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Forethought
- User-friendly interface
- 10+ integrations
- Uses NLP and NLU
- Customized reporting
- Pricing not publicly available
- No mobile apps
Forethought is a generative customer support AI that helps companies cut costs by increasing their help desk efficiency.
But with so many different customer support tools available, is Forethought really worth it? And what sets it apart from other software?
In this Forethought review, we’ll explore its features, pros and cons, and more so you can decide if it’s right for your business.
SMB Guide’s Verdict for Forethought
Based on the scoring factors below, we rate Forethought 9 out of 10.
Forethought is an AI live chat software that learns from every past customer ticket, email, and even your knowledge base articles to better answer new support requests.
However, it can pose some challenges during implementation, and you need around 20,000 past customer support tickets (or 2,000 tickets per month) in order for its AI to work really well.
This won’t be a problem for large companies, but if you’re a newer business, that number may be far out of reach.
Here’s a breakdown of how we scored Forethought:
Pricing & Plans
Forethought’s pricing and plan structure aren’t publicly available. They state that pricing varies based on the volume of tickets and agents in your organization who would be leveraging Forethought’s AI.
To get more information on Forethought’s offerings and get a personalized quote, you’ll need to schedule a demo or reach out to their sales team at [email protected].
Real-Time Messaging & Canned Responses
Forethought uses generative AI trained on your data to get support agents up to speed quickly so they can help more customers faster.
For example, the AI can surface similar past cases and related knowledge base articles to assist the agent in answering the query with a canned or custom response.
Agents can also use the AI to generate suggested responses which they can then alter or tweak as necessary — saving even more time.
For simple queries that don’t require human assistance, customers can get their questions answered directly by the AI within the chat widget. More on that below.
Live Chat AI & NLP
Forethought claims to be able to solve customer questions instantly via its live chat AI widget. I experimented with the widget and asked it a series of questions about how to do specific actions in Forethought or what a feature was.
While it returned quick responses on the “what is” questions, it struggled a bit on the “how to” questions. At one point, it appeared to stop generating a response completely and I had to prompt it again with another question.
That said, the responses I received were decently high quality. I attribute this to the fact that Forethought’s AI model is training not only on Natural Language Processing (NLP), but Natural Language Understanding (NLU) as well.
This means that Forethought’s technology has the capability to analyze the actual intent of a question rather than just returning an answer based on the face value of a given keyword.
Customizable Chat Widgets
Forethought gives you several ways to brand your chat widget, including:
- Theme color: Includes header, customer chat bubble, and buttons within the workflow
- Top header image: Located in the upper left corner in the header of the widget
- Agent chat image: Located to the left of AI chat responses
- Help button image: The icon that is shown on your website before visitors actually click into the widget
If that’s not enough customization for you, just get in touch with the support team and they can help you make additional changes.
For example, they can make customizations like:
- Getting rid of Forethought’s branding
- Changing the widget title
- Adding GIFs
- Making an image the widget icon shape
Visitor Tracking and Analytics
Forethought provides real-time reporting in a customizable dashboard so you can keep track of your most important customer service metrics.
For example, you’ll be able to track the total number of live chat widget interactions, total deflected chats, and the percentage of interactions that resulted in users opening a ticket with a human agent rather than using the widget for automated answers.
If you provide your past cost-per-ticket information, Forethought will provide you with an estimated cost savings from using the software.
You’ll also have access to granular conversational insights that show you where customer traffic splits, at what point they’re dropping off in conversations, and more.
User Interface and User Experience
The general consensus among users seems to be that while Forethought’s software can be a bit difficult to implement, it’s pretty smooth and easy to use once you have your workflows in place.
When you sign up and log in, the navigational menu (on the left hand side of the page) is broken up into four categories:
- Assist: Includes analytics on your total number of agents, ratio of active to total agents, number of engaged tickets and total tickets, etc.
- Solve: This is where you’ll go to set up and configure your automated website widget.
- Triage: This is where you can set up and edit “classifiers” that help Forethought direct where to route customer support tickets.
- Settings: Includes basic information like your email address, billing information, your team, and integrations.
Integrations and Compatibility
Forethought is built to integrate seamlessly with your existing helpdesk. It currently integrates with Zendesk, Salesforce, Servicenow, Kustomer, Sunshine Conversations, Freshdesk, Dialpad, and Talkdesk.
It also supports an integration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and will soon have an integration with HubSpot.
If you want more control and options for customization, Forethought also offers API options for a more tailored AI workflow.
