Skip to main content

How to tailor your AI topics with topic curation

Customize your AI Topics to match your team's terminology by renaming, merging, moving, creating, and deleting topics and subtopics.

Mark O'Donovan avatar
Written by Mark O'Donovan
Updated over a week ago

What are AI Topics?

AI Topics automatically analyze your closed conversations to uncover patterns in the questions your customers ask. Using real conversation content—no setup, manual tagging, or rules required—AI groups similar conversations into meaningful subtopics like "Invalid credentials" or "Reset password link," which roll up into broader themes such as "Login & Account Access". Topics update continuously as new conversations are closed, helping you stay on top of emerging trends and recurring issues effortlessly.

Topic Curation is a simple way to reshape your AI-generated topics to match your own business taxonomy. Curated names and structure make reports and trends meaningful to your business, ensuring that Topics Explorer, Insights, and reporting reflect how your team talks about issues.

Note: Topics Curation is currently in open beta for US/EU/AU-hosted workspaces using Fin.


What you can do with Topic Curation

You can now shape your topics to align with your team's language and reporting structure:

  • Rename topics and subtopics so they match how your team describes issues.

  • Merge overlapping subtopics to remove duplicates.

  • Move subtopics between topics to put them under the right parent.

  • Create your own new subtopic from similar conversations, and future matches will be auto-tagged into it.

  • Delete irrelevant or outdated subtopics so they do not clutter Explorer or insights.

  • Create a new parent topic.

  • Save as draft to stage curation changes and publish them later.

Note: Teammates need the "Can manage workspace data" permission to access this screen.


How to manage your AI Topics

2. From the Topics screen, you can manage your topics and subtopics.

Rename a topic or subtopic

To rename a topic, find the topic and hover over it to reveal the more actions menu, and click Rename topic. Enter a clear, concise name and click Save.

To rename a subtopic, find its parent topic and hover over the subtopic to reveal the more actions menu. Click Rename subtopic. Enter a clear, concise name and click Save.

Merge subtopics

  1. Find the parent topic and select the subtopics using the checkboxes.

  2. Enter a new subtopic name for the combined subtopic.

  3. Click Merge.

Tip: Merging combines conversation history (backfills the last six months and applies to new conversations). To merge subtopics from different topics, move them into the same topic first, then merge.

Move subtopics

  1. Find the parent topic and select the subtopic(s) using the checkboxes.

  2. Choose the new parent Topic and confirm by clicking Move.

Note: Only subtopics can be moved; if you move the last subtopic out of a topic, the parent topic is removed. Topics without subtopics are not supported.

Delete a subtopic

  1. Find the parent topic and hover over the subtopic to reveal the more actions menu.

  2. Click Delete subtopic.

Tip: Deleting the last subtopic in a topic will remove the parent topic.

Create a new subtopic

  1. Find the parent topic and click the more actions menu (next to the topic).

  2. Click New subtopic.

  3. Name the subtopic (must be unique within a topic).

  4. Add 1 to 3 example questions in the description box to help the AI model match conversations.

  5. Click Create subtopic.

Note: If you need a new parent topic, create that first, then add the subtopic under it.

Create a new topic

  1. Click the New topic button.

  2. Name the topic (must be unique).

  3. Add a Description for teammates, which does not affect classification.

  4. Click Select subtopics and choose the ones to include (you can add or move more later).

  5. Click Create topic.

Note: Topics are containers; classification happens at the subtopic level. A topic must include at least one subtopic—empty topics will not persist.


Publish your topic changes

Once you are happy with your topic structure, you can publish the changes to your workspace.

Save your changes as a draft

To stage curation changes and publish them later, click Save as draft in the top-right corner.

  • Drafts persist across sessions and are shared across the workspace—any teammate can see and edit the current draft.

  • Drafts do not affect Topics Explorer, Insights, or reporting until you publish them.

  • There is no "undo draft" button ; to discard a draft, manually revert your edits to match the current live state.

Set changes live

To apply your changes to the entire workspace, click Set live in the top-right corner.

  • Your edits replace the current live structure for everyone.

  • The new structure is backfilled and re-applied to conversations from the last six months that already had topics assigned.

  • All new conversations going forward will automatically use the updated structure.

  • The changes propagate to Topics Explorer, Trending Topics, Content Suggestions, and Reports.

  • If multiple teammates try to click Set live at the same time, the first one's changes will be saved, and others will see an error and need to reload.


FAQs

How long does it take for changes to be visible in Topics Explorer and reporting?

It takes an amount of time that depends on how many subtopics changed and the conversation volume in those subtopics over the last six months. As a guide, updating approximately 8,000 conversations takes about 15 minutes. While updates are applying, you may temporarily see both new and old topics in Topics Explorer and reporting.

Where can I see progress of the updates being applied?

There is currently no way to see the progress of the update.

How do I find the number of conversations assigned to a topic or subtopic?

Finding the number of conversations assigned to a topic or subtopic isn't supported yet, but it is planned for a future update.

How do I see example conversations in a topic or subtopic?

Seeing example conversations in a topic or subtopic isn't supported yet, but it is planned for a future update.

Can I combine multiple topics?

Yes, you can combine multiple topics. To do this, move all subtopics from those topics into a single topic, then rename that topic as needed.

How do I undo merging, moving, or renaming?

You can undo merging, moving, or renaming by reloading the page before publishing. After publishing, you will need to contact the support team to reset the topic structure to its original state.

Can I give multiple topics or subtopics the same name?

Topics must have unique names, so you can't give multiple topics the same name. Subtopics must also have unique names within a single topic.

What is the difference between AI Topics and Fin Attributes?

The difference between AI Topics and Fin Attributes is:

  • AI Topics are automatically generated from closed conversations; the system detects patterns in customer questions and surfaces new/emerging themes without setup. They refresh as conversations close, can be curated (rename, merge, move), and are used for insights and reporting to keep track of what is happening in the Inbox.

  • Fin Attributes are customer-defined and rule-applied during a conversation. They are deterministic (only what's defined will match), do not auto-discover or backfill, and are used for real-time use cases like routing, assignment, and workflow automation.


💡Tip

Need more help? Get support from our Community Forum
Find answers and get help from Intercom Support and Community Experts


Did this answer your question?