Ticket translation, AI triage, Instant Answers, and AI-drafted replies and summaries all run on an AI provider you connect yourself — Essential Support never ships with one built in. Add an API key for Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (ChatGPT), or Google (Gemini) once, and every AI feature that needs it can be turned on.
This page is owner-only: admins and agents don’t see the AI section in Settings.
Connect a provider
- Click the gear (Settings) icon in the agent console header.
- In the left-hand Settings nav, click AI.
- Make sure the AI features sub-tab is selected at the top of the page — it opens alongside Instant answers.
- Under Select AI provider, click the provider you want to use — Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (ChatGPT), or Google (Gemini). This choice determines which provider’s card appears below, and which provider powers translation, triage, Instant Answers, and AI drafting/summarizing once a key is saved.
- In the key field under the provider’s name, paste your API key (Anthropic keys start with
sk-ant-…, OpenAI withsk-…, Google withAIza…). - From the Model dropdown, choose which model that provider should use. Anthropic offers
claude-sonnet-5,claude-opus-5, andclaude-haiku-4-5; OpenAI offersgpt-5andgpt-5-mini; Google offersgemini-2.5-proandgemini-2.5-flash. - If you chose Anthropic, you can also fill in Instructions / knowledge base (Markdown) — internal guidance (product details, common issues, tone) the model reads on every AI call. This field is agent-only: it’s never shown to customers, and it’s separate from the customer-facing knowledge base used by Instant Answers.
- Click Save.
- Click Test connection to confirm the key and model work — a success message names the model that responded.
Switch providers or update a key
- Click a different provider button under Select AI provider at any time — your saved key for each provider is kept, so switching back later doesn’t lose anything.
- To remove a saved key, click Remove key under that provider’s field, then Save.
- To change the model without touching the key, choose a new model in the dropdown and click Save — leave the key field blank to keep your existing key.
Edge cases
- Leaving the key field blank and clicking Save keeps your existing saved key (if any) — only the model, and for Anthropic the instructions, change.
- A “connected” badge next to a provider’s name means a key you entered is saved; a “platform key” badge means no workspace key is set, but a fallback key is configured for local/dev use.
- AI features that need a provider (ticket translation, AI triage, Instant Answers) stay disabled until at least one provider has a usable key — you’ll see a prompt to add one under the relevant toggle.
Privacy: connecting a provider does not turn any AI feature on by itself. Ticket translation, AI triage, and Instant Answers each have their own toggle, and message content is only sent to your chosen provider once you enable the specific feature that uses it.