At Thunderbird, our support team is committed to helping you when you need it. As we grow, we’ll introduce automation, including AI-powered tools. These tools are here to assist us, not replace us. They help us improve the support experience for our users, community, and support team.
What does automation mean?
Automation helps our support team behind the scenes to:
- Route and organize incoming tickets faster
- Suggest helpful articles and draft answers
- Detect urgency, intent, and sentiment
- Identify trends and analyze feedback
- Draft replies for a support team member to review
- Answer some common, straightforward questions directly
These tools help us focus more on complex cases while helping you find useful information more quickly.
Will I talk to an AI agent?
Only if you want to.
You may receive clearly marked, automated suggestions—such as potentially helpful support articles—while we work on your request. You are never required to interact with an AI agent or rely on an automated response.
Our AI assistants:
- Are available to respond 24/7
- Always provide a path to human support
- Can suggest help articles or ask clarifying questions
- Will not pretend to be human
- Are closely monitored by our team for quality and accuracy
You stay in control. We’re here for you.
When does AI answer on its own?
For a small set of common, straightforward questions, an AI assistant may send you a complete answer right away instead of placing you in the queue. When that happens, the reply is clearly marked as automated, it points to the articles or steps it is based on, and it always tells you how to reach a person.
If you reply to an automated answer—including just to tell us it did not help—your request goes to the support team. You never have to start over or submit a new request.
We review these automated answers regularly and turn off any that are not working well.
Why use automation in support?
Here’s why we’re embracing AI-powered tools in support now:
- Setting expectations early: Transparency from the start builds trust
- Avoiding surprises: Many support tools now include AI by default. We want you to know what we’re using and why we’ve chosen it
Your privacy and trust matter
We take your privacy seriously. That’s why we’re:
- Publishing this article to explain how we use automation
- Updating our Privacy Policy to reflect AI tools in support
- Keeping a person available in every workflow
- Reviewing automated answers for quality
We do not sell your data or use AI to share it with third parties for unrelated purposes. We use AI only to provide faster, better help.
AI may organize tickets, recommend resources, translate content, prepare draft responses, and answer some common questions directly. Customers can always reach our support team, and AI does not make decisions about your account, your data, or your subscription on its own.
What’s next?
We’ll continue to refine how we use automation. We’ll pilot these tools with care, consider your feedback, and scale responsibly.
We’re committed to ensuring our use of automation and AI reflects Thunderbird’s values.
Thank you for your trust
As Thunderbird continues to grow, we remain committed to support that is privacy-minded, community-centered, and human-first. Automation helps us respond more effectively; it does not replace the people on our support team.
If you have questions or concerns about our use of automation and AI in support, we welcome your feedback.