Kayako
Kayako is an AI-first customer service platform that provides an omnichannel help desk with autonomous ticket resolution via its Kay AI agent, serving mid-market and enterprise support teams across retail, SaaS, financial services, healthcare, and IT verticals.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2001
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Kayako does
Kayako is a customer service software company founded in 2001, now operating as an AI-first help desk platform under the legal entity ESW Operations, LLC. Its core product, Kayako One, unifies an omnichannel inbox (email, chat, social, SMS, WhatsApp, voice, API), a knowledge base with semantic search, a no-code workflow automation builder, ticketing, and analytics into a single platform. The company's primary technical differentiator is Kay, a proprietary AI support agent that reads tickets, drafts replies, and takes real actions (issuing refunds, creating accounts, updating orders) to resolve cases autonomously. Kay is trained on each customer's own ticket history and improves continuously from human agent resolutions, with reported production metrics of 87.2% deflection rate, 68% AI resolution rate, and 412 learned intents.
Kayako serves mid-market and enterprise support organizations across Retail & E-commerce, SaaS & Technology, Financial Services, Healthcare & Wellness, and Internal IT verticals. Notable customers include Trilogy, Aurea, Khoros, IgniteTech, Contently, and Jive. The company employs 101-250 people, supports 131,000 support professionals across 300+ companies, and processes interactions for 100 million end customers.
Revenue is generated through a hybrid model: $79 per agent per month for the platform subscription, $1 per AI-resolved ticket (outcome-based, charged only on full autonomous resolution), and a $15,000 90-day pilot program that includes white-glove expert-led deployment and a Backlog Breakthrough Guarantee. The go-to-market combines enterprise field sales targeting VP/Director-level support leaders with a product-led growth motion (14-day free trial, self-serve demo requests). Kayako maintains SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 27001/27017/27018, and PCI DSS compliance, and integrates natively with 20+ platforms including Salesforce, Shopify, Stripe, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Jira.
Kayako firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Kayako
- Legal name
- ESW Operations, LLC
- Website
- https://kayako.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2001
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 101–250 employees
- Short description
- Kayako is an AI-first customer service platform that provides an omnichannel help desk with autonomous ticket resolution via its Kay AI agent, serving mid-market and enterprise support teams across retail, SaaS, financial services, healthcare, and IT verticals.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Kayako industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Customer Service Software
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Enterprise Application License Advisory, Vendor Management & Optimization (BPAEAGAO)
Keywords
Where Kayako is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
Kayako business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Per AI Resolution Revenue: Primary revenue driver: Kayako charges $1 per AI-resolved ticket. A resolution is defined as a ticket fully resolved by the AI without human agent involvement. If a ticket is escalated to a human agent, no charge is incurred. This outcome-based model ties cost directly to delivered results, contrasting with traditional per-seat pricing. Most customers achieve 60-80% AI resolution rates within 90 days.
- Platform Subscription (Kayako One): Kayako One full platform is priced at $79 per agent per month (as referenced in comparison content), which includes unified inbox, ticketing, knowledge base, live chat widget, automation rules, reporting & analytics, and Kay AI agent at $1/resolution. The 90-day pilot program costs $15,000 inclusive of done-for-you migration (one product line), up to 5,000 tickets/month with AI automation, 10 agent seats, KPI dashboard, and Backlog Breakthrough Guarantee.
- Expert-Led Implementation Services: White-glove deployment is bundled into the pilot and onboarding. Implementation engineers, prompt experts, and dedicated success managers are assigned to each customer. The company emphasizes 'done-for-you' deployment rather than self-service configuration.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Kayako One full platform with AI included |
| Outcome Based/ Performance | Monthly | Per AI Resolution — Outcome-based pricing |
| Hybrid | Multi-year contract | 90-Day Pilot — Risk-free trial program |
| Per seat | Monthly | $79/mo core platform |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels8 records
Kayako product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Kayako sells Kayako One, an AI-first customer service platform that combines an omnichannel inbox, ticketing system, knowledge base, automation, and analytics with the Kay AI Agent capable of autonomously resolving support tickets across email, chat, voice, and social. The platform is sold primarily to mid-market and enterprise support organizations on a $79/agent/month subscription plus a $1 per AI-resolved ticket usage fee, with white-glove expert-led deployment bundled in. It supports 131,000 support professionals at 300+ companies handling 100 million end customers.
Product overview
Kayako is an AI-powered customer service platform built around its core product, Kayako One, which unifies an omnichannel help desk with autonomous ticket resolution capabilities. The platform centers on Kay, an AI agent that resolves tickets end-to-end without human intervention, and SingleView, a unified customer intelligence layer. Kayako One integrates all core support functions—shared inbox, ticketing, knowledge base, live chat widget, and analytics—into a single platform. Industry-specific solutions extend the platform for Retail, SaaS, Financial Services, and Healthcare verticals. The product also includes dedicated modules for Email Support AI, AI Chatbot, Social Media Support, and Internal IT Support. Kayako was founded in 2001 and currently supports over 131,000 support professionals at 300+ companies.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Kayako One: The full AI-powered help desk platform with unified inbox, ticketing system, knowledge base, live chat widget, automation rules, reporting & analytics, and Kay AI agent.
