AI Support Assistant for WHMCS Print

The Problem

Support tickets are repetitive. Your team answers the same questions over and over. Engineers can't find KB articles. Customers wait for answers that already exist in your documentation.

What Standard WHMCS Support Looks Like

Customer opens ticket: "How do I set up email forwarding?"

Your process:

1. Agent searches KB manually

2. Maybe finds relevant article

3. Copies answer

4. Edits for context

5. Sends response

Time per ticket: 5-15 minutes for questions already answered in your KB.

The waste:

• Same questions answered repeatedly
• Junior staff can't find documentation
• KB articles exist but nobody uses them
• Manual responses to routine questions
• No multilingual support without translators

What WHMCS Doesn't Have

Standard WHMCS:

• No AI
• No automatic KB search
• No knowledge synthesis
• No multilingual responses
• Manual everything

The Solution

AI Support Assistant connects Claude or OpenAI to your WHMCS. The AI reads your knowledge base, past tickets, product descriptions, and client account data. It synthesizes answers based on YOUR documentation and knows who it's talking to.

How It Works

The AI has access to:

Your Knowledge Base:

• Reads all KB articles
• Searches by keywords
• Finds relevant content automatically

Your Past Tickets:

• Analyzes resolved tickets
• Learns successful solutions
• Applies them to new tickets

Your Products:

• Knows your product catalog
• Understands service descriptions
• References correct products

Client Context (New in v2.3):

• Active services and hosting plans
• Registered domains
• Invoice history and payment status
• AI knows who it's talking to

When customer asks question:

1. AI checks client's services, domains, and invoices

2. Searches your KB for relevant articles

3. Searches past tickets for similar issues

4. Reads product descriptions for context

5. Synthesizes answer from YOUR sources

6. Responds in customer's language

Not generic ChatGPT. It knows YOUR business and YOUR customer.

Core Features

Client Context Awareness:

• AI sees client's active services
• Knows their domains
• Aware of invoice status
• Personalized responses based on actual account
• Configurable per your preference

Smart KB Search:

• AI finds relevant articles automatically
• Keywords extracted from ticket
• Searches past tickets too
• Works with non-Latin languages (Cyrillic, Japanese, etc.)
• No manual searching required

27 Languages:

English, Dutch, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Turkish, Czech, Danish, Swedish, Hungarian, Romanian, Finnish, Maltese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Slovenian, Irish, Greek, Croatian, Slovak, Bulgarian, Japanese

Customer writes in Dutch → AI responds in Dutch.

Customer writes in Japanese → AI responds in Japanese.

Autopilot Mode:

• Configure departments for auto-responses
• AI handles routine tickets automatically
• Configurable delay before sending
• Choose ticket status: Answered or Open for review
• Skips staff-to-staff tickets

Ticket Triage:

• Click triage button
• AI provides troubleshooting checklist
• Step-by-step guide for L1 engineers
• Escalation criteria
• References relevant KB articles

Reply Enhancement:

Write your response, then enhance it:

• Professional (formal)
• Friendly (warm)
• Direct (concise)
• Technical (detailed)
• Quick Fix (solution-focused)

Custom Instructions:

• Generate initial response
• Add specific instructions ("make this more apologetic", "add refund info")
• AI modifies based on your guidance

KB Article Generation:

• Select resolved ticket
• Click generate
• AI creates draft KB article from conversation
• Review and publish

Private Admin Notes:

• Include per-ticket admin notes as context (optional)
• AI sees internal troubleshooting notes
• Better context for complex issues

Real Usage

Personalized Support

Customer asks "Why can't I access my website?"

Without Client Context:

• AI gives generic troubleshooting steps
• Agent manually checks account status
• Back and forth to identify the issue

With Client Context:

• AI sees unpaid invoice from last week
• AI sees hosting service suspended
• Responds: "Your hosting is suspended due to unpaid invoice #1234. Pay here to restore access."
• One response, problem solved

Routine Tickets

Hosting company gets 200 tickets/day. 60% are basic questions covered in KB.

Without AI:

• Staff answers manually
• 5-15 minutes per ticket
• Same questions repeatedly

With AI Autopilot:

• AI handles routine tickets automatically
• Staff reviews if needed
• Focus on complex issues

Multilingual Support

European company serves Dutch, French, German customers.

