Enable AI Agent on Instagram and Facebook MessengerUpdated 4 hours ago

Once you set up AI Agent for your store, you can choose to enable it for conversations with shoppers on Instagram direct messages and Facebook Messenger.

Deploying AI Agent on these channels means that it can automatically help shoppers browse, buy and get support when they reach out to your business on social media.

On this page:

• Before you begin
• Enable AI Agent on Instagram and Facebook Messenger
• Preview how AI Agent responds before you go live
• How AI Agent responds to Instagram and Facebook messages
• Confirming shopper identity on social channels
• FAQs

Before you begin

Before you use AI Agent to answer shoppers on Instagram and Facebook Messenger:

• You must connect Instagram and Facebook Messenger to Gorgias, if you haven't already. This app adds Facebook and Instagram as channels on your helpdesk, and lets you receive and respond to messages you receive on these apps from your inbox.
• Make sure that you set up AI Agent with knowledge, skills, and tone of voice instructions, so it has what it needs to successfully respond to shoppers when they reach out on your social channels.

Enable AI Agent on Instagram and Facebook Messenger

Once you've connected Instagram and Facebook and Messenger to your helpdesk, you can enable AI Agent to start answering shopper's questions on these channels.

If you want to preview how AI Agent will respond to shoppers on your social channels before going live, you can start a test conversation. Select Instagram DM or Facebook Messenger as the channel for your test.

To enable AI Agent on Instagram and Facebook Messenger:

1. Open the dropdown menu in the top-left corner, then select  AI Agent.
   • If you have more than one Shopify store connected to Gorgias, click the dropdown menu to select a store.
2. Under the Deploy section, click Socials.
3. Open the dropdown menu and select one or more integrations for Instagram and Facebook Messenger.
4. Click the ON/OFF toggle to Enable AI Agent on Socials, then select Save.

Respond to image-only messages

Sometimes shoppers send a message that contains only an image and no accompanying text. By default, AI Agent replies to these messages using whatever information it can read from the image, but its response may be less accurate than usual.

If you'd rather these conversations go to your team instead, turn off Respond to image-only messages.

1. On the Deploy > Socials page for AI Agent, find the Respond to image-only messages section.
2. Click the AI Agent replies to image-only messages toggle to turn it off.

AI Agent can only read images. If a shopper sends a video, voice note, or document with no text, AI Agent hands the conversation over to your team, regardless of whether Respond to image-only messages is turned on.

Let shoppers know they're messaging with AI

You can add a short disclosure to the end of AI Agent's first message in a conversation on Instagram and Messenger, letting shoppers know they're messaging with AI rather than a person.

We recommend enabling this. Being upfront about AI builds trust with shoppers, and depending on where you operate, it may also be a legal requirement. Learn more about your legal obligations to disclose AI use.

1. On the Deploy > Socials page for AI Agent, select the checkbox next to Use initial message footer.
2. Enter the text you'd like AI Agent to send as a disclosure along with its first message.
3. Click Save.

Preview how AI Agent responds before you go live

Before you let AI Agent respond to messages on Instagram and Facebook Messenger, you can test how AI Agent replies on these channels without affecting real customers or creating billable interactions.

Go to  AI Agent >  Playground from the main menu, then select Instagram DM or Facebook Messenger as the channel for your test.

Pay close attention to the reasoning AI Agent provides with its response in your test conversation. Reasoning lets you see which skills, knowledge, or actions were used to inform the response. If the response was inaccurate or unsuccessful, you can create or update these sources to improve the outcome.

How AI Agent responds to Instagram and Facebook messages

AI Agent only responds to direct messages on Instagram and Facebook Messenger. It doesn't moderate or reply to public posts, mentions, or comments.

When a shopper sends a direct message, it becomes a new ticket in your helpdesk's inbox — tagged and organized using your existing AI Agent views. From there, AI Agent replies automatically, using your skills, knowledge and tone of voice instructions to resolve shoppers' inquiries, unless it needs to hand the conversation over to your team.

Here's what to expect from these conversations:

• AI Agent automatically adapts your tone of voice instructions to match the conversational and concise format of messages on Instagram and Facebook Messenger. However, if you want, you can customize tone of voice instructions to further control how AI Agent sounds on these channels.
• AI Agent can read images shoppers send, like photos, including messages that contain only an image with no text, unless you've turned this off (see Respond to image-only messages above). This is common on apps like Instagram where sending a photo without text is the only way to share images. AI Agent can't read videos, voice notes, or documents, and it can't send attachments of its own.
• AI Agent can respond to shoppers within Meta's 24-hour standard messaging window. The standard messaging window only allows businesses to reply to customers within 24 hours of the shopper's last message. It's meant to promote quality conversations, protect users from spam, and encourage timely responses from businesses.

Confirming shopper identity on social channels

When a shopper asks about an order or wants to change one, AI Agent first confirms who it's talking to. If the shopper's Instagram or Facebook account is already linked to a customer profile in Gorgias, AI Agent recognizes them automatically and doesn't ask for anything more. Otherwise, AI Agent sends a one-time code:

1. AI Agent asks the shopper for the email address or phone number on their order.
2. AI Agent sends a 6-digit code to that email address or phone number. The code expires after 10 minutes.
3. The shopper replies in the conversation with the code.

If the code is correct, AI Agent matches the email address or phone number to a customer profile in Gorgias, then continues the conversation and answers the shopper's question or completes their request. If the code is wrong or expired, or the email address or phone number doesn't match a customer profile, AI Agent hands the conversation over to your team to assist the shopper further.

After a shopper confirms their identity once, AI Agent links their social media account to their customer profile, so it recognizes them in future conversations.

FAQs