- Kay
- SingleView
Products and services
- Kayako One AI-powered help desk platform that combines omnichannel inbox, ticketing system, knowledge base, automation, analytics, and the Kay AI agent. Includes shared inbox, live chat widget, automation rules, reporting, and white-glove onboarding. Priced at $79 per agent per month plus $1 per AI-resolved ticket.
- Kay (AI Agent) AI support agent that reads tickets, drafts replies, takes action, and resolves cases automatically. Processes refunds, creates accounts, sends return labels, resets passwords, and handles end-to-end case resolution. Works alongside existing helpdesks (Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom, Salesforce) or Kayako's own helpdesk. Trained on customer tickets rather than generic models with continuous self-learning from agent resolutions.
- Email Support AI AI-powered email management that reads, routes, and resolves email tickets automatically. Includes smart routing based on intent, auto-context loading, and email-to-ticket automation. Integrates with Gmail, Outlook, Microsoft 365, and any IMAP/POP3 provider.
- AI Chatbot AI chat solution that autonomously resolves 80%+ of tickets. Handles FAQs, order status (WISMO), password resets, and refunds 24/7. Includes AI-suggested responses for agents, smart replies from knowledge base, and SingleView customer context. Available in 100+ languages.
- Ticketing System Omnichannel ticketing system capturing tickets from email, chat, web forms, voice, SMS, WhatsApp, social media, and API. Includes AI-powered routing, agent workspace with full customer context, automation builder, and analytics.
- Shared Inbox Unified inbox across all channels (email, chat, social, WhatsApp) with complete customer history. Features AI routing by expertise, VIP priority queue, workload balancing, and AI-drafted replies with brand voice coaching.
- Knowledge Base Self-maintaining knowledge base with AI article generation from resolved tickets, semantic search (not keywords), auto-detection of stale content, and content gap discovery. Includes multi-language translation on-demand across 100+ languages.
- SingleView (Customer Intelligence) 360-degree customer profile unifying tickets, purchases, orders, devices, entitlements, and subscription details. Includes cross-channel timeline, built-in health scores, predictive churn scoring, satisfaction prediction, and expansion signals.
- Omnichannel AI Customer Support Unified support across email, live chat, social media, SMS, WhatsApp, and voice channels. Automatically merges customer identities, applies custom SLAs, and maintains consistent customer context across all touchpoints.
- Social Media Customer Support AI-powered social media support unifying Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and WhatsApp. Includes sentiment detection for crisis prevention, proactive social listening for brand mentions, and smart automation for routing and escalation.
- Kayako Mobile App Native mobile apps for iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play) enabling agents to reply to conversations, update live chats, edit case properties, add notes, and upload attachments while on the go. Supports offline viewing.
- Internal IT Support Desk Internal IT support solution automating high-volume IT requests like password resets, VPN access, and software installs. Includes AI triage, routing, and escalation with multi-language support. Reduces cost per IT ticket from $12 to $1.
- Kayako Classic Legacy on-premise version of Kayako help desk software. Available for existing on-premise customers at classichelp.kayako.com.
Quantifiable outcome
- 68% AI resolution rate with $1 vs $4.60 cost per resolution
- +12 more outcomes
Companies that use Kayako
Customer profileNamed customers9 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles6 records
Kayako technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration32 records
AI capability6 records
Feature9 records
Kayako partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
16 partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- SlackcoreNative integration allowing Kay to send notifications and collaborate on ticket resolution within Slack channels. Teams can receive ticket alerts and take action from within Slack.
- StripecoreDeep integration with Stripe for pulling payment and subscription data into the customer timeline. Kay can access order and billing information to resolve payment-related tickets autonomously.
- ShopifycoreNative Shopify integration for e-commerce customers. Kay pulls order data, fulfillment status, and product information to resolve 'Where is my order?' and return requests autonomously. Order data surfaces in SingleView customer timeline.
- ZendeskcoreKay can be deployed into existing Zendesk instances as a co-pilot or can replace Zendesk entirely. Migration support from Zendesk is offered. This is both a key integration and the primary competitive displacement target.
- SalesforcecoreNative Salesforce integration syncs accounts, contacts, and deals with Kayako tickets. AI can push ticket summaries into deal timelines and auto-notify account executives on churn or expansion signals.
- HubSpotcoreNative HubSpot integration for CRM data sync. Customer information from HubSpot flows into the SingleView timeline alongside tickets and purchases.
- IntercomcoreKay can be deployed alongside or as a replacement for Intercom. Migration support from Intercom is offered. Primary competitive target alongside Zendesk.
- FreshdeskcoreKay can be deployed into existing Freshdesk instances. Migration support from Freshdesk is offered. Primary competitive target alongside Zendesk and Intercom.
- Microsoft TeamscoreNative Microsoft Teams integration for team notifications and collaboration on tickets. Agents can collaborate on tickets within Teams context.
