- Is it really worth integrating AI into Jira and Confluence for your company?
- What did Atlassian and OpenAI announce and what does it mean in practice?
- What changes in practice for those who manage projects in the company?
- Three concrete scenarios: how much can an Italian company earn?
- How much does it cost and what is already included in the plan you pay for?
- What risks and rules do you need to manage before activating AI on your projects?
- Why are we talking about it now and is the Italian market ready?
- How to get started concretely: the steps to activate Rovo AI in the company?
- What are the most common mistakes of those who activate AI on projects?
- How to understand if AI in Jira and Confluence is really working?
- So, is it worth it for your company?
- How do we see it at SHM?
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Atlassian and OpenAI have expanded their partnership to connect OpenAI's advanced AI models with Jira, Confluence, and Jira Service Management, automating planning and company knowledge management.
- Rovo, Atlassian's AI engine, is included at no extra cost in all paid Cloud plans starting from April 2025 and already has over 3 million monthly active users.
- For Italian companies already using Atlassian, the starting point is activating Rovo and the MCP connector for ChatGPT: no extra investment, just some configuration to do.
- 62% of major Italian companies already use at least one process automation tech, but only 8% have a real strategic game plan: the danger is adopting tools just for the sake of it.
Agentic automations on Rovo — Atlassian's AI engine integrated into Jira and Confluence — have increased 7 times in six months. If your company already uses these tools, AI is already inside: the question is whether you are really using it.
Is it really worth integrating AI into Jira and Confluence for your company?
If your company already uses Jira or Confluence on a paid Cloud plan, AI is already included in the price: the question is not whether to spend, but whether it is worth setting it up. For those who do not yet use these tools, the evaluation is more complex.
| Your situation | Is it worth it? | why |
|---|---|---|
| You already use Jira/Confluence on a paid Cloud plan | Yes | Rovo AI is included at no extra cost: just activate and configure it |
| You use Jira/Confluence on-premise or Server version | No, for now | Rovo and OpenAI integration are only available on Cloud |
| You don't use Atlassian but are looking for a PM tool with AI | Currency | Compare with alternatives: the Atlassian ecosystem is mature but not the only option |
| You have distributed teams with a lot of documentation in Confluence | Yes | Rovo Search and AI agents reduce time wasted searching for information |
| You have less than 10 people and simple processes | Currency | The gain is real but requires configuration time: start with a small use case |
What did Atlassian and OpenAI announce and what does it mean in practice?
Atlassian and OpenAI have expanded their partnership to connect OpenAI's AI models—the ones powering ChatGPT—with company knowledge in Jira and Confluence, helping teams plan, build, and deliver work faster.
The heart of the agreement is the connector Atlassian Rovo MCP (Model Context Protocol, meaning a protocol that lets an AI model read and act on external systems). Available starting December 2025 and stable by February 2026, it brings the context of Jira, Confluence, and Compass directly inside ChatGPT. You can create a Jira task, kick off a workflow, or search for a document without ever leaving the chat.
Simply put: instead of jumping from one tool to another, AI reads your project, understands the context, and takes action. It is not just another generic chatbot: it knows your tickets, your deadlines, and your documentation.
| Function | What it does | Who benefits the most |
|---|---|---|
| Rovo Search | Search in Jira, Confluence and connected apps with natural language | Team with a lot of scattered documentation |
| Rovo Agents | AI agents that perform repetitive tasks autonomously (e.g., update statuses, assign tickets) | Project managers and development teams |
| MCP connector for ChatGPT | Create issues and start Jira workflows directly from ChatGPT | Who already uses ChatGPT as a daily work tool |
| AI in Jira Service Management | Suggests answers, classifies requests, reduces ticket handling time | IT offices, internal customer service |
What changes in practice for those who manage projects in the company?
The most concrete change is the reduction in time spent on coordination activities: updating statuses, searching for documents, sorting requests. These operations can be delegated to AI agents, freeing up the team for work that requires judgment.
- 1 · Project manager Assisted planning Ask AI to create a sprint plan starting from a natural language description. AI reads open tickets and suggests priorities.
- 2 · Development team Automatic status updates Rovo agents update ticket statuses when they detect that a task is completed, without the developer having to do it manually.
- 3 · IT Office / Service desk Ticket classification and response AI classifies incoming requests, suggests responses based on Confluence documentation, and reduces handling times.
- 4 · Business Knowledge Manager Search in documentation Rovo Search answers questions in natural language by searching all connected Confluence documents, even older ones.
- 5 · Manager / Management Automatic reports and summaries AI generates project status summaries, highlights delays and blockers, without anyone having to fill out reports manually.
Three concrete scenarios: how much can an Italian company earn?
The savings depend on how many people use Jira and Confluence and how much time they currently spend on repetitive coordination tasks. Here are three illustrative scenarios.
