Enable AI Agent on SMSUpdated 3 days ago
Who can use this feature?
Once you set up AI Agent for your store, you can choose to enable it for SMS conversations so it can help shoppers browse, buy and get support when they contact your business over text message.
In this article, you'll learn how to enable AI Agent on SMS, what to expect once it starts replying to shoppers, and how to preview its responses with a test conversation before it goes live.
On this page:
- Before you begin
- Enable AI Agent on SMS
- Preview how AI Agent responds before you go live
- How AI Agent responds to SMS messages
- Confirming shopper identity on SMS
- FAQs
Before you begin
Before you use AI Agent to answer shoppers on SMS:
- You must subscribe to the SMS add-on for your helpdesk
- You must have a phone number added to Gorgias that supports SMS, and you've set up your phone number as an SMS integration. This lets you use SMS as a channel on your helpdesk, and lets you receive and respond to text messages 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 text your business.
Enable AI Agent on SMS
Once you've added a phone number to Gorgias and set it up as an SMS integration, you can enable AI Agent to start answering shopper's questions on SMS.
If you want to preview how AI Agent will respond to shoppers on SMS before going live, you can start a test conversation. Select SMS as the channel for your test.
To enable AI Agent on SMS:
- 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.
- Under the Deploy section, click SMS.
- Open the dropdown menu and select one or more phone numbers.
- Select the ON/OFF toggle to Enable AI Agent on SMS, then select Save.
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 SMS, 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.
- On the Deploy > SMS page for AI Agent, select the checkbox next to Use initial message footer.
- Enter the text you'd like AI Agent to send as a disclosure along with its first message.
- Click Save.
Preview how AI Agent responds before you go live
Before you let AI Agent respond to messages on SMS, you can test how AI Agent replies on this channel, without affecting real customers or creating billable interactions.
Go to AI Agent > Playground, then select SMS as the channel for your test.
Pay close attention to the reasoning AI Agent provides with its response in your test conversation. If the response AI Agent provides isn't quite right, reasoning lets you see which skills, knowledge, or actions it used, so you can create or update these resources and help AI Agent provide an accurate and more successful response.
How AI Agent responds to SMS messages
When a shopper texts your business, 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 adapts your tone of voice instructions to match the short, conversational format of text messages, the same way it adjusts messages for chat and social media.
- AI Agent's replies can be up to 1,600 characters. Longer replies are automatically divided into multiple text messages. Learn more in SMS FAQs.
- AI Agent can't read image or file attachments shoppers send over SMS.
Confirming shopper identity on SMS
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 phone number already matches 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:
- AI Agent asks the shopper for the email address or phone number on their order.
- AI Agent sends a 6-digit code to that email address or phone number. The code expires after 10 minutes.
- 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.
FAQs
Can AI Agent respond to SMS messages for more than one phone number?
Yes. AI Agent can monitor more than one phone number for a single store. However, if a phone number is already being monitored by AI Agent for another store, you won't be able to select it. AI Agent can only monitor a given phone number for one store at a time. If you manage multiple stores, connect a separate phone number to each one, so AI Agent has a clear link to that store's knowledge and settings when it replies.
Do I need to create separate skills, guidance or tone of voice instructions for SMS?
No. Your AI Agent settings are the same across every channel. Any skills, guidance or other knowledge you've already created informs how AI Agent responds on SMS, chat, email, and social media alike.
What happens if a conversation goes quiet after AI Agent responds?
SMS conversations follow AI Agent's standard rules for closing and snoozing inactive tickets.
