Latest / Sidekick's What Just Shipped / HubSpot Knowledge Base Agent: your tickets write the docs | Shipped Apr 2026
Transcript
- Dana (AI host): Your reps keep answering the same customer question, and your help center still doesn't have an article for it. Rob (AI host): HubSpot's knowledge base agent reads your closed tickets, spots that gap, and drafts a help article for you. Dana (AI host): This is Sidekick's What Just Shipped. Let's go. Narrator (AI voice): This is Sidekick's What Just Shipped, presented by Sidekick Strategies. Narrator (AI voice): Your hosts, Rob and Dana, are AI. Narrator (AI voice): The voices are synthetic, the research is real, and humans check every claim before it reaches you. Rob (AI host): I'm Rob, she's Dana, and yes, we're both AI hosts talking about an AI that writes help articles. Rob (AI host): We're aware. Dana (AI host): It's turtles all the way down. Okay, Rob, you did the reading. When did this land? Rob (AI host): Our research has it shipping April 13, 2026, as a private beta for Service Hub Professional and Enterprise. Dana (AI host): And today? Rob (AI host): HubSpot's knowledge base, updated October 14, still labels it beta, and still lists Service Hub Professional and Enterprise. Dana (AI host): So Starter and free teams are out. Rob (AI host): Out. Dana (AI host): Fine. What does it actually do? Plain words. Rob (AI host): Two jobs. Rob (AI host): First, it reads closed tickets, finds questions your articles don't answer, and drafts new articles. Rob (AI host): Second, it reviews articles you already have and suggests edits where they're unclear, outdated, or incomplete. Dana (AI host): Drafts. Not published. Rob (AI host): Right. Rob (AI host): You review a summary, click Generate article, and then save it as a draft or publish it. Rob (AI host): A human makes that call. Dana (AI host): Here's my worry. It's reading tickets. What exactly is it reading? Rob (AI host): Good question, and it's in the help article. Rob (AI host): It scans all conversation data tied to closed tickets, chats included. Dana (AI host): So if a customer pasted something sensitive into a chat... Rob (AI host): That chat is in the pool it learns from. Rob (AI host): Which is why the setup has a real gate. Dana (AI host): Walk me through the gate. Rob (AI host): Three requirements. A Super Admin has to switch on Customer conversation data in AI settings. Rob (AI host): You need at least five closed tickets. And you need a knowledge base that already exists. Dana (AI host): Five tickets is nothing. Rob (AI host): It's a floor, not a recommendation. Rob (AI host): The person setting it up also needs Service Access with the Knowledge base articles permission. Dana (AI host): And the clicks? Rob (AI host): Service, then Knowledge Base, then the Suggestions tab. Rob (AI host): Click Create Knowledge base agent, pick the knowledge base, pick which ticket pipelines it should read, and click Finish. Dana (AI host): Pipelines matter, then. Point it at your billing pipeline and you get billing articles. Rob (AI host): Exactly, and there's a setting for that, which we'll get to. Dana (AI host): After the money part. Rob (AI host): After the money part. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Hey, it's George B. Thomas from Sidekick Strategies. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Full honesty, this is my AI voice clone, made with my permission. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): An agent can draft help articles. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Somebody still has to decide what good looks like, and keep the knowledge base worth linking to. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Our Service Hub training teaches support teams to manage tickets, build a knowledge base, and configure SLAs, inside your actual portal with your real ticket data. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): If your knowledge base is empty or outdated, start with a free strategy call at Sidekick Strategies dot com. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): No pitch, just a plan. Dana (AI host): Okay. Money. Because "beta" and "free" are not the same word. Rob (AI host): They aren't. Rob (AI host): HubSpot's help page says generating a new article uses HubSpot Credits, and accepting a suggested edit to an existing article doesn't. Dana (AI host): How many credits? Rob (AI host): HubSpot's credits rate sheet lists 200 credits to generate one new knowledge base article. Rob (AI host): Our research puts that at two dollars. Dana (AI host): So edits are included, and new drafts cost money. Got it. Dana (AI host): Where do the edits show up? Rob (AI host): Same Suggestions tab. Filter by Update instead of Create. Rob (AI host): You can accept everything and publish, accept everything as a draft, or accept and dismiss item by item. Dana (AI host): What kinds of edits? Rob (AI host): Our September write-up lists seven types. Rob (AI host): Clarity, incomplete, stale data, branding, answer engine optimization, voice and formatting, and decay, meaning articles whose traffic has dropped off. Dana (AI host): Now the billing article problem. Can I steer it? Rob (AI host): Yes. Rob (AI host): In the agent settings you can change the ticket pipelines, and fill in a target audience, guardrails, and additional instructions. Rob (AI host): HubSpot's example guardrail is literally Billing, as in, don't write about this. Dana (AI host): So they saw my objection coming. Rob (AI host): They did. Rob (AI host): Changes start a new agent run, usually within about thirty minutes, and when you save you choose whether to clear existing suggestions. Dana (AI host): Can I run it on two knowledge bases? Rob (AI host): One at a time. Rob (AI host): Turn it on in a second knowledge base and it switches off in the first. Rob (AI host): Turning it off keeps your existing suggestions. Dana (AI host): And languages? Rob (AI host): It drafts in the primary language of that knowledge base. Dana (AI host): Okay, here's what I'd want to know before I spend anything. What couldn't you pin down? Rob (AI host): Two things. Rob (AI host): Our research says credit charges started September 16, 2026, but HubSpot's help page doesn't give a start date. Rob (AI host): And it's still labeled beta, with no date for when that ends. Dana (AI host): So check your own credit usage, not our calendar. Rob (AI host): That's the safe read. Dana (AI host): Then let me do the Monday list, because I'm the one who's been poking holes. Dana (AI host): Step one, before anyone turns this on, ask your Super Admin whether you're comfortable with the agent reading chat history on closed tickets. Rob (AI host): Agreed. Dana (AI host): Step two, point it at one clean support pipeline, not every pipeline, and add a guardrail for topics you never want drafted, like billing or legal. Rob (AI host): And step three? Dana (AI host): Work the free edit suggestions first. Dana (AI host): Only click Generate article when a gap shows up across several source conversations, since each new draft costs 200 credits. Rob (AI host): Read access, one pipeline, edits before drafts. Rob (AI host): That's the knowledge base agent. Rob (AI host): Shipped in April, still beta in October, and now charging credits for new drafts. Dana (AI host): Every source we used is linked on the Sidekick Strategies HubSpot Updates page. Rob (AI host): Thanks for listening to Sidekick's What Just Shipped. Dana (AI host): Go close a knowledge gap. Narrator (AI voice): Sidekick's What Just Shipped is presented by Sidekick Strategies, with AI hosts Rob and Dana and AI-generated music. Narrator (AI voice): We're independent, and not affiliated with HubSpot. Find our research at Sidekick Strategies dot com.