TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Key feature capabilities and rules
• Prerequisites and permissions
  • System and feature prerequisites
  • Required admin permissions
• Configuration lifecycle: draft vs. published
• Create a skillset
  • Onboarding experience
  • Define skillsets
• Preview and publish skillsets
• Manage, edit, archive, and delete skillsets
  • Filtering views
  • Edit a skillset
  • Best practice: archiving vs. redefining skillsets
  • Archive a skillset
  • Restore an archived skillset
  • Delete a skillset
• Others (default skillset)
• View and manage agent associations and proficiency
  • View skillset details
    • Agents tab (AI-mapped vs. manually mapped)
    • Add agents manually
    • Update agent proficiency inline
  • Manage skillsets in agent profiles
• Feedback on AI ticket routing
  • Feedback from skillset details
  • Feedback from the ticket details page
• Integrate skillsets with ticket assignment policies
• Filter tickets by skillset
• Audit log tracking
• Sandbox support

Skillsets in Freshservice provide an administrator-defined framework for intelligent ticket routing using Freddy AI. Freddy AI categorizes incoming tickets into clear, customer-defined categories—such as Network Support, Identity and Access, or Laptop Support.

• Freddy AI evaluates incoming tickets by analyzing the ticket subject, description, and requested item details from service catalog submissions, and tags the most appropriate admin-defined skillset to tickets.

• If there are ticket assignment policies matching a ticket with skill enabled, then the skillset tagged to the ticket is taken into consideration, and the best matching agent is identified based on proficiency levels.

• It then routes tickets to qualified agents matched with skillset requirements and proficiency levels (Expert, Intermediate, Beginner) alongside agent work schedules and current workloads.

For more information on ticket assignment policies, refer to the following support article:

• Optimise Ticket Assignment with Ticket Assignment Policies

• Ticket Assignment with the New Policy Framework

• Ticket Assignment Policies Framework

Key feature capabilities and rules

• Workspace-scoped configuration: Skillsets are defined and managed at the workspace level. The same skillset name (for example, Laptop Support) can exist in different workspaces with distinct configurations and routing rules.

• Cross-workspace ticket reassignment: When a ticket is reassigned to a different workspace, Freddy AI automatically re-evaluates the ticket using the destination workspace's skillset definitions and re-triggers assignment rules accordingly.

• Tie-breaking assignment logic: When multiple agents share identical proficiency, availability, and workload scores, tickets are assigned to the agent with the oldest ‘assigned at’ timestamp.

Prerequisites and permissions

To configure and manage skillsets, ensure the following requirements are met:

System and feature prerequisites

• Plan availability: Available on Pro and Enterprise (with Copilot add-on).

• Global setting: Skillsets must be enabled globally under Admin > Global Settings > Freddy AI > Freddy > Skillsets.

Note: Disabling Skillsets under Global Settings pauses AI learning. Re-enabling it restarts the learning process.

Required admin permissions

Administrators require custom role permissions to manage skillsets. Privileges can be applied at the Workspace level (managing skillsets only for agents in assigned workspaces) or the Account level (managing skillsets globally across all agents).

To configure these permissions, go to Admin > Global Settings > User Management > Roles > Admin roles:

• View skillsets: Grants access to view skillsets and mapped agents.

• Create skillsets: Allows creating new skillsets and templates.

• Edit skillsets: Allows modifying existing skillsets, keywords, sample tickets, and manual agent associations. 

• Delete skillsets: Allows archiving and deleting skillsets.

Configuration lifecycle: draft vs. published

Skillset management operates on a configuration-level draft lifecycle:

• Workspace-wide draft mode: Individual skillsets are never in draft state independently. Making changes puts the entire workspace skillset configuration into Edit/Draft mode.

• Impact on live routing: Modifications made while in Draft mode do not affect live ticket routing until published.

• Publishing impact: Publishing activates the entire configuration for real-time ticket routing and initiates historical ticket evaluation (past 180 days) for agent proficiency calculations.

• Re-enabling feature processing: If skill-based routing is temporarily turned off and later re-enabled, all skillsets revert to Draft mode. Publishing re-evaluates only the tickets created while the feature was disabled, avoiding unnecessary historical re-processing.

Create a skillset

Administrators can define skillsets from scratch or use pre-built templates tailored to common IT service categories.

Onboarding experience

1. Log in to your Freshservice account.

2. Go to Admin > Workspace settings > Automation > Skillsets.

3. On the onboarding page, click Get started.

4. Click Create skillset.

Define skillsets

1. In the Create skillset slider, choose one of the following options:

• Create from scratch: Build a custom skillset.

• Use template: Select a pre-configured template (such as Laptop Support, Software Support, Hardware Request, Network, or Procurement).

