draft Answers automatically generates draft replies for new Help Scout conversations using AI. It draws from a multi-source knowledge base built from your conversations, documentation, site content, and external websites -- so your team gets a head start on every response.
How to Enable
- Go to DeskPress > AI Agent > AI API and select your AI provider (OpenAI or Google Gemini). Enter your API key and choose your preferred chat and embedding models.
- Go to DeskPress > AI Agent > Knowledge Base and configure at least one content source (conversations, docs, site content, or external websites). Run the initial indexing.
- Go to DeskPress > AI Agent > AI Drafts and select the mailbox to monitor, then enable the feature.
Configuration Walkthrough
Step 1: Choose Your AI Provider
Go to DeskPress > AI Agent > AI API and pick a provider:
OpenAI
- Chat models: GPT-4o, GPT-4o-mini, GPT-4 Turbo, GPT-3.5 Turbo
- Embedding models: text-embedding-3-small, text-embedding-3-large, text-embedding-ada-002
- You'll need an OpenAI API key from platform.openai.com
Google Gemini
- Chat models: Gemini 2.0 Flash, Gemini 1.5 Pro, Gemini 1.5 Flash
- Embedding models: text-embedding-004, embedding-001
- You'll need a Gemini API key from Google AI Studio
For most setups, the default model selections work well. More powerful models give better answers but cost more per request.
Step 2: Build Your Knowledge Base
Go to DeskPress > AI Agent > Knowledge Base to configure your content sources. You can enable any combination of these four sources:
1. Help Scout Conversations
Fetches past conversations from your Help Scout mailbox and uses them as training data. The system is smart about what it includes:
- Age filtering -- Choose how far back to look: 1, 2, 3, or 5 years, or unlimited.
- Status filtering -- Automatically skips spam and trashed conversations.
- Escalation detection -- Skips conversations that were escalated but never clearly resolved.
- Noise stripping -- Removes greetings, sign-offs, and email signatures so the AI focuses on the actual content.
- Sensitive data redaction -- Credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, passwords, and similar data are automatically replaced with
[REDACTED].
2. Help Scout Docs Articles
Indexes your Help Scout documentation site. Articles are converted from HTML to plain text and organized by collection, category, and article hierarchy.
3. WordPress Site Content
Indexes content from your WordPress site. You choose which post types to include -- posts, pages, WooCommerce products, or any custom post type.
4. External Websites
Crawl external URLs or sitemaps to include content from outside your WordPress site. Set a crawl limit to control how many pages are indexed. HTML is automatically cleaned and normalized.
After configuring your sources, click the indexing button. Content is split into chunks, converted to vector embeddings using your chosen embedding model, and stored locally in your database. When the AI generates a draft, it searches these embeddings to find the most relevant content.
Step 3: Configure the Draft Settings
Go to DeskPress > AI Agent > AI Drafts to fine-tune how drafts are generated:
- Mailbox -- Select which Help Scout mailbox to monitor for new conversations.
- Folder -- Optionally limit monitoring to a specific folder within the mailbox.
- System Prompt -- The template that instructs the AI on how to write drafts. You can customize this to match your team's tone and style.
- Max Context -- How many knowledge base chunks to include when generating a draft. More context can improve accuracy but increases processing time and cost.
Step 4: Set Up a Trigger
The AI needs to know when new conversations arrive. Choose one of these methods:
- Webhook -- Help Scout sends a real-time notification to your site when a new conversation comes in. This is the fastest option. You'll need to set up a webhook in Help Scout and enter the webhook secret in the settings.
- Cron Polling -- WordPress periodically checks Help Scout for new conversations. Configure the interval (e.g., every 5 minutes). This is easier to set up but slightly slower.
Settings Reference
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| AI Provider | Choose between OpenAI or Google Gemini |
| API Key | Your provider's API key |
| Chat Model | The language model used to generate draft replies |
| Embedding Model | The model used to convert content into searchable vectors |
| Mailbox | Which Help Scout mailbox to monitor for new conversations |
| Folder | Specific folder within the mailbox to monitor (optional) |
| Include Docs | Include Help Scout Docs articles in the knowledge base |
| Include Site Content | Include WordPress content in the knowledge base |
| Site Post Types | Which WordPress post types to index |
| Include External Sites | Enable crawling of external websites |
| External Sitemaps | Sitemap URLs to crawl |
| External URLs | Individual page URLs to crawl |
| Crawl Limit | Maximum number of external pages to crawl |
| System Prompt | The template that controls how the AI writes drafts |
| Max Context | Number of knowledge base chunks to include per draft |
| Webhook Secret | Secret key for validating Help Scout webhook requests |
| Cron Interval | How often WordPress polls Help Scout for new conversations |
| Max Conversation Age | Maximum age of conversations to process |
Indexing Your Knowledge Base
You manage indexing from DeskPress > AI Agent > Knowledge Base:
- Initial index -- Click the index button to build your knowledge base for the first time. This runs in the background, so you can navigate away.
- Daily reindex -- A scheduled cron job automatically reindexes your content once a day to keep things fresh.
- Manual reindex -- Hit the reindex button any time you've made significant content changes and don't want to wait for the daily run.
The indexing status is displayed on the page so you can track progress.
Tips and Common Questions
Which AI provider should I choose?
Both work well. OpenAI's GPT-4o is excellent for nuanced responses. Gemini 2.0 Flash is fast and cost-effective. Try both and see which fits your needs and budget.
How much does it cost to run?
Costs depend on your AI provider's pricing and how many conversations you process. Each draft typically uses a small number of tokens. Start with a smaller knowledge base to estimate costs before scaling up.
Start small, then expand.
Begin with one or two content sources and see how the drafts look. Once you're happy with the quality, add more sources to improve coverage.
The AI works best with clear resolutions.
If your Help Scout conversations tend to end with clear, helpful answers, the AI will produce better drafts. Conversations that trail off or get escalated without resolution are automatically filtered out.
Can I customize the writing style?
Yes. Edit the System Prompt to change how the AI writes. You can specify tone ("friendly and professional"), formatting ("use bullet points for steps"), or restrictions ("never mention competitor products").
What happens if the knowledge base is empty?
The AI won't have any context to draw from and will produce generic responses. Always index at least one content source before enabling drafts.