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Gladly AI Implementation (2026): Do It Yourself, Buy a Gladly Package, or Add a Third-Party Agent?
Gladly AI implementation runs on one of three routes: your CX team configures Gladly's own AI agent (formerly Sidekick) with Public Answers and Guides, you buy one of Gladly's Professional Services packages for implementing the Gladly platform (published at $5,500 for 4 to 6 weeks and $9,250 for 6 to 8 weeks, with no AI line item), or you connect a third-party AI agent such as Siena or Ada. Gladly says its AI deployments average 6 weeks from signed contract to live. It has no public directory of implementation partners, so outside help mostly means Gladly's own team.
Key takeaways
- Gladly AI implementation runs through your own CX team, a Gladly Professional Services package, or a third-party AI agent such as Siena, Ada or Netomi connected to Gladly.
- Gladly's platform implementation sheet prices Essentials at $5,500 for 4 to 6 weeks and Essentials Plus at $9,250 for 6 to 8 weeks; Self-Guided is $0, and AI isn't a line item.
- Gladly's AI bills per outcome: its Shopify App Store listing charges $1.50 per AI Resolution, $0.25 per AI Assist and $120 a month per team member.
- Gladly AI hands off non-English conversations by default, and Gladly's own help article disagrees with itself on whether that rule can be removed, so multilingual brands should confirm before launch.
- Gladly's partner program covers referral and technology partners only, with no public implementation directory, so Gladly's own Services team does most implementations.
Disclosure: Macha publishes this blog, and Macha isn't available on Gladly. Our AI agents run on Zendesk, Freshdesk, Gorgias, Front, HubSpot or Intercom, so this page has nothing of ours to sell you on Gladly. Every outside price links to its source, read on October 14, 2026. This is the Gladly chapter of our AI customer support implementation guide; the Help Scout, Salesforce Service Cloud and Zendesk chapters cover the same decision on those desks.
What does Gladly's own AI include in 2026?
Start with the names, because old guides use the old ones. On February 4, 2026 Gladly renamed its products: the AI agent once called Sidekick is now just "Gladly," the agent workspace once called Hero is "Gladly Team," Sidekick for Hero became Team Assist, and Sidekick Guides became Guides (our overview of Gladly covers the platform itself). A configured instance of the AI is a "Gladly Agent." Contracts signed before February 1 keep the old names until renewal, so your order form may still say Sidekick.
| Part | What it does | Channels | How it's priced (Oct 14, 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gladly (the AI agent) | Answers customers from Public Answers, follows Guides, takes actions such as Shopify order lookups and cancellations, hands off to a person | Chat, email, SMS, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct | Per outcome: an AI Resolution or an AI Assist. Self-serve rates on the Shopify App Store: $1.50 and $0.25; enterprise contracts quoted |
| Voice AI | The same agent inside your Gladly IVR | Phone | Add-on; $0.06216 a minute on top of telephony (usage costs) |
| Team Assist | Copilot in the agent workspace: Catch me up, Summarize this customer, ask questions, draft replies | Agent side | Not printed |
| Guides | No-code editor where you write the AI's workflows, guardrails and handoff rules in plain language | Setup tool | Included with the AI |
| Gladly AI for Helpdesks | Runs Gladly's AI agent on Zendesk or Gorgias instead of Gladly Team | Varies by help desk; chat and email on Gorgias | Add-on, through sales |
Our Gladly AI explainer covers what the AI does for retail, and our Gladly pricing guide works through seat types, true-up invoices and the voice rate card. This page is about getting it live.
Three Gladly details shape the plan.
Knowledge is Public Answers. Gladly's AI FAQ recommends starting with at least 100 Public Answers and notes that many high-performing teams have 600 or more. Gladly also asks for one Answer per question, with no two Answers that contradict each other (writing guide). Most of the calendar on a Gladly AI project goes to this content work.
Billing counts outcomes. Gladly bills per Resolution or Assist, and an AI reply to spam counts as a billable resolution unless you set suspected spam to hand off (AI FAQ); our pricing guide works through the definitions. Charging for assists means Gladly earns $0.25 on a conversation the AI touched once and then handed off, so that's an incentive to watch: track your assist count as closely as your resolution count.