Without AI:

• Hire trilingual staff (expensive)
• Use translation service (slow)
• English only (lose customers)

With AI:

• Responds in customer's language automatically
• No translators needed

L1 Support

Junior engineer gets complex ticket.

Without AI:

• Search KB manually (doesn't find it)
• Ask senior engineer (interrupts them)
• Escalate (waste of senior time)

With AI Triage:

• Click triage button
• Get troubleshooting checklist
• Step-by-step guide
• Handle independently

KB Management

Same question asked 50 times, no KB article exists.

Without AI:

• Keep answering manually
• Eventually someone writes article

With AI:

• Generate KB article from best ticket
• Now AI references it for future tickets
• Self-improving knowledge base

Response Quality

Agent writes technically accurate but unfriendly response.

Without AI:

• Send as-is (customer unhappy)
• Senior rewrites (time-consuming)

With AI Enhancement:

• Click "Friendly"
• AI rewrites maintaining accuracy
• Better customer experience

How AI Uses Your Knowledge

Example: Customer asks "How do I set up email forwarding?"

AI process:

1. Checks client's services (sees they have Business Email plan)

2. Extracts keywords: "email forwarding"

3. Searches KB articles

4. Finds "Email Forwarding Guide"

5. Searches past tickets with similar keywords

6. Finds 15 resolved tickets

7. Synthesizes answer from:

• KB article instructions
• Past ticket solutions
• Client's specific email product

8. Responds in customer's language

Answer is based on YOUR documentation, YOUR solutions, YOUR products, and THEIR account.

Supported AI Models

OpenAI:

• GPT-5.1, GPT-5 Mini
• GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 Mini, GPT-4.1 Nano
• GPT-4o, GPT-4o Mini

Anthropic (Claude):

• Claude Opus 4.5
• Claude Sonnet 4.5 (recommended)
• Claude Haiku 4.5

Choose based on needs:

• Speed: Haiku 4.5, GPT-4.1 Nano
• Quality: Opus 4.5, GPT-5.1
• Cost: Haiku 4.5, GPT-4o Mini
• Balance: Sonnet 4.5, GPT-4.1

Installation

1. Purchase from ArkHost Store

2. Upload to /modules/addons/aiassistant/

3. Activate in Setup → Addon Modules

4. Enter license key

5. Add API key (OpenAI or Anthropic)

6. Done

Configuration

API Setup

OpenAI:

1. Get key from platform.openai.com

2. Enter in module settings

3. Select model

4. Test connection

Anthropic:

1. Get key from console.anthropic.com

2. Enter in module settings

3. Select model

4. Test connection

System Prompt

Default works well. Customize if needed for specific tone.

Client Context

Configure what AI knows about customers:

• Include services: ✓ (shows active hosting, etc.)
• Include domains: ✓ (shows registered domains)
• Include invoices: ✓ (shows payment status)

Enable all for maximum personalization. Disable if you prefer generic responses.

Autopilot

Enable per department:

• Choose which departments auto-respond
• Set delay (e.g., 3 minutes - allows staff to respond first)
• Choose ticket status after AI reply: Answered or Open
• Skip staff tickets: Enabled

Knowledge Base

What AI accesses:

• KB articles: ✓
• Past tickets: ✓
• Product information: ✓
• Client context: ✓ (configurable)
• Private admin notes: Optional (per ticket)

Search settings:

• Number of items to analyze: 6 (default)
• Language-specific filtering: ✓ (improves non-English)

Greeting and Signature

Custom greeting: Optional

Custom signature: Optional (or use admin's signature)

Usage

Manual Mode

1. Open ticket

2. Click AI button

3. Review response

4. Edit if needed

5. Send

Time: 30 seconds vs 5-15 minutes manual

Autopilot Mode

1. Customer opens ticket

2. Configured delay passes (e.g., 3 minutes)

3. If no staff response → AI responds

4. Ticket status updated

5. Staff reviews if Open status selected

Custom Instructions

1. Generate initial response

2. Click custom instruction button

3. Add instructions ("make more apologetic", "add refund policy")

4. AI modifies

5. Send

Reply Enhancement

1. Write your response

2. Click enhance button

3. Select style (Professional/Friendly/Direct/Technical/Quick Fix)

4. AI improves

5. Send

Works in new ticket editor too.

