If you’ve worked in customer support lately, you know the drill. Tickets pile up faster than coffee orders on a Monday morning, and everyone wants answers yesterday.
That’s where Intercom’s Fin AI copilot comes in. It’s a virtual assistant that never sleeps, never sighs, and claims a 31% increase in agent efficiency. It cannot make you a latte, but it does promise to make life a little easier. With the release of Fin 2, Intercom has leveled up its assistant by improving context awareness, response quality, and how it fits into your daily support workflows.
It pulls from your help center, past conversations, and internal documents to suggest accurate, personalized replies. It is like giving your agents a second brain, just without the burnout.
In this guide, we will explore how Fin AI works, where it performs well, and where it may still fall short. We will also look at other tools like eesel AI that offer more flexibility and work across a wider range of platforms. Whether you are exploring AI for the first time or looking to upgrade your current setup, this is a good place to start.
How does Intercom’s Fin 2 AI copilot work?
Fin 2 is Intercom’s latest version of its AI support agent. It’s built to help teams respond to customer questions across multiple channels, using content pulled from help centers, internal docs, and other sources.
At the core of Fin 2 is the Fin AI Engine, which aims to improve how customer queries are understood and answered. It uses a combination of language models, source checking, and your company’s support content to suggest accurate replies. According to Intercom, this setup helps Fin 2 balance response quality with fewer incorrect answers.
Fin 2 works across channels like chat, email, and messaging apps. You can manage how it responds, what content it draws from, and how it interacts with your human team. Features like tone presets, response length options, and category detection give you more control over how the assistant fits into your support process.
A look at what powers Fin 2
Fin 2 can also pull information from multiple sources to answer more complex questions, and it supports real-time translation in over 45 languages. If a question falls outside its capabilities, it can hand off the conversation to a human agent based on the rules you’ve set.
What sets Fin AI apart from traditional support tools is its sophisticated information synthesis capabilities. Unlike basic chatbots that pull from single knowledge bases, Fin AI intelligently combines and cross-references multiple sources while maintaining accuracy through built-in source verification. Each suggested response includes links to source material, allowing agents to quickly validate information before sending it to customers.
What’s new in Fin 2
Fin 2 builds on the foundation of Intercom’s original AI agent but introduces a long list of improvements. Some features are available now, while others are still rolling out. These updates fall into four main categories: knowledge, behavior, actions, and insights.
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| Knowledge Hub | Centralizes all content Fin learns from. Supports help center articles, internal docs, PDFs, and webpages. Updates automatically. |
| Multi-source answers | Combines multiple sources to generate more complete, context-rich responses. |
| Content targeting | Allows different responses based on customer plan, location, or brand. |
| Tone and length controls | Adjusts Fin’s tone (e.g. professional, friendly, humorous) and response length (short or detailed). |
| Real-time translation | Supports 45+ languages, even if content isn’t localized. |
| Tasks and custom actions | Enables Fin to perform actions like checking orders or updating subscriptions when connected to external systems. |
| Workflows and category detection | Lets you create rules for how Fin handles or routes certain topics, like refunds or bug reports. |
| Expanded channels | Works across chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook, and Instagram. |
| Holistic reporting | Provides reporting across both human and AI support, including unresolved questions and AI performance insights. |
How Fin 2 fits into your workflow
You can adjust how Fin 2 shows up for different customer segments, regions, or channels. It’s also possible to connect it to certain external systems, which allows it to take limited actions on behalf of customers, such as checking order status or updating an account.
That said, Fin 2 is still best suited for teams already using Intercom as their main support platform. If your workflows span multiple systems or require a broader set of integrations, tools like eesel AI may be worth considering. These tools offer more flexibility when it comes to connecting content across platforms like Google Drive, Slack, Shopify, or Confluence.
Setting up Fin 2: What’s new and what to prepare
If you’ve worked with Fin 1, you’ll notice that Fin 2 doesn’t just add new features — it reshapes how setup and training work. Many core steps are still familiar, like connecting your knowledge base and defining handoff rules, but Fin 2 gives you more control, more customization, and new tools to manage the entire process.
