Knowledge Base Assistant

Zammad’s knowledge base assistant helps your agents find existing knowledge base answers for incoming tickets and draft new ones from the ticket content. The feature is configured in Zammad’s admin settings under AI > Knowledge Base Assistant and requires the admin.ai_knowledge_base permission. Make sure to configure an AI provider with the Semantic search capability before activating the feature. Otherwise, Zammad shows a warning message.

Screenshot shows the Knowledge Base Assistant configuration screen

Configure it based on the explanation below and make sure to turn on the switch at the top of the page afterwards.

Configuration

To use a different provider for the knowledge base assistant than the default, use the per-feature provider configuration via the Provider button at the top of this page. Be aware that changing the provider/assigning the Semantic search capability to another provider causes a re-creation of the vector database. While this is fine for small instances, it can cause a lot of AI calls for instances with many knowledge base answers.

Knowledge Base Answer Suggestions

When enabled, Zammad shows existing knowledge base answers whose content matches the ticket in the Related Knowledge section of the ticket sidebar. Answers are only shown when they are above the configured relevance threshold.

Agents can open a suggested knowledge base answer directly. If the suggested answer solves the problem, the agent can link the answer permanently to the ticket.

Warning

Agents should check the answer before sending the suggested article to the customer. Even a high relevance doesn’t necessarily mean that its content solves the customer’s issue.

Knowledge Base Answer Generation

When the feature is enabled, the agent can ask the AI to draft a new knowledge base answer from the ticket’s content by clicking a button in the ticket sidebar. If a related answer is detected, Zammad shows a list of answers that meet the configured relevance score threshold in a dialog, prompting the agent to verify whether a new answer is still needed. When a new answer is generated, it is linked to the ticket.

Important information:

  • The knowledge base answer is generated as a draft and is not published automatically.

  • The answer is generated in the default language of your knowledge base.

  • The answer includes a note in the content and a tag (ai-generated) about the AI generation.

  • A link to the answer is included in the ticket it was generated from.

  • The AI request includes a list of the knowledge base categories for which the agent has editor permissions. The AI then chooses one of these categories.

Warning

Even though there are instructions to remove personal and customer-specific information from the generated answer, make sure your agents carefully review it before the answer is used or published.

Relevance Score Threshold

Only knowledge base answers reaching this score are included in the list of suggestions. The default is 86%. Lower values show more suggestions (and therefore less relevant answers); higher values show only strong matches.

Tip

The outcome depends on the provider/model you use and your existing data. The default value should be a good starting point. Avoid setting it to an extreme value.

Usage for Agents

Screenshot shows "Related knowledge" section in the ticket sidebar

When the feature is enabled, agents see related knowledge base answers in the Related Knowledge section of the ticket sidebar. The answer generation action is available when an agent has the knowledge_base.editor permission. The relevance score is only visible with admin permissions. Agents can find more information in the knowledge base assistant section in the user documentation.