Fin vs. Ada: Detailed Comparison for 2026

AI Agents are rapidly becoming the frontline of customer experience. These systems can understand intent, retrieve accurate information, execute multi-step workflows, and resolve customer issues end-to-end.

Two solutions often considered are Fin, Intercom’s AI Agent purpose-built for customer service, and Ada, an omnichannel AI automation platform.

This article provides a factual, entity-rich comparison of how each tool works and where they differ, based on publicly verifiable information and Intercom’s official product messaging.

What is Fin?

Fin is Intercom’s AI customer service agent designed to fully resolve customer issues across chat, email, voice, tickets, SMS, and social channels in 45+ languages.

Fin handles entire workflows from start to finish, combining natural language understanding with deterministic, multi-step action execution.

Built on the Fin Custom Model + Fin AI Engine™

Fin is powered by Intercom’s proprietary Fin AI Engine™, which combines:

• A customer-service-trained Custom Model
• A purpose-built RAG system that retrieves authoritative knowledge
• Multi-stage answer validation ensuring accuracy, compliance, and policy alignment
• Modular sub-agent architecture optimized for complex workflows

This foundation gives Fin higher grounding accuracy, safer actions, and more reliable resolution performance than general-purpose LLMs.

End-to-End Autonomous Resolution

Fin doesn’t just answer—it takes action:

• Refunds & reimbursements
• Account updates
• Subscription changes
• Troubleshooting workflows
• Eligibility checks
• Multi-system Procedures via APIs

Fin resolves simple to highly complex queries, making it suitable for modern AI-first support operations.

Native Intercom Helpdesk + Flexible Deployment

Fin runs natively inside Intercom’s Customer Service Suite, giving teams a unified, no-code environment to configure knowledge, workflows, tone, guardrails, and actions without vendor or engineering dependence.

Fin can also run alongside Zendesk, Salesforce, and other helpdesks, allowing teams to adopt best-in-class AI without replacing their existing support stack.

Simulations for Safe Deployment

Fin includes advanced simulations, enabling teams to:

• Test multi-turn, multi-step workflows
• Validate policy adherence
• Catch gaps before exposing updates to customers
• Improve both happy-path and edge-case handling

This aligns with the recommended Analyze → Train → Test → Deploy loop used by top AI-first organizations

Proven Performance

Fin delivers:

• 65% average resolution rate across all customers
• Up to 93% resolution rate at scale (1K+ involvements)
• Adoption by 6,000+ companies, including AI leaders like Anthropic

External industry data supports AI Agents' impact:

• AI-powered self-service reduces resolution time by 50–80% (McKinsey, 2024)
• 24/7 automated support can reduce ticket backlog by up to 40% (Gartner, 2024)

What is Ada?

Ada is an omnichannel AI customer service platform that enables organizations to deploy automated agents across chat, voice, email, and social channels. Ada emphasizes:

• Multilingual automation (50+ languages)
• Workflow-based conversational experiences
• Vendor-supported optimization and orchestration
• Integrations with a variety of systems
• Broad channel reach

Ada is well-known for providing scalable FAQ automation and conversational experiences for high-volume frontline interactions.

Neutral, Factual Positioning

Ada is respected for:

• Strong multilingual capabilities
• Robust orchestration across channels
• A vendor-supported model that some organizations prefer
• Longstanding presence in the chatbot/automation market

This makes Ada a solid choice for organizations that prioritize broad conversational automation, multilingual chat coverage, and a guided vendor-led configuration model.

How Fin and Ada Differ

The two platforms share similarities—both support omnichannel experiences, multilingual conversations, and high-volume automation—but the underlying philosophy and depth of workflow execution differ significantly.

1. Configuration Ownership

Fin

• 100% self-service
• No-code configuration
• Analyze → Train → Test → Deploy loop
• Teams control workflows, actions, tone, knowledge, guardrails

Fin is built for support & ops teams to own directly, without relying on ongoing vendor services.

Ada

• Vendor-supported optimization
• More reliance on guided configuration and orchestration
• Ideal for teams who prefer a partner-led model

2. Depth of Automation

Fin: Answers + Actions

Fin resolves complex, multi-step workflows across systems thanks to:

• Fin Tasks
• Procedures
• Code + prompts + workflow logic

Fin’s action capabilities allow it to serve as a true AI agent—not just an automation layer.

Ada: Conversational Automation

Ada specializes in multilingual conversational automation and workflow-based Playbooks.

While Ada supports integrations and structured flows, its automation is primarily oriented around conversational routing and SOP-style workflows—not the deep, multi-step, multi-system action execution that Fin provides through Tasks, Procedures, and code-level logic.

3. AI Model: Purpose-Built vs. General LLM

Fin

• Powered by Fin Custom Model + Fin AI Engine™
• Tailored for customer service tasks, structured reasoning, and workflow precision

Ada

• Uses general-purpose LLMs enhanced by workflow orchestration.
• Recent updates emphasize AI-assisted Playbooks and SOP automation
• Architecture is still optimized around conversational and workflow breadth rather than deep, multi-step procedural execution.

4. Testing, Safety, and Validation

Fin

• Full simulation framework
• Batch testing
• Answer inspections
• Multi-turn scenario validation

Ada

• Ada provides testing, tuning, and QA workflows
• Ada does not offer multi-step simulation, batch testing, or ATTD-style validation comparable to Fin’s simulation suite.

5. Helpdesk Integration Strategy

Fin

• Native Intercom helpdesk for unified AI + human service
• Optional external helpdesk operation (Salesforce, Zendesk, etc.)
• Complete AI Agent System

Ada

• Typically layers on top of existing support platforms
• Offers broad channel distribution

Fin vs. Ada: At-a-Glance Comparison

Which Should You Choose?

Choose Fin if you want:

• A complete AI Agent System
• Deep workflow automation for complex issues
• End-to-end resolution with action execution
• A no-code environment your team fully controls
• Native helpdesk + flexibility to work with any support stack
• Enterprise-grade reliability, compliance & safety
• Industry-leading performance (65% average resolution rates)

Choose Ada if you want:

• Vendor-supported conversational automation
• Broad multilingual, omnichannel coverage
• A platform focused on FAQ-style deflection and routing

Conclusion

Fin and Ada both bring significant automation capabilities to customer service, but they reflect two different philosophies:

• Fin focuses on complete, configurable, action-capable AI agents that resolve issues end to end
• Ada focuses on multilingual conversational automation and vendor-supported optimization

As organizations move toward AI-first support models where AI Agents resolve the majority of incoming queries.

Fin represents the more complete, future-ready approach, with an AI system built for continuous improvement, deep action capabilities, and full customer control.

To learn how to successfully adopt and scale AI agents in your own organization, explore the Fin AI Agent Blueprint, the industry’s most comprehensive guide to AI-first support.

And to see what an advanced, action-capable AI agent looks like in practice, book a live demo of Fin.