Illustrative examples: numbers are meant to show the reasoning, they are not real customer data.
| Company type | Current situation | What changes with Rovo AI | Weekly savings estimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| E-commerce (20 people, product team + IT) | PM manually updates statuses and writes reports every Friday: 3 hours/week | Rovo generates the report and updates statuses automatically | ~2.5 hours/week for the PM |
| Professional studio (10 people, Confluence as wiki) | Employees search for procedures in documents: 30 min/person/day | Rovo Search responds in natural language, finding the right document in seconds | ~1 hour/person/day |
| Manufacturing company (50 people, Jira Service Management for internal IT) | IT manually sorts 40 tickets/week, answers questions already documented | AI classifies and responds to standard tickets, IT handles only complex cases | ~5 hours/week for the IT team |
How much does it cost and what is already included in the plan you pay for?
Rovo is included at no extra cost in all paid Atlassian Cloud plans—Standard, Premium, and Enterprise—for Jira, Confluence, and Jira Service Management, starting in April 2025.
This is the point many companies miss: if you already pay for an Atlassian Cloud plan, you're already paying for the AI. You don't need to approve a new budget, you don't need to run a procurement process. You just need to enable Rovo and set it up.
According to Atlassian data, after including Rovo in Cloud plans, the use of AI on the customer base has already more than doubled The signal is that companies that discover it use it.
| Atlassian Cloud Plan | Rovo included? | MCP connector for ChatGPT | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | No, for now | No, for now | Basic features only, no AI |
| Standard | Yes | Yes | Rovo Search and basic agents included |
| Premium | Yes | Yes | Advanced automation features |
| Enterprise | Yes | Yes | Additional governance and security controls |
What risks and rules do you need to manage before activating AI on your projects?
The main risks are three: the quality of the data the AI works on, access governance, and GDPR compliance for employee and customer data.
AI is only as effective as the data it finds. If Confluence is full of outdated documents or Jira has poorly structured tickets, Rovo will produce inaccurate answers. Before activating any agent, it is worth spending an hour cleaning up the most used documentation.
When it comes to privacy, the data moving between Atlassian and OpenAI is covered by the policies of both companies. For businesses with sensitive data (healthcare, legal, finance), you need to check where the data is processed and if your current contracts cover this flow. Atlassian offers data residency options in Europe for Enterprise plans.
To learn more about managing AI agent governance in your company, the article on autonomous AI agents and team structure offers a useful overview of oversight risks.
| Risk | Probability | How to mitigate |
|---|---|---|
| Outdated documentation that generates wrong answers | High | Quick Confluence audit before activation: archive outdated documents |
| Uncontrolled access to AI agents | Media | Configure permissions by role: not everyone should be able to start automations |
| Sensitive data exposed to external models | Media | Check Atlassian data residency policies and OpenAI terms for your plan |
| Over-reliance on AI for critical decisions | Low | Maintain human review for decisions impacting customers or budget |
Why are we talking about it now and is the Italian market ready?
AI adoption in Italian companies has grown rapidly, but it still remains below the European average: there is a window of advantage for those who move today.
The data Istat published in December 2025 show a clear acceleration: adoption has tripled in two years. But the metric that matters most to decision makers is that of Politecnico di Milano : 62% of large enterprises already use automation, but only 8% have a strategic vision. The majority turned on the tool without a plan. This is the real risk.
Even in Europe the picture is similar: according to Eurostat , in 2025 20% of EU businesses use AI technologies, with large enterprises at 55% and small ones at 17%. The gap between those with a strategy and those without is set to widen.
How to get started concretely: the steps to activate Rovo AI in the company?
The most effective path starts with a small, measurable use case, not a global activation. Here are the steps in order.
- 1 · IT Manager or PM Check the active Cloud plan Check if your Atlassian plan is Standard, Premium, or Enterprise on Cloud. If so, Rovo is already included: go to your admin settings and turn Rovo on.
- 2 · IT Manager Do a quick Confluence audit Identify the 10-20 most viewed pages. Update them or archive obsolete ones: Rovo Search is only as effective as the quality of the documents it finds.
- 3 · PM or team lead Choose a pilot use case Start with a repetitive and measurable process: IT ticket classification, sprint status updates, or searching documentation. Measure the time before and after.
- 4 · IT Manager Configure the MCP connector for ChatGPT If the team already uses ChatGPT, turn on the Atlassian Rovo MCP connector by following the steps in the <a href=’https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11391654-chatgpt-business-release-notes’ target=’_blank’ rel=’noopener noreferrer’>ChatGPT Business release notes</a>. It lets you create Jira issues right from the chat.
- 5 · Management Define governance rules Establish who can trigger automations, what data can be processed by the AI, and how agent output is reviewed. Write down the rules before scaling.
What are the most common mistakes of those who activate AI on projects?
The most frequent mistakes are not technical: they are methodological. Companies activate the tool without defining what they want to measure and without preparing the data the AI needs to work on.