Key differences in the setup process
| Fin 1 | Fin 2 |
|---|---|
| Relied heavily on help center content | Uses a centralized Knowledge Hub that supports help center articles, internal docs, PDFs, webpages, and more |
| Single-source answers | Fin 2 can generate responses from multiple content sources at once |
| Limited tone control | You can now select from predefined tone presets (e.g. professional, friendly, humorous) and adjust response length |
| Manual content targeting | You can target content by customer type, location, or brand directly in the interface |
| Basic configuration only | Includes category detection, workflows, and task automation to personalize how Fin handles different topics |
| Chat-focused | Works across chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook, and Instagram right from setup |
Steps to get started with Fin 2
1. Prepare your content in the knowledge hub
Before turning Fin 2 on, make sure your content is accurate, well-organized, and up to date. The Knowledge Hub is where you’ll manage everything Fin learns from, including help center articles, internal docs, and other file types. Unlike before, content updates here are automatic — you do not need to retrain Fin every time something changes.
2. Set tone and response style
During setup, you can now define how Fin speaks. Choose from tone options like friendly or professional, and pick whether answers should be short and concise or longer and more detailed. These choices help Fin respond more consistently and stay on-brand.
3. Define rules with guidance and workflows
Use natural language to coach Fin on how to respond to certain types of questions. You can also set up workflows for specific scenarios, like handing off to a human when a refund is mentioned, or flagging frustrated customers for escalation.
4. Connect to channels and external systems
Decide where Fin will operate whether in chat, email, or messaging apps and link any external systems Fin will need to pull data from or perform actions through. This step unlocks features like account lookups, order checks, and subscription updates.
5. Test before going live
Intercom offers built-in testing tools to simulate how Fin will respond in real conversations. Review its answers, tweak tone or content, and validate that it routes and escalates correctly. You can also test Fin in just one channel or with a specific customer segment before a full rollout.
6. Launch gradually and monitor performance
Once live, track Fin’s resolution rate, accuracy, and areas where customers still request help. Use Intercom’s reporting tools to review unresolved questions, identify weak spots in your content, and continuously fine-tune how Fin works.
Comparing AI customer support assistants
Not every support team needs the same thing from an AI assistant. Fin 2 introduces a more capable and configurable version of Intercom’s original AI agent, with expanded support for new content types, external systems, tone settings, and additional communication channels.
It works best for teams already operating within the Intercom ecosystem. Setup is straightforward when your content, workflows, and automation rules are already housed inside Intercom. With tools like real-time translation and action-based responses, Fin 2 is built to handle more than just basic FAQs.
However, Fin 2 may be less flexible for teams that rely on a wider mix of platforms. If your support content lives in places like Google Drive or Confluence, or your workflows span across multiple systems, Fin may not fully adapt to how your team works. While some integrations are supported, the product is still most effective when used within Intercom’s own environment.
If your setup includes several external tools, it may be worth exploring how alternatives like eesel AI compare in terms of integration, customization, and overall fit.
Fin 2: Where it’s limited
Fin 2 is built to work best within the Intercom ecosystem. While it does support some external integrations, teams relying on platforms like Google Drive or Confluence may find its connectivity limited.
Its effectiveness also depends heavily on the quality of your documentation. If your help content is incomplete or outdated, Fin may struggle to deliver helpful responses.
The pricing model charges $0.99 per resolution Intercom, which can scale quickly for high-volume teams or tickets that still require human escalation.
While setup does not require code, building out workflows, training the AI, and configuring tone still take time and planning especially for teams new to automation.
Where eesel AI beats Fin 2
eesel AI offers more flexibility for teams using tools beyond Intercom. It connects with over 100 platforms, including Google Drive, Slack, and Confluence, making it easier to work with your existing content and systems.
It supports over 100 languages, offering broader international reach than Fin’s 45. You also get deeper customization, including tone control, department-specific workflows, and advanced API actions.
eesel’s Team Plan costs $239 per month and includes up to 3 AI bots, 1,000 interactions, and integrations with tools like your help desk and Slack. Pricing is based on usage rather than per resolution, which may be more predictable for teams handling larger volumes or sharing workloads across agents.
Ready to have more time for coffee during Mondays?
At the end of the day, there is no single “best” AI solution for every support team. It all comes down to finding the right fit for your tools, your workflows, and your customers’ needs. If you are already invested in the Intercom ecosystem, Fin 2 can be a natural choice. If your team relies on multiple platforms or needs more flexibility and control, eesel AI may be the better option.
Curious to see how it all works? Start your free trial, book a personalized demo, or email us anytime at hi@eesel.app.