The AI checks itself and hands off. Before sending, Gladly runs quality checks for missing context, false statements and unverified promises, and hands off instead of replying when one fails (AI FAQ). Three transfer reasons are built in: a customer threatening legal action, a customer asking for a human, and a customer writing in a language other than English (When to get more help). That article says these defaults are "not removable or modifiable," then a warning box on the same page says they "can be edited or removed." Ask Gladly which applies to your account before you plan around non-English volume.
Which AI agents integrate with Gladly?
Gladly's integrations directory lists Ada, Netomi, Siena and KODIF.ai in its AI and chatbot group (it also lists outsourced-agent services there). We checked each vendor's own site on October 14, 2026. We list them alphabetically and don't rank them; Macha isn't one of them.
| Tool | How it connects to Gladly | What it does there | Published price (Oct 14, 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ada | Integration listed on Ada's messaging handoff page | "Connect your knowledge base to instantly generate replies," then brings in a Gladly agent over messaging or email | No price on ada.cx/pricing |
| Gladly's own AI | Built in | Public Answers, Guides, Shopify actions, Voice AI | $1.50 per resolution and $0.25 per assist on the Shopify listing; contract otherwise |
| KODIF.ai | Listed in Gladly's directory, and Gladly appears as a help desk card ("Gladly - People-first inbox") on Kodif's integrations page | "Conversational AI, Workflow Automation, and Co-pilot," per Gladly's listing | Not printed on the integrations page |
| Netomi | Gladly's toolkit page says Netomi builds and maintains it: a webhook plus a dedicated Netomi Inbox | Answers conversations in that Inbox and moves the ones it can't handle to staffed Inboxes | Not printed; Gladly didn't appear on Netomi's integrations page when we checked |
| Siena AI | Connected from Siena's side to one or more Gladly accounts | Automates email, SMS, chat, Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp conversations and says it keeps Gladly's lifelong conversation view | $750 a month platform fee plus $0.90 per automated ticket; the pricing page lists "Support & Implementation" (onboarding and Slack support) with no separate price |
Running a third-party agent on Gladly means you pay for two AI layers if you also keep Gladly's own AI switched on, so decide which one owns which channel. And a third party sees the Conversation Timeline only through Gladly's API, so ask each vendor what history it reads before your first call.
How do the routes compare?
| Route | Who does the work | Time to go live | Published cost (Oct 14, 2026) | Who tunes it after launch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIY with Gladly's AI | Your CX admins, with Gladly Support | Gladly says 6 weeks on average from contract to live (deployment page) | AI per outcome; Self-Guided implementation package $0 | You, from the Gladly AI Conversations page and dashboards |
| Gladly Professional Services package | A named Gladly implementation manager plus your team | Platform setup: Essentials 4 to 6 weeks; Essentials Plus 6 to 8 weeks; Custom quoted. AI isn't a line item | $5,500 or $9,250; Custom for 100+ agents (package sheet, linked from a help article last updated August 19, 2025) | You and your Customer Success Manager once the implementation team rolls off |
| Third-party AI agent | The vendor, set up with your Gladly admin | Vendor-dependent; Siena says you can connect "in minutes" | Siena $750 a month plus $0.90 per ticket; Ada and Netomi quote | The vendor's team or you, inside the vendor's dashboard |
| Partner or agency | No public Gladly implementation directory | Not published | Not published | Not published |
Gladly's package sheet covers implementing the Gladly platform, and none of its line items mentions AI. Voice AI and Gladly AI for Helpdesks are both labeled "ADD-ON FEATURE" in the docs and sold through your CSM. So if you're new to Gladly, the package buys the help desk setup, and the AI is a second workstream on top.
On the help desks with partner directories, agencies publish one-off AI setups at roughly $1,500 to $17,500 over 10 days to 8 weeks, and cap help after launch: one Intercom partner gives 12 hours over 5 business days, and a Gorgias agency sells retainers from $1,000 a month (our cost study, October 14, 2026). Gladly's pitch runs the other way: its deployment page says "Most AI deployments turn into a six-month integration project run by people who don't work for you" and that "Your CX team configures Gladly. No engineers required," with 3 IT team days for a full deployment. Read that with the business model in mind: Gladly sells both the AI and the implementation packages, so outside consultants are competition.
What are the phases of a Gladly AI implementation, with weeks?