- WhatsAppcoreWhatsApp messaging channel support through Kayako's unified inbox. Customers can reach support via WhatsApp and messages are routed alongside email, chat, and social into the unified queue.
- ChargebeecoreSubscription management integration with Chargebee. Kay pulls subscription data, billing status, and payment history to resolve subscription-related tickets autonomously.
- JiracoreJira integration for engineering teams. Bug reports from Kayako tickets can be logged directly into Jira with full context. Engineers see customer impact alongside technical details.
- ZapiercoreZapier integration connects Kayako to 5,000+ apps through visual workflow automation. No engineering required. Automate ticket creation, status updates, and cross-system notifications.
- WooCommercecoreWooCommerce integration for e-commerce customers, similar to Shopify. Kay pulls order data and product information for ticket resolution.
- UPScoreShipping carrier integration (UPS, FedEx, USPS, DHL, ShipStation) for order tracking and shipment status. Kay uses these integrations to resolve WISMO tickets autonomously.
- FedExcoreShipping carrier integration for order tracking and shipment status automation.
Scale indicators16 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Kayako competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Zendesk: Zendesk is the leading customer service and helpdesk SaaS platform serving SMB through enterprise. Kayako directly competes with Zendesk, positioning against its per-seat ($115/agent) and AI add-on pricing, and offers migration paths from Zendesk instances.
- Intercom: Intercom is an AI-first customer service platform with conversational AI agents (Fin) and per-resolution pricing ($0.99/resolution). Kayako competes directly with Intercom on AI deflection capabilities and offers co-pilot deployment into existing Intercom instances.
- Freshdesk (Freshworks): Freshdesk is a helpdesk platform from Freshworks serving SMB and mid-market customers at $49/agent with Freddy AI Copilot at $29. Kayako positions as a higher-touch, AI-first alternative and offers migration from Freshdesk instances.
- Help Scout: Help Scout is a helpdesk platform targeting SMB and mid-market companies with shared inbox, knowledge base, and live chat. Kayako competes for similar customer profiles with AI-first capabilities Help Scout lacks.
- Front: Front is a shared inbox and customer operations platform serving mid-market companies with email, chat, and social channel consolidation. Kayako targets overlapping use cases with additional AI resolution capabilities.
- Gorgias: Gorgias is an AI helpdesk specifically designed for e-commerce merchants with deep Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento integrations. Kayako directly competes in the e-commerce support vertical with comparable WISMO deflection capabilities.
- Kustomer: Kustomer is an AI-powered customer service platform offering omnichannel CRM, automation, and AI agents. Acquired by Meta in 2020 and later spun off, Kustomer competes directly with Kayako on AI-first customer support for mid-market and enterprise.
Broad incumbents
- Salesforce Service Cloud: Salesforce Service Cloud is the enterprise-grade customer service platform within the broader Salesforce CRM ecosystem. Kayako integrates with Salesforce as a co-pilot and positions against it for high-volume support operations, but Salesforce offers broader enterprise functionality.
- HubSpot Service Hub: HubSpot Service Hub is the customer service module within the HubSpot CRM platform, targeting mid-market companies already using HubSpot marketing and sales tools. Kayako integrates with HubSpot CRM and competes for service-specific use cases.
Emerging players
- Ada: Ada is an AI customer service automation platform focused on autonomous resolution across chat and messaging channels. Ada targets similar enterprise customers with comparable outcome-based pricing models, making it a direct emerging competitor in the AI resolution space.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Kayako social profiles
Digital presenceKayako compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance7 records
Kayako financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Kayako leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Kayako funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Kayako M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Kayako
What does Kayako do?
Kayako sells Kayako One, an AI-first customer service platform that combines an omnichannel inbox, ticketing system, knowledge base, automation, and analytics with the Kay AI Agent capable of autonomously resolving support tickets across email, chat, voice, and social. The platform is sold primarily to mid-market and enterprise support organizations on a $79/agent/month subscription plus a $1 per AI-resolved ticket usage fee, with white-glove expert-led deployment bundled in. It supports 131,000 support professionals at 300+ companies handling 100 million end customers.
Is Kayako a public or private company?
Kayako is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was Kayako founded?
Kayako was founded in 2001. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is Kayako based?
Kayako is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Kayako make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Per AI Resolution Revenue is the primary driver. The others are platform Subscription (Kayako One) and expert-Led Implementation Services.
Who are Kayako's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk (Freshworks), Help Scout, Front, Gorgias and Kustomer. Broad incumbents are Salesforce Service Cloud and HubSpot Service Hub. Ada is listed as an emerging player.
Does Kayako have an API?
Yes. Kayako offers RESTful API access and real-time webhooks for custom integrations. Push events from backend systems directly into SingleView. Full API documentation available at developer.kayako.com. API security restricted to authorized users based on username/password or API tokens. Developer documentation is at developer.kayako.com.
What industry is Kayako in?
Kayako's product category is Customer Service Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAEAGAO, Enterprise Application License Advisory, Vendor Management & Optimization. Its NAICS code is 5182 and its SIC code is 7372.