Ticket Triage

1. Open ticket

2. Click triage button

3. Get troubleshooting checklist

4. Follow steps

5. Escalate if needed

Helps junior engineers handle complex tickets.

KB Article Generation

1. Open resolved ticket

2. Click KB generate button

3. AI creates draft from conversation

4. Review

5. Publish to KB

How AI Finds Information

Smart keyword search:

• Extracts keywords from ticket
• Searches KB articles
• Searches past tickets
• Handles non-Latin languages properly
• Language-specific stop word filtering

Not just keyword matching:

• AI reads found articles
• Understands context
• Synthesizes information
• Creates coherent answer

Example:

Customer ticket: "Mijn e-mail werkt niet meer na domeinverhuizing" (Dutch: "My email stopped working after domain move")

AI process:

1. Checks client's domains and services

2. Detects Dutch language

3. Extracts keywords: "email", "domain move"

4. Finds KB article: "Email Configuration After Domain Transfer"

5. Finds past ticket: Similar issue with DNS propagation

6. Reads both sources

7. Synthesizes answer in Dutch

8. References their specific domain and email service

9. Provides step-by-step fix

Technical Details

Database:

• Module settings stored in WHMCS config
• No additional tables required
• Uses WHMCS ticket system

API Integration:

• Direct connection to OpenAI or Anthropic
• Streaming responses supported
• Error handling and fallbacks
• Rate limiting respected
• 180-second timeout for GPT-5 models

Security:

• API keys encrypted
• Client data stays in WHMCS
• No third-party storage
• Logs activity in WHMCS

Performance:

• Async API calls
• Configurable timeout
• Caching where appropriate
• Minimal WHMCS impact

Hooks:

• Ticket view hooks for buttons
• Admin interface hooks
• Client area hooks (none - admin only)

Language Support

27 languages with proper handling of non-Latin scripts:

Latin scripts:

English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Turkish, Czech, Danish, Swedish, Hungarian, Romanian, Finnish, Maltese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Slovenian, Irish, Croatian, Slovak

Cyrillic:

Russian, Bulgarian

Other:

Greek, Japanese

Automatic detection:

• AI detects language from ticket content
• Responds in same language
• No manual selection required

Troubleshooting

AI not responding:

• Check API key valid
• Verify model selected
• Check WHMCS activity log
• Test API connection in settings

GPT-5 timeout errors:

• v2.3 increased timeout to 180 seconds
• If still timing out, try GPT-4.1 or Claude Sonnet

Wrong language responses:

• Check ticket language detection
• Verify customer wrote in supported language
• Review system prompt language settings

KB articles not being used:

• Verify "Include KB articles" enabled
• Check KB search returns results manually
• Review search keyword extraction

Autopilot not working:

• Check department configured for auto-response
• Verify delay hasn't been interrupted by staff reply
• Check "Skip staff tickets" setting
• Review WHMCS activity log

Enhancement buttons missing:

• Clear browser cache
• Check module activated
• Verify WHMCS version 8.9+
• Check jQuery compatibility

When You Need This

Required if:

• High ticket volume with repetitive questions
• Multilingual customer base
• Junior support staff need guidance
• KB articles exist but underutilized
• Want to scale support without hiring

Not required if:

• All tickets require human judgment
• No KB articles exist

Technical Specifications

Requirements:

• WHMCS 8.9+
• PHP 7.4+ (PHP 8.3 supported)
• MySQL 5.7+
• OpenAI or Anthropic API key

File Structure:

modules/addons/aiassistant/
├── aiassistant.php      Main module
├── hooks.php            WHMCS hooks
├── license.php          License validation
└── lang/                27 language files

Security:

• API keys encrypted in database
• No client data sent to third parties
• Activity logging in WHMCS
• License validation per install

Performance:

• Async API calls
• Configurable timeouts (180s for GPT-5)
• Minimal WHMCS overhead
• No additional database tables

Support

Purchase: ArkHost Store

Before contacting support:

1. Check WHMCS activity log

2. Verify API key valid

3. Test API connection in settings

4. Check module version current

When reporting issues:

• WHMCS version
• PHP version
• Module version
• API provider (OpenAI/Anthropic)
• Error from activity log