This is the DIY route with Gladly's AI on an existing Gladly instance. The weeks are our estimate, fitted to Gladly's published 6-week average and its Voice AI timeline. A Professional Services package follows the same steps with a Gladly manager running the calendar.
| Phase | Weeks | What happens | What you must provide |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Audit Conversations and Topics | Week 1 | Pull 2 to 3 months of Conversations by Topic, rank the reasons customers contact you, mark which ones the AI should own | Admin access, a clean Topic list |
| 2. Write Public Answers | Weeks 1 to 3 | Reach at least 100 Public Answers, one question each, no conflicts; retire stale ones | An owner for content, a few hours a day |
| 3. Build Guides and actions | Weeks 2 to 3 | Write Guides in plain language, add the Shopify Track Order and Cancel Order templates, set handoff reasons and the handoff message | Order system access (Shopify or a Lookup Adaptor), written policies |
| 4. Test | Weeks 3 to 4 | Side-by-side tester on each Guide, then Simulator scenarios with pass/fail criteria if your account has the Simulator (Early Access) | 30 to 50 real customer situations to script |
| 5. Launch on one channel | Weeks 4 to 6 | Turn the AI on for chat or one email address; review every handoff daily | Someone to read AI Conversations for 20 minutes a day |
| 6. Tune and expand | Week 6 onward | Add Suggested Answers, more Guides, A/B test Gladly Agent versions, then SMS, social and Voice AI | The same owner, weekly |
Voice AI has its own short plan in Gladly's pre-implementation guide: IVR and Guide setup and internal testing in week 1, a limited production test of 3 to 4 hours, go-live in week 2, and Guide tweaks in weeks 2 to 3. Gladly's stated aims are about 2 to 10% resolution in the limited test, 10 to 12% at go-live and 12 to 20% after tweaks. Those are Gladly's targets for its own product, not a forecast for your phone queue.
Which tests should you run before customers see it?
Gladly's Simulator, in Early Access as of October 2026 (ask Gladly Support to turn it on), runs a scripted customer against your real Guide logic, replaces order lookups and refunds with mock data, and grades each run on yes/no criteria with no partial credit. If you don't have it, run the same cases by hand in the side-by-side tester inside each Guide. Use four kinds of test, the same split as our pre-launch checklist:
- Normal case: your top 20 contact reasons, written the way customers write them.
- Escalation: set "Expect handoff" (Simulator) on refund disputes, legal threats and requests for a person, and confirm the AI hands off.
- Edge cases: two questions in one message, a made-up order number, a Spanish message (which should hand off by default).
- Tone: read the transcripts for voice. The Simulator's knowledge searches run against your real Public Answers, so tone problems often trace back to the Answer text.
Our post on testing agents on real tickets before launch covers what a test set should contain.
What happens after launch?
Gladly's implementation team rolls off at launch, sends a Deployment Guide and introduces you to Customer Success (post-launch steps). From then on, tuning is yours. Review the Gladly AI Conversations page for handed-off and unresolved outcomes, turn Suggested Answers from handoffs into Public Answers, and watch the Guides and Answers Performance Dashboard week over week. The Sessions page keeps conversation history for 30 days, so a monthly review misses most of it: review weekly. Gladly offers a "Gladly Usage Audit" as a Value Added Service if configurations drift (Value Added Services, no price printed). Our pilot plan gives a 30-day go/no-go structure, and why pilots get switched off covers what happens when nobody owns this step.
Who does each job on each route?
| Job | DIY with Gladly's AI | Gladly Professional Services | Third-party AI agent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audit Conversations and Topics | You | Gladly runs a 45-minute Answers and Topics workshop; you do the work | Vendor or you |
| Write Public Answers | You | You, with Gladly's guidance | Vendor reads your knowledge base (Ada) or its own sources |
| Build Guides, actions, handoff rules | You | Gladly manager and you | You, in the vendor's tool |
| Custom data lookups (Lookup Adaptor, APIs) | Your developer | Developer consultation hours on Essentials Plus; Technical Consulting otherwise | The vendor's integrations |
| Phone numbers and IVR | You, with Gladly Support | Gladly builds one IVR (Essentials) or two (Essentials Plus) | Not applicable unless the vendor does voice |
| Pre-launch testing | You, with the side-by-side tester and Simulator (Early Access) | Gladly-led, you sign off | Vendor's test tools |
| Tune after launch | You | You and your CSM | Vendor team or you |
What Gladly-specific problems slow an implementation down?
