Customize how AI Agent hands over Chats to live agents (beta)Updated a day ago

When you enable AI Agent on Chat, you can customize how the AI communicates with shoppers during a handover to your live agents. You can create custom instructions both for when Chat is online and offline.

In this article, you’ll learn how to customize handovers for:

• Offline Chats
• Online Chats
• When an error occurs

Requirements

• You must have an active Automate subscription
• You must have Lead or Admin permissions

What triggers a handover?

AI Agent automatically hands over Chat tickets to your team whenever it:

• Lacks confidence in an answer
• Encounters a listed handover topic
• Doesn’t find any relevant knowledge to answer the shopper’s question
• Detects a shopper is angry or frustrated

Customize how AI Agent hands over Chats

You can customize how AI Agent communicates with shoppers during handovers, including custom instructions for when chat is online and outside business hours.

1. Go to AI Agent from the main menu
2. Select your store from the sidebar, then click on Settings
3. Select the Channels tab
4. Under Handover instructions, enter a prompt for each scenario to tell AI Agent what to say during a handover
   
   
   • For the best outcomes, your prompt should be written in English. The AI will respond to shoppers in their chosen language. Learn more about supported languages.

Offline handovers

Chat is considered offline if your Chat settings are set to Offline or when Chat is outside business hours. Your Chat may also be offline if set to Live when agents are available and there are no agents available (even during business hours).

If a handover occurs while Chat is offline, AI Agent asks the shopper for their email so your team can follow up later.

1. Under Handover instructions, select When Chat is offline
2. Enter a prompt to tell AI Agent what to say during an offline handover
   
   
   • Example prompt: “Acknowledge the customer’s issue. Let them know that someone from our team will contact them during business hours. Let them know that their concern is our number one priority.”
   • Tip: when Chat is offline, AI Agent will always ask for the shopper’s email address. You do not need to state this in your prompt.
   • Select the ON/OFF toggle to have AI Agent Share business hours in handover message
     
3. Select Save Changes to finish

Online handovers

Chat is considered online if your Chat settings are set to Live during business hours or Live when agents are available.

If a handover occurs while Chat is online, AI Agent lets the shopper know that it will connect them with someone from your team. You can customize online handovers to capture your shopper’s email address and share estimated wait times.

1. Under Handover instructions, select When Chat is online
2. Enter a prompt to tell AI Agent what to say during an online handover
   
   
   • Example prompt: “Acknowledge the customer’s issue. Let them know that someone from our team will be in touch shortly. Let them know that their concern is our number one priority.”
     
3. Optionally, select the ON/OFF toggle to Enable email capture. Email capture lets you collect the shopper’s email address when AI Agent can’t respond so your team can follow up later.
   
   
   • If Email Capture is set as Optional → AI Agent gives the shopper the option to leave their email and receive a follow-up from your team. The shopper may choose to continue on chat and receive a live response instead.
   • If Email Capture is set as Required → AI Agent asks the shopper to enter their email so they can receive a reply from your team later.
   • If Email Capture is disabled (set to Off) → AI Agent does not ask for the shopper’s email. It proceeds to connect the shopper with someone from your team on Chat.
4. Optionally, select the ON/OFF toggle to enable Send wait time. AI Agent will let shoppers know how soon they can expect a response from a human agent during a handover.
   
   
   • If you select Dynamic wait time → AI Agent shares the median wait time based on your team’s previous 10 Chat conversations during business hours. Learn more.
   • If you select In a few minutes → AI Agent shares with the shopper that they will receive a reply “in a few minutes”
   • If you select In a few hours → AI Agent shares with the shopper that they will receive a reply “in a few hours”. In this case, consider enabling email capture so your shopper can leave their email address and receive a reply later.
5. Select Save Changes to finish

Handovers when an error occurs

If an error regrettably occurs while AI Agent attempts to handover a Chat, the AI shares a message telling the shopper that something went wrong. If you do not want to use the default message, you can customize what AI Agent says to the shopper when an error occurs.

As a fallback, if you want the AI to ask the shopper for their email address, make sure to enable Email capture so your team can follow up with them later.

1. Under Handover instructions, select When an error occurs
2. Enter a message to tell AI Agent what to say if an error occurs during a handover
   
   
   • AI Agent sends your message exactly as it is written in the textbox. It does not reinterpret or change what is written.
   • By default, AI Agent says the following message: “Please leave your email address and we'll get back to you.” This message is automatically translated for shoppers based on the language set in their browser.
   • Optionally, if your Chat supports multiple languages, you can enter a specific message for each language. Open the dropdown menu to switch between languages.
3. Select Save Changes to finish

Assigning handover tickets to a team

Whenever AI Agent hands over a ticket, your team can find it in the handover section of the ✨ AI Agent ticket View. Learn more about AI Agent ticket Views.

Alternatively, you can automatically assign handover tickets from AI Agent to available agents on a team using Rules.

• Create a Team to assign Chat tickets
• Create an auto-assignment Rule to assign Chat tickets to the team
• Enable Auto-assign tickets so that when a team is assigned a ticket it gets routed to an available agent on the team