Jira search just got smarter with intent detection
TL;DR
We’re updating Jira’s search so it can better understand what you’re trying to do and route you to the right place automatically:
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Work‑style queries (e.g. “tickets”, “ABC‑123”) keep using Jira’s issue search
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Question‑style and knowledge queries (e.g. “how do I onboard new engineers?”) can open Rovo Search, with an AI answer and relevant content from across your Atlassian and connected apps
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You’ll still be in control - it’s easier to switch between Jira issue results and Rovo Search when you need to
We’re rolling this out gradually to Jira Cloud customers over the coming weeks and closely monitoring performance, relevance, and feedback to ensure the best experience for all our Jira users.
Why we’re changing Jira search
Jira now has two powerful, but very different, search experiences:
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The Jira search results page - built for deterministic work search: issues, filters, JQL, exports, bulk actions
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Rovo Search - built for knowledge and cross‑tool search: natural language questions, policies, docs, and content from connected apps, with AI summaries
Today, Jira’s search always sends you to Jira’s issue search, even when your query is clearly a question that Rovo could answer better. That leads to a few problems:
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You have to manually discover and choose to search with Rovo
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It’s easy to feel like you’re in the “wrong place” and bounce between views
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We under‑use Rovo’s strengths for knowledge discovery and cross‑app queries
Our goal is simple:
Make Jira search intent‑aware, so you land in the right experience on the first try!
What’s changing
When you start your search in Jira, we now look at the intent behind your query and choose the best starting point after you hit enter/return.
1. Work queries stay in Jira issue search
For deterministic, work‑oriented queries, Jira will continue to open the issue search results you know today.
Examples:
For these, Jira keeps doing what it already does well:
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Fast, reliable issue lists
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Familiar filters and JQL
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Bulk actions, exports, and all the power‑user tools
2. Knowledge queries route to Rovo Search
For non‑deterministic, question‑style queries, search can now send you straight to Rovo Search after you hit enter/return.
Examples:
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“What should I work on next?”
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“How do I set up incident management?”
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“Where is our Q3 planning doc?”
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“Who owns the billing service?”
In these cases, Rovo can:
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Answer your question directly with an AI summary
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Pull in relevant content from Jira, Confluence, and connected apps
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Suggest next steps, related questions, and key links
You get less hopping between surfaces, and more “I just typed what I meant and got what I needed!”
You stay in control
Intent detection is designed to help, not to trap you.
When you land on Jira issue results, you’ll have a clear way to “Search all apps” with Rovo if you realise you’re actually asking a broader question
When you land on Rovo Search, it’s easy to switch back to Jira issues if you really wanted a precise list to triage or bulk‑edit
We’re watching for any sign of “ping‑pong” behaviour (bouncing back and forth) and will tune the routing rules if we see confusion.
How intent detection works (at a high level)
Under the hood, Jira now looks at your query and classifies it as either:
For this first release we’re using carefully‑tuned, rule‑based heuristics that we’ve experimented internally and tested with Jira customers. We’re also running a more advanced ML classifier in observation‑only mode behind the scenes to learn from real traffic and support smarter routing in the future.
A few important notes:
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Performance matters: we’re holding ourselves to strict latency guardrails so search stays fast
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Relevance and trust matter: we only scale up the intent detection routing if we see better success in Jira search metrics
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Language support: for now, intent detection will primarily run on English‑language queries. For non‑English tenants, Jira will continue to use the existing search behaviour while we improve the model
Availability and rollout
We’re rolling intent‑aware search out gradually to Jira Cloud:
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Starting with a small % of Standard tenants, then expanding to more Standard, Premium, and Enterprise sites
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Eligible customers need to have AI features enabled in their Atlassian organization
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Some cohorts (for example, highly regulated environments or tenants on restrictive release tracks) will be excluded initially while we validate performance and compliance
If you don’t see the new behaviour yet, you’re not missing anything - it just means your site is still on the existing search experience. We’ll expand coverage as soon as we’re confident in the results.
What’s next
This is our first step toward a smarter, intent‑aware Jira search experience. Next, we’re looking at:
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Refining the routing rules based on real‑world data and feedback
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Improving Jira work queries powered by AI (e.g. “my recent tickets”, “issues assigned to Alex last week”) so you can speak naturally and still get precise issue lists
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Expanding language support once our models perform well beyond English
We’d love your feedback
Your feedback will shape how we evolve this:
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If you’re in the rollout, please try a mix of issue‑style queries and knowledge search questions from Jira’s search and see where you land
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Let us know when it gets it right (landed you in exactly the right place), and when it gets it wrong (you felt stuck or had to hop around)
You can leave comments here on the Community post, or use the in‑product “Give feedback” link from Jira search/Rovo Search.