One lifelong conversation instead of tickets
Gladly keeps one Conversation Timeline per customer, across every channel, with Conversations separated by Topic (how Conversations are separated). There are no ticket numbers. It helps the AI, which reads past history. But it changes reporting and handoffs: "resolution" applies to a Conversation inside the timeline, not a ticket, and a third-party agent that works on a dedicated Inbox (as Netomi's does) needs Rules that move Conversations in and out cleanly. Migrating from a ticket desk? Gladly imports history, up to 2 years from 1 source on Essentials and 3 years from 2 sources on Essentials Plus, per the package sheet.
Topics
Topics drive reporting, routing Rules and which Guide the AI picks. Gladly lets you require a Topic before an agent can close a Conversation, and Shopify templates can attach Topics to a Guide. A Topic list that grew by accident (40 near-duplicates, "Other" at 30%) makes both the audit and Guide selection worse. Clean it in week 1.
Rules
Rules route Conversations and can transfer them from inside a Guide. Before launch, list every Rule that fires on new inbound messages: an auto-reply Rule and the AI answering the same email is the most common collision on any desk.
Shopify and order lookups
Gladly's Shopify integration supports refunds, discounts and cancellations from the agent workspace, and the AI has Track Order and Cancel Order Guide templates (templates). With several storefronts, you pick a configuration per Guide. Review the pre-built Cancel Order Rules against your own policy, and test against a Shopify sandbox store if your Gladly package includes a sandbox (Essentials Plus does; Essentials doesn't); Gladly documents installing Shopify in a UAT or sandbox environment. Data outside Shopify (a subscription app, a loyalty ID) comes through a Lookup Adaptor, which is developer work or Gladly Technical Consulting.
Voice and IVR
Voice AI needs a Gladly IVR, a decision about which phone number and which IVR node hands to the AI, and access to your order or customer master data. Gladly asks whether you'll test on a production entry point with real traffic or a separate test entry point. Pick the test entry point. Budget the per-minute AI rate separately from seats.
Languages
Non-English conversations hand off by default, and Gladly's article is inconsistent on whether you can remove that rule (see above). AI Summaries also work on English conversations only (AI for agents). A brand with large Spanish or French volume should size that handoff traffic before setting goals for the AI.
Where do you find help with a Gladly AI implementation?
Gladly doesn't publish a directory of implementation partners. Its partner page invites BPOs, solution providers, agencies and cloud providers to "Refer, implement, or integrate Gladly," but the two programs it describes are referral partners (paid fees tied to first-year subscription revenue) and technology alliance partners that build integrations. The logos on that page (Assembled, MaestroQA, Medallia, Playvox, Shopify, Twilio, Microsoft, Klaviyo, Qualtrics and others) are technology partners, not implementers. We searched on October 14, 2026 and found no agency publishing a Gladly AI implementation package or price.
So outside help comes in three forms:
- Gladly Professional Services: the implementation packages above, plus Value Added Services after launch: Technical Consulting (APIs, Lookup Adaptors), Growth and Expansion (new brands, channels, IVR changes), Best Practices, Custom Training and a Usage Audit. No prices are printed for these.
- Your AI vendor's team, if you take the third-party route. Siena lists "Support & Implementation" on its pricing page; ask Ada and Netomi what their quote covers.
- A freelancer or developer for Lookup Adaptors or API work. Our guides on who can set up AI customer support and our cross-desk partners list have the vetting questions. For Gladly, add three: ask how many Gladly Guides they've written since the 2026 rename, ask to see a Simulator scenario set they built, and ask who owns the weekly review after they leave.
When do you need Gladly's Services team, or a different setup?
Buy an Essentials Plus or Custom package when you're migrating onto Gladly with several brands, more than 20 agents, phone numbers to port, or 2 or more history sources to import. The sandbox comes with Essentials Plus, not Essentials.
DIY suits teams already live on Gladly whose top contact reasons are covered by Public Answers and Shopify data, with one admin who can own Guides weekly.
A third-party agent fits when you want an AI vendor that also runs on another desk you own, or Gladly's per-outcome rates don't work at your volume. Compare per-ticket cost at your real volume; our Gladly pricing guide has worked examples.
Gladly may be the wrong desk for this plan if your support isn't built around a product catalog and orders. If most of your volume isn't in English, confirm how Gladly's AI handles your languages before you sign. Our Gladly alternatives cover other desks.