2. Configure the following fields:

• Name: Enter a clear name for the skillset.

• Description: Provide a detailed description explaining what types of issues this skillset covers.

• Keywords: Enter relevant terms as keywords.

• Sample tickets: Search and select up to 30 real tickets from your workspace that best exemplify this skillset.

Validation rules and system constraints:

• Reserved name: You cannot name a skillset "Others" as this is reserved for the default system catch-all skillset.

• Duplicate mapping: If keywords or sample tickets are already mapped to another skillset, a message will be shown on duplicate mapping.

• Deleted tickets: If a selected sample ticket is deleted from the workspace, an error alert prompts you to remove it before saving.

• Workspace limit: A maximum of 100 skillsets can be created per workspace.

3. Click Create.

4. Repeat the process to add additional skillsets.

Important setup guidelines:

• Minimum requirement: You must have at least 1 active skillset to proceed to preview and publish.

• Broad grouping: Creating fewer than 6 skillsets triggers a message stating that tickets may be grouped too broadly. Click Add more skillsets to refine your routing accuracy.

5. Click Next to proceed to preview, or click Save for later to keep your work in draft state.

Note: You can continue setting up skillsets when you save changes for later.

Preview and publish skillsets

Before activating skillsets across your service desk, preview how Freddy AI categorizes recent tickets.

1. In the Preview and publish step, select any recent ticket from the left pane.

2. Review the Preview section to check the Freddy AI suggested skillset and the confidence match percentage (for example, 85% match).

3. Hover over or click the match percentage badge to view the Contribution of each input to this match:

• Name and description %

• Keywords %

• Sample tickets %

4. If a ticket does not match any custom skillset, Freddy AI assigns it to the default Others skillset.

5. Click Publish.

6. In the confirmation dialog, review the notification and click Publish skillsets.

Note (on historical AI learning):

• Publishing triggers a historical review of tickets from the past 180 days to evaluate agent expertise.

• Initial setup takes 1 to 2 days. During this window, an analyzing banner is shown ("Freddy AI is analyzing historical tickets to map skillsets to agents"), and editing is temporarily locked until complete.

Manage, edit, archive, and delete skillsets

You can edit, archive, restore, or delete published skillsets from the main Skillsets page.

Filtering views

Use the view dropdown on the top-left of the Skillsets page to switch between:

• All: Displays all active published and draft skillsets.

• Archived: Displays all archived skillsets.

Multi-user concurrency alert: If another administrator modifies skillsets simultaneously, a banner is shown: "Someone else made changes to this page. Reload to see the changes."

Edit a skillset

1. On the Skillsets page, click Manage skillsets.

2. Click the Edit (pencil) icon next to a skillset you wish to modify.

3. Update the Name, Description, Keywords, or Sample tickets, and click Save.

The skillset will display an Edited status badge.

4. Click Next.

5. Review the changes.

6. Click Publish to apply changes.

Note: To discard unpublished draft changes, click Discard in the bottom left, and then confirm in the dialog.

Best practice: archiving vs. redefining skillsets

Important: To redefine an existing skillset, archive the original skillset and create new skillsets.

Avoid renaming or redefining an existing skillset to serve a new purpose. Renaming blends historical tickets (tagged under the old definition) with new tickets (representing the new scope), causing reporting inaccuracies and distorted analytics over time.

Archive a skillset

1. On the Manage skillsets page, click the Archive icon next to an active skillset.

2. In the confirmation dialog, click Archive.

Archived skillsets display an Archived tag and are immediately excluded from future ticket matching while preserving historical data for reporting.

Restore an archived skillset

1. Go to the Archived view or locate the archived skillset.

2. Click the Restore icon next to the skillset.

3. In the confirmation dialog, click Restore.

Delete a skillset

1. Locate the skillset you wish to remove.

2. Click the Delete (trash) icon.

3. Confirm deletion in the dialog.

Dependencies:

• Active skillsets must be archived before they can be permanently deleted.

• Deleting a skillset permanently disassociates it from all assigned tickets. This action cannot be undone once published. Deletion does not impact historical ticket data already tagged to it.

Others (default skillset)

The Others skillset is a built-in default catch-all created automatically by Freshservice.

• Function: Handles incoming tickets that do not meet the criteria of any defined custom skillset.

• Constraints: The Others skillset cannot be edited, renamed, archived, or deleted.

• Insights: Opening the Others skillset details provides two tabs under Tickets:

• Flagged by agents: Lists tickets marked by agents as incorrectly routed.

• Mapped by Freddy AI: Displays all tickets currently grouped under the default fallback skillset.