- Activate everything immediately. Turning on all Rovo agents without a controlled pilot causes confusion and team pushback. Start with just one process.
- Do not clean Confluence beforehand. If documentation is disorganized, Rovo Search returns inaccurate answers. AI amplifies the quality of the data it finds: whether good or bad.
- Do not measure the 'before'. If you don't know how much time a process costs today, you can't demonstrate the value of AI afterward. Measure before activating.
- Ignore team training. AI agents are changing the way we work. Without minimal training, the team keeps doing things the old way and the tool goes unused. On the topic of management of AI tools in enterprise workspaces there are also useful tips for the internal adoption phase.
- Confusing the tool with the strategy. Rovo is a means, not a plan. As the analysis on enterprise AI agents for customer service , the value comes when AI is inserted into a redesigned process, not overlaid on an old one.
How to understand if AI in Jira and Confluence is really working?
Three indicators are enough to understand if the time invested in configuration is producing concrete results.
| Indicator | How to measure it | Positive signal |
|---|---|---|
| Average response time for IT tickets | Compare the average time before and after activating Rovo in Jira Service Management | 20% or more reduction in the first 4 weeks |
| Using Rovo Search | Check Rovo analytics: how many searches per day, how many active users | Constant growth in the first 8 weeks: the team is using it |
| Time spent on manual updates | Ask the PM to track the time spent updating statuses and writing reports for 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after. | Reduction of at least 1 hour/week per person |
| Quality of Confluence documentation | Measure the number of pages updated in the last 90 days before and after activation | Increase: AI encourages the team to keep documents up to date |
| Adoption of the MCP connector | How many users have connected ChatGPT to Jira and use it at least 3 times a week | More than 50% of the technical team within 60 days |
So, is it worth it for your company?
It is worth it if already using Jira or Confluence on a paid Cloud plan? Rovo is already included, so your extra cost is zero, and the potential to save time on repetitive tasks is real. Kick off a 2-week pilot.
A middle ground you're evaluating Atlassian as a new project management tool: consider the AI ecosystem as a plus, but don't choose the platform just for that. First evaluate whether the team will actually adopt Jira and Confluence in their daily workflow.
Not yet if you have small teams with simple processes and no structured documentation: the setup time outweighs the short-term benefit. Wait until you have at least 10 people and a Confluence with real content.
How do we see it at SHM?
For us, the Atlassian-OpenAI integration is a prime example of how AI should enter a company: not as a new tool to buy, but as an extra layer of intelligence added to the tools you already use. We believe AI should be integrated to free people from routine tasks — updating statuses, searching for documents, sorting tickets — giving back time for work that requires human judgment.
We’ve worked with companies that had a Confluence full of valuable but inaccessible documentation: nobody could find it, nobody updated it. When you structure your information architecture before turning on any AI, the results are way better. The tool amplifies what's already there: if the foundation is solid, it works. If it's chaotic, it just makes chaos faster.
If you are thinking about how to bring AI into your company workflows, the best starting point is to figure out which tasks are eating up the most time right now. From there, you build a plan. You can check out our approach to Strategic AI integration , to the training on process automation or to the Data processing and business intelligence . For a direct comparison, you can also write to us .
For a broader picture of how AI agents are changing team structures, it's worth reading the analysis on autonomous AI agents and organizational models and follow the cluster AI and process automation for updates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Rovo is included at no extra cost in all paid Atlassian Cloud plans—Standard, Premium, and Enterprise—for Jira, Confluence, and Jira Service Management, starting April 2025. If you're on a Free plan or a Server/Data Center version, Rovo isn't available.
The MCP (Model Context Protocol) connector lets ChatGPT read context from Jira and Confluence and take action on them: you can create a Jira task, kick off a workflow, or look up a Confluence doc right from the ChatGPT chat, without switching screens. It's been available since December 2025 and hit stable in February 2026.
The data that moves between Atlassian and OpenAI is covered by both companies' policies. If your business handles sensitive data, you need to check where the data is processed and if your contracts cover this flow. Atlassian offers data residency options in Europe for Enterprise plans.
The most effective starting point is a small, measurable use case: automated IT ticket classification, searching Confluence documentation, or updating sprint statuses. Before turning on any agent, do a quick audit of the most-used Confluence docs and update or archive the old ones.
With a well-defined pilot, the first signs show up in 2-4 weeks: faster ticket response times, more searches on Rovo Search, and fewer manual updates for the PM. Full value kicks in after 60-90 days, once the team has settled into the new workflow.
In March 2026 Atlassian announced layoffs for about 10% of its workforce to redirect investments toward AI and enterprise sales. It's a sign of a strategic restructure, not a crisis: the company is pouring resources into AI. Rovo already has over 3 million monthly active users, a clear sign of real adoption.
The tool is already in the plan you pay for: the real work is deciding which process you want to stop doing manually.
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