The AI help desk where AI takes the first pass
Supported widget answers show citations to published sources. When the complete answer cannot be verified, HelpShelf stops clearly instead of showing the unverified draft. A human path appears only with tested Telegram and is sent only after the visitor confirms it.
What is an AI help desk?
An AI help desk gives incoming conversations an AI first pass. HelpShelf shows supported widget answers with citations, stops clearly when the full answer is not supported, and can offer a visitor-confirmed widget handoff only when tested Telegram is reachable.
What the first pass looks like
Three outcomes, decided by evidence — never by optimism.
Confident → answered, with citations
When retrieval and verification find enough published support, the widget shows the answer with numbered citations to the source content.
Uncertain → stopped clearly
If the complete answer cannot be verified, HelpShelf shows a safe partial or unsupported response instead of the unverified model draft. The unanswered question can be reviewed as a knowledge gap.
Needs a human → explicit channel-specific path
An unsupported widget answer can offer an editable handoff only when tested Telegram is reachable; the visitor must confirm it before bounded context is sent.
Widget chat and help center, same published sources
The widget answers supported questions from the content you publish in HelpShelf, and the hosted help center exposes that same material for browsing and search. You maintain one published source set rather than a separate answer script for each surface.
Supported widget answers keep their citations, unanswered questions can become knowledge gaps, and published article changes feed the help center and knowledge surfaces backed by the same source set.
"Why didn't this answer?" has an inspectable cause
HelpShelf records the evidence state behind an interaction: confidence, the sources retrieved, their trust tiers, and whether the answer passed verification. When the complete answer is unsupported, the visitor sees a safe response rather than the unverified draft. A separate visitor-confirmed handoff can send bounded context and a delivery receipt to tested Telegram.
The interaction history and knowledge-gap list let you inspect what supported an answer, then improve the published content when the evidence was incomplete.
Handoff by visitor choice
Tested Telegram receives bounded context only after the widget visitor reviews and confirms the handoff. The dashboard records the delivery result.
An explicit evidence bar
Published sources, inline citations, claim verification, and a safe unsupported response define when the widget may present a complete answer.
Reviewable interaction history
The dashboard keeps conversation records, cited answer previews, confirmed handoffs, and knowledge gaps available for inspection.
Priced like an outcome, not a seat
Traditional help desks often charge per agent seat — a strange fit for a system where AI does the first pass. HelpShelf uses fixed monthly plans with separate search and chat capacity. The free plan needs no card and includes 500 AI searches plus 100 AI chats; Pro is $49/month for 10,000 searches and 2,000 chats; Scale is $149/month for 100,000 searches and 20,000 chats.
The public usage meters are AI searches and AI chats. These operating boundaries are separate from those monthly balances:
- Widget handoff — visitor-confirmed and offered only through tested Telegram
- Spam and bot noise — filtered before your queue
- Held-for-review replies — clearly separated for review
- Unanswered questions — logged as knowledge gaps
Keep exploring
AI customer support agent
The fundamentals: how agents work, what to look for, and the questions that expose weak ones.
AI knowledge base
Where the answers come from — hybrid search, trust tiers, and citations.
Best AI agents compared
Nine vendors, four pricing models, honest fits — including where we lose.
Answers that sell
The same first-pass treatment for presale questions — with lead capture.
Buying guide
The three tool categories and an eight-point evaluation checklist.
Pricing
Free plan, then fixed monthly allowances for AI searches and AI chats.
Frequently asked questions
An AI help desk gives incoming conversations an AI first pass. HelpShelf shows supported widget answers with citations, stops clearly when the complete answer is not supported, and can offer a visitor-confirmed widget handoff only when tested Telegram is reachable.
A traditional help desk organizes human work through queues, assignments, SLAs, and macros. HelpShelf instead focuses on cited self-service answers in the widget and help center, plus a visitor-controlled Telegram handoff. It does not currently replace an email ticketing system.
HelpShelf retrieves published sources, requires inline citations for material claims, and verifies the response against the cited passages. If the complete answer does not clear that evidence bar, the widget shows a safe partial or unsupported response instead of the unverified draft.
Plans use separate monthly AI-search and AI-chat limits; there is no separate public escalation balance. In the widget, an unsupported answer can offer a handoff only when tested Telegram is reachable, and nothing is sent until the visitor confirms it.
No. A customer support inbox connection is not currently available. HelpShelf answers through the website widget and hosted help center; email support listed on a plan is the channel for contacting HelpShelf, not an automated customer inbox.
Add or import reliable content, review what will be published, embed the widget script, deploy it, and verify the live installation. If you want visitor-confirmed handoffs, connect and test Telegram as a separate step.