Customer Support
If you need assistance, the first step is to visit the help center or try to use Forethought’s live chat box.
If you haven’t yet invested in the software, this can be helpful to get an idea of how the chat widget works and whether it would be helpful to your customers.
For more personalized support or help with complex issues, you can reach Forethought’s customer service team through their support contact form or via email at [email protected].
Unfortunately, no phone support is available.
Forethought — Unique Features
The most unique thing to note about Forethought is that unlike many other AI products out there, it utilizes Natural Language Understanding (NLU).
This is an advanced AI solution that evaluates query intent. This allows it to route tickets to appropriate representatives more quickly and accurately than if it relied solely on NLP.
According to its website, Forethought is also the only AI support software with autoflows (natural language automation without decision trees).
What the Experts Say About Forethought
Here are Forethought’s current ratings on some of the most popular review sites:
- Capterra: 4.5 stars (10 reviews)
- G2: 4.2 stars (133 reviews)
- Trustpilot: 3.2 stars (1 review)
Forethought has been praised for its ability to improve the efficiency of customer support operations by automating ticket tagging and routing, as well as providing agents with relevant information to resolve customer inquiries more quickly and accurately.
Zarikunte, Research scholar – Verified Capterra review
For companies looking to enhance customer service processes and offer a better customer experience, Forethought’s software solutions can be useful resources. Their AI-based technology has the potential to lower costs and boost productivity, which can aid companies in remaining competitive in the current market.
Shivasish, Market Research – Verified Capterra review
Forethought Alternatives
Forethought is an excellent AI software for customer service teams at medium to large businesses. However, if you’re a small business, it may not be the best choice for you.
Here are a few different Forethought alternatives you might consider:
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4.7
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4.0
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3.9
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$20/user/mo - $59/user/mo
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$49/user/mo - $99/user/mo
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$39/user/mo - $139/user/mo
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LiveChat
LiveChat is a live chat software made to boost lead generation, sales, and customer engagement and satisfaction for e-commerce businesses.
Its reporting feature is a bit more advanced than Forethought, allowing you to actually click on various data points to open relevant chats/tickets while viewing a report.
And if you’re concerned about security, LiveChat uses 256-bit encryption to safeguard chats as well as two-factor authentication for users.
- Starting Price: $20/user per month
- Best For: Mid to large organizations looking for a robust, dependable live chat solution.
Pure Chat
Pure Chat has positioned itself as the easiest and fastest way to add a live chat option to your website.
It helps you optimize your interactions at every stage of the customer lifecycle by incorporating real-time visitor analytics and contact history.
If you’re looking into live chat software for your company, but aren’t necessarily sure if it’s right for you, Pure Chat is free for the first 30 days – something that Forethought doesn’t offer.
- Starting Price: $39/month (on annual plans)
- Best For: Advanced sales and marketing teams who want to leverage data and insights from chat conversations to provide a personalized customer experience.
Start your free trial of Pure Chat today!
Intercom
Intercom is an AI customer service solution that allows you to build custom chatbots for various purposes.
While Forethought is an AI solution that integrates with your existing helpdesk platforms, Intercom has its own helpdesk system built in.
If you don’t yet have a helpdesk system for your organization, Intercom might be a good solution to knock out two birds with one stone.
- Starting Price: $39/seat per month
- Best For: Early stage to enterprise businesses who want an AI customer support and helpdesk system rolled into one.
Other options: Best Forethought Alternatives
Getting Started with Forethought
For medium to large customer-centric businesses, Forethought is definitely a top contender when it comes to live chat support.
Because its model is built on Natural Language Understanding, it’s able to better interpret the intent of a question in order to give more targeted, accurate answers.
If you’re ready to get started, just contact the Forethought sales team or request a free demo today.
FAQs
What is Forethought’s AI technology?
Forethought’s AI technology is built on AI that’s based on Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU).
NLU is a technology that allows Forethought to interpret the underlying intent of a question rather than simply keyword matching.
Which helpdesk systems does Forethought work with?
Forethought’s AI customer support technology works with Salesforce, Zendesk, ServiceNow, Kustomer, Talkdesk, and Dialpad helpdesk systems. They are working to continually add new systems to their list of integrations.
What does Forethought use to train its AI models?
Forethought uses various data sources to train its AI models, including:
Past tickets (Forethought needs about 20,000 historical tickets or 2,000 tickets a month to work really well)
Knowledge bases and articles
Macros
Templates
LiveChat is a complete customer service platform that delights your customers and fuels your sales.