View and manage agent associations and proficiency

Skillset proficiencies determine agent expertise for ticket assignment. Tiers include Expert, Intermediate, and Beginner.

View skillset details

Click any published skillset from the list view to open the Skillset details slider.

Agents tab (AI-mapped vs. manually mapped)

• AI-mapped agents: Agents automatically identified by Freddy AI based on historical ticket resolutions.

• Constraint: AI-mapped agents cannot be deleted from a skillset. To prevent ticket assignment to an AI-mapped agent, toggle their Status switch to disabled.

• Manually added agents: Agents manually added by administrators.

• Action: Can be enabled, disabled, or permanently removed using the Remove button.

Add agents manually

1. In the Skillset details slider, select + Add agents.

2. Use the respective search fields to add agents into specific proficiency tiers:

• Expert agents

• Intermediate agents

• Beginner agents

3. Click Add agents.

Update agent proficiency inline

1. Locate the agent in the Agents list.

2. Click the Proficiency dropdown next to their name and select Expert, Intermediate, or Beginner. A confirmation message ("Proficiency updated") is shown.

Manage skillsets in agent profiles

Administrators can also manage skillsets directly from individual agent profiles:

1. Go to Admin > Global Settings > User Management > Agents.

2. Select an agent to open their profile page and click the Skillsets tab.

3. View all manually associated and Freddy AI-identified skillsets, update proficiency levels, or click Associate skillsets to assign new skills.

Feedback on AI ticket routing

Feedback helps train Freddy AI to improve ticket assignment accuracy over time. Both administrators and agents can provide routing feedback.

Feedback from skillset details

1. Open a Skillset details slider and select the Tickets tab.

2. Review the mapped tickets listed under Mapped by Freddy AI.

3. Click Thumbs Up ("Routing was correct") or Thumbs Down ("Routing was incorrect").

4. If you click Thumbs Down, a "Help us improve" pop-up is shown. Select the correct skillset from the tag options and click Submit.

Feedback from the ticket details page

1. Go to Tickets > List.

2. Open any ticket. The matched skillset badge (for example, Network, Laptop Support, or Others) is shown above the ticket subject.

3. Click or hover over the skillset badge to view:

• Overall match percentage.

• Input contribution breakdown.

• A link to View skillset.

4. Click the inline Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down icons on the pop-up to submit feedback.

5. In the right-hand Properties pane under Agent, view the routing note "Assigned by skillset assignment policy" and submit thumbs up/down feedback directly.

Integrate skillsets with ticket assignment policies

To enforce skillset-based ticket routing, skillsets must be linked to Ticket Assignment Policies.

1. Go to Admin > Workspace settings > Service Management > Ticket Assignment Policies.

2. Click Create policy or edit an existing policy.

3. Under Consider an agent's load and skillsets while assigning tickets, enable the Skillsets toggle.

4. Drag the handle next to Skillsets to reorder its priority relative to Load.

5. Click Manage next to Skillsets on the right pane to open a slider where you can view agent skill counts and manage agent associations directly.

6. Click skillsets count next to an agent.

7. Update and save the changes.

Policy system status alerts:

• Turned off alert: If skillsets are disabled globally, a banner indicates: "Skillsets is turned off in Global Settings > Freddy AI. Ask your admin to enable it” or "Skillsets is turned off in Freddy AI settings. Enable now."

• Not published alert: If skillsets are defined but not published, a banner indicates: "No skillsets have been published yet. Publish skillsets to enable this."

• Learning alert: If historical analysis is ongoing, a banner indicates: "Freddy AI is identifying right skillsets for your agents. Stay tuned."

Filter tickets by skillset

Agents and supervisors can filter ticket views based on assigned skillsets.

1. Go to Tickets > List.

2. Click the Advanced filter tab.

3. Under Filter by Ticket fields, click + Add condition and select Skillset.

4. Choose an operator:

• includes: Displays tickets matching selected skillsets.

• excludes: Omits tickets matching selected skillsets.

5. In the selection field, choose one or more published skillsets, or select Unmapped to filter tickets assigned to the default Others skillset or without any skillset mapping.

6. Click Apply.

Audit log tracking

All lifecycle actions related to skillsets are logged for compliance and security auditing.

To review audit logs:

1. Go to Admin > Global settings or Workspace settings > Audit Log.

2. Filter or view entries under the Skillsets category.

3. Tracked actions include:

• Created skillset

• Updated skillset

• Archived skillset

• Deleted skillset

• Published skillsets

4. Each entry includes the timestamp, performing user, IP address, action type, and a View more link detailing specific field changes.

Sandbox support

To ensure a seamless transition from configuration to production, the Skillsets feature is fully supported within Sandbox environments. This allows admins to test synchronization without impacting live data.