Which route fits your situation?
| Your situation | Route | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify brand, under 10 agents, new to Gladly | Shopify App Store plan plus the Self-Guided package | Free plan includes 100 AI interactions to test; Self-Guided is $0 and Gladly estimates 4 weeks; any Services add-ons must be used within four weeks of signature (Self-Guided overview) |
| Retailer moving from a ticket desk, 20 to 50 agents, two brands | Essentials Plus ($9,250, 6 to 8 weeks) | Sandbox, two IVRs, developer hours and history from 2 sources |
| Enterprise contact center, 100+ agents, heavy phone volume | Custom package plus Voice AI | Voice AI needs IVR work and a test entry point; Gladly plans it in 2 to 3 weeks |
| Already on Gladly, AI off, want chat and email automated | DIY with Guides and the side-by-side tester | The work is Public Answers and Guides, not integration |
| Large Spanish or French volume | Confirm the language rule with Gladly, or use a third-party agent | Non-English messages hand off by default in Gladly's AI |
| Want one AI vendor across Gladly and another desk | Siena or Ada | Both list Gladly next to other help desks on their own sites |
| Also running one of Zendesk, Freshdesk, Gorgias, Front, HubSpot or Intercom for another brand or region | Macha's free support audit on that desk | Macha works there, not on Gladly |
How we researched this
On October 14, 2026 we read Gladly's documentation index and about 25 Gladly help articles on the AI agent, Guides, the Simulator, Team Assist, Voice AI, transfer reasons, Shopify templates, Topics, implementation packages, Value Added Services and post-launch steps (updated between January 2025 and August 2026), plus the image-based implementation package sheet linked from Gladly's packages page, which we read page by page. We also read gladly.ai's deployment, partner and integrations pages and Gladly's Shopify App Store listing. For third parties we read Siena's Gladly and pricing pages, Ada's handoff integrations and pricing pages, Netomi's integrations page and Gladly's Netomi toolkit page. Cross-desk agency prices come from our October 14 market study. Gladly's help doc names five packages (Self-Guided, Foundations, Essentials, Essentials Plus, Enterprise) while the linked sheet shows four with prices (Self-Guided, Essentials, Essentials Plus, Custom); we quote the sheet's prices and ask you to confirm the current lineup with Gladly. We didn't run Gladly's AI on a live account; phase lengths are our estimate. Macha doesn't run on Gladly.
Common questions
Who can implement AI on Gladly for me?
Your own CX admins, using Guides and Public Answers; Gladly's Professional Services team, through an implementation package or Value Added Services; or a third-party AI vendor such as Siena, Ada or Netomi that connects to Gladly. Gladly doesn't list independent implementation agencies.
What happened to Gladly Sidekick?
Gladly renamed it in early 2026. The AI agent is now called Gladly, the agent workspace (formerly Hero) is Gladly Team, Sidekick for Hero is Team Assist, and Sidekick Guides is Guides. Gladly says nothing changed in how the products work.
How long does a Gladly AI implementation take?
Gladly says its AI deployments average 6 weeks from signed contract to live. Its platform implementation packages run 4 to 6 weeks (Essentials) or 6 to 8 weeks (Essentials Plus) and don't list AI as a line item, and Voice AI on an existing Gladly IVR is planned over 2 to 3 weeks. Content work on Public Answers usually sets the pace.
How much does a Gladly AI implementation cost?
Gladly's platform implementation sheet (linked from a help article last updated August 19, 2025) lists Self-Guided at $0, Essentials at $5,500, Essentials Plus at $9,250 and Custom by quote, with no AI line item. AI usage is billed per outcome; the Shopify App Store listing shows $1.50 per resolution, $0.25 per assist and $120 a month per team member. Voice AI adds $0.06216 a minute on top of telephony.
Does Gladly have implementation partners?
Not as a directory. Gladly's partner program has referral partners and technology alliance partners. Implementation is mostly done by Gladly's own Professional Services team.
Can Gladly's AI run on Zendesk or Gorgias?
Yes, as an add-on called Gladly AI for Helpdesks. Gladly's AI takes a dedicated user seat in your help desk, receives ticket events by webhook, and replies or hands off there. On Gorgias it handles chat and email and only creates a ticket when it hands off; on Zendesk, Gladly recommends starting in Listening Mode so nothing reaches customers until setup is done. If you're weighing the two platforms, see Gladly vs Gorgias.
Does Macha work with Gladly?
No. Macha runs on Zendesk, Freshdesk, Gorgias, Front, HubSpot or Intercom and has no Gladly connector, so the options on this page are the ones to compare.
