Rovo Agents - Self-service beta vs. Virtual Service Agents

[Jared Grywacheski]

Just looking for some official clarification on a Rovo beta that is out right now -

 https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Rovo-articles/Join-the-beta-Rovo-agents-are-getting-powerful-new-self-service/ba-p/3112344?utm_source=atlcomm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=immediate_general_article&utm_content=topic

Will Rovo powered self service agents that are made available on customer portals replace Virtual Service Agents? 

What is the difference in functionality between these agents and the currently offered VSAs?

The line between Atlassian Intelligence and Rovo is very blurred which is concerning when one comes with credit usage and the other does not. 

[Josh]

@Jared Grywacheski as it stands right now, the Beta you're referring to leverages both Rovo and VSA functionality. I just got access to it a few days ago and am still working to understand it, but there are some really interesting concepts at play.

When this functionality goes GA, my assumption will be that VSAs (in their current incarnation) will be phased out and the overhauled Rovo Service Agents will take over.

No matter how hard we try, it's going to be difficult to avoid credit usage / consumption-based pricing with this sort of thing...

This is all conjecture on my end; I haven't seen any roadmaps yet.

[Jared Grywacheski]

@Josh Thanks for your response, this is also my line of thinking. As we both know, currently the Atlassian Intelligence powered VSA (or any Atlassian Intelligence features) do not use any sort of credit system. 

Our team is struggling with this end of Rovo as there does not seem to be much transparency on how the credit system will eventually work and what Rovo features will utilize credits. This has made it difficult for us to manage Rovo + the Atlassian Intelligence features we've been using since they became available over a year ago. There's no specific way to separate the two and turn off Rovo while keeping other AI features running. 

With the way Atlassian is choosing to push Rovo it feels like we are constantly one step behind while trying to stay one step ahead, if you know what I mean. But that's a whole other issue lol. 

[Josh]

@Jared Grywacheski yes, I get where you're coming from. It doesn't seem like there will be a significant distinction between Rovo and "Atlassian Intelligence" moving forward, so separation is unlikely.

Not sure if you heard about this (or if your org would exceed the "free" usage limit), but there are charges related to VSAs:

• Execute 1,000 Virtual Service Agent monthly assisted conversations for free. Above this limit, assisted conversations will start at $.30(USD)/assisted conversation/month with volume discounts applied.

This page has a decent breakdown of what you can expect in the next step ahead: Rovo usage quota | Rovo | Atlassian Support

The Rovo team is working to provide more usage monitoring data in the Admin center: https://admin.atlassian.com/o/YourOrgID/insights . Right now, it's not very helpful from a forecasting perspective but it sounds like that providing that kind of information will be a key prerequisite before we start getting billed for AI usage.

[Jared Grywacheski]

@Josh We just got access to the beta for Rovo Self Service agent - is this what you have access to as well? 

If, is there a difference in enabling a VSA vs. Rovo Self Service Agent - would love to test and compare the functionality of both, I am just not seeing how to enable a Rovo Self Service Agent. 

[Josh]

Hey @Jared Grywacheski .

Yes, there is a difference between the two. When you're looking at your JSM customer portal, you should now see two options:

1. "Chat with a virtual service agent" <- this is the old VSA
2. Chat icon on the bottom right (it should have the Atlassian logo and say "Support" in the chat box when you click on it) <- This is the new Rovo agent

You could compare them both, but you're going to quickly see that the Rovo agent is 1,000% more powerful. With the VSA, you have to script out the conversation, and it has to match the "intents" that you specify. With the Rovo agent, customers are chatting with a modern AI agent (supported by an LLM in the background).

[Jared Grywacheski]

Thanks @Josh 

Our current VSA does not use intents, but rather just connected to our Confluence Knowledge base. 

Does the Rovo agent have access to any data outside our KB and organization? We just have to be careful that the agent isn't pulling information from old tickets to answer questions that could violate privacy. 

[Josh]

@Jared Grywacheski yes, you can scope the knowledge used by Rovo agents.

You have some granularity around whether it will pull content from Confluence, Jira, Jira Service Management, Atlassian Home, and Atlassian Support Docs in the "Knowledge" section of the agent. You can also provide it strict instructions around what content it can and can't use if you'd like to take a "belt and suspenders" approach.

[Jared Grywacheski]

@Josh That great, and your answers are much appreciated. If we are part of the Beta for the JSM portal Rovo agent how do we go about enabling it? It's tough to find any documentation on this. 

[Josh]

Happy to help, @Jared Grywacheski . If you go into the JSM project you want to use the Rovo agent with, go to:

• Channels & self service
  • Portal
    • Rovo agent

From there, you can choose the agent to use and display the Rovo agent on the portal.

Because it hasn't officially launched yet, documentation appears to be a bit sparse.

[Sarah Scaife]

Hi @Jared Grywacheski @Josh ! Huge apologies, I just spotted this thread!

That's right, you can add Rovo to a Portal instead of a virtual service agent. (And soon the Help Center home page too). 

Similar to virtual service agents, you can

• Create a Rovo agent for your JSM project in one click with a service template that sets you up with prompts, knowledge and skills
• Connect your project’s JSM knowledge base, so Rovo only answers with your team’s curated information
• Automate escalations with work items created in your JSM project, auto-routed to the right request type and pre-filling required fields 
• Add a Rovo agent to your Slack workspace and your JSM Portal in a widget experience
• Analyze your Rovo agent’s performance from Insights to steer improvements, including conversation volumes, active users, and deflection rates (like the virtual agent's resolution rate)

Then in terms of differences, Rovo agents come with advanced agentic functionality:

• You can design Rovo to reflect your unique workflow and style, governing behaviors like escalations, feedback collection, check-ins and tone
• Rovo uses connected knowledge and skills to respond dynamically – rather than following a single, linear path.
• Scenarios can be used like virtual service agent's intents (for specific use cases that require a unique workflows). They're quick to create, train and guide, all using simple prompts. 
• Rovo JSM escalation supports an extensive range of fields types, which means more fields get auto-filled for you, more possibilities with automation.
• AI answers are multi-lingual, geo-specific and context aware.
• You can trigger a Rovo agent to jump in on cue, so they can go beyond a support front door. 

Happy to jump on a call at any point too, if you have more questions.