Skills explainedUpdated 8 hours ago

Skills give you direct control over how AI Agent responds to incoming conversations. Gorgias classifies each conversation by intent — the type of request a shopper is making, like a return, a cancellation, or a missing item. A skill is a set of instructions for one or more intents, so when AI Agent detects a matching conversation, it follows your instructions to respond.

Because each skill is independent, you can build AI Agent's coverage one conversation type at a time, at your own pace. You can write a skill, test it, turn it on, and improve it without touching other parts of your AI Agent setup. Start with your highest-volume conversation types and expand from there.

This article explains what skills are and how they fit into the practice of managing AI Agent. For the bigger picture of how skills, knowledge, and analytics work together to improve AI Agent over time, see how AI Agent improves over time.

In this article, you'll learn:

What makes up a skill

A skill is the steps AI Agent follows when it detects a matching intent. For example, a Cancellations skill gives AI Agent instructions for every conversation where a shopper wants to cancel their order. Every skill is made up of three parts:

At least one intent. AI Agent detects the intent of each conversation, then follows the instructions from the skill with a matching intent. Intents are built into Gorgias — you don't need to create or maintain them — and AI Agent automatically classifies every conversation it handles. Return / Request and Order / Cancel are examples of intents.
Instructions. The steps AI Agent should follow when the skill is triggered. Instructions live inside the skill, separate from your knowledge, which AI Agent draws on for conversations with intents that don't match a skill.
An option to use your knowledge. When turned on, AI Agent can also use your knowledge (help center articles, website content, documents, and standalone guidance) to fill in details that your skill's instructions don't cover. When turned off, AI Agent works only from your skill's instructions. Leave it on unless you have a specific reason to turn it off — for example, if your skill covers a sensitive or legally constrained process and you need AI Agent to follow your instructions exactly without drawing on other content. Most skills work better when AI Agent can draw on knowledge as needed.

Example. A Returns and exchanges skill is triggered when AI Agent detects the Return / Request and Exchange / Request intents in a message from your shopper. Its instructions tell AI Agent how to confirm eligibility for a return, share the return portal link, and explain refund timelines. With knowledge turned on, AI Agent can also pull from your published returns policy if a shopper asks about something the instructions don't cover.

What skills do for AI Agent

Skills give you precise control over how AI Agent handles specific types of conversations. Each skill is a conversation type you can see, adjust, and improve independently — so improving AI Agent becomes a deliberate action of updating a skill based on how it performed, rather than trying to change AI Agent's behavior as a whole. Instead of guessing whether your changes had the effect you wanted, you can watch each skill's performance directly and act on it.

Specifically, skills give you:

Visibility into how AI Agent is performing. Every skill has its own performance signals — ticket volume, handover rate, and average CSAT — visible on the Skills page and in your AI Agent reports. You can see which conversation types AI Agent is handling well and which need attention.
Targeted changes. When you edit a skill's instructions or intents, your changes affect that skill alone, rather than AI Agent's behavior as a whole.
A safe place to iterate. You can preview how AI Agent responds with a draft of a skill before publishing it, and turn particular skills on or off if you aren't getting the outcomes you'd expect in specific conversations.
A way to trigger actions. [Actions] like cancelling an order, starting a return, or updating a shipping address only run when AI Agent calls them from inside a skill or guidance. Adding an action to a skill ensures that AI Agent attempts to take that action when a matching conversation comes in.
Predictable behavior. Once a skill is published, AI Agent handles its conversation types the same way every time. The trigger and the response live together, so AI Agent isn't searching across all your knowledge with every new conversation.

Improvement happens one conversation type at a time, with clear cause and effect, rather than trying to improve AI Agent as a whole. For the full picture of how skills connect to the cycle of analyzing, training, testing, and deploying, see how AI Agent improves over time.

Choosing what AI Agent handles

Skills are how you control which conversations AI Agent handles. The Skills page shows you at a glance which conversations AI Agent currently covers, which ones it doesn't, and helps you understand where to expand next.

You can start using skills without changing your existing AI Agent setup. Your tone of voice, channels, and other AI Agent settings continue to apply to every conversation. Your knowledge also stays in place, and AI Agent uses it for any conversation it's allowed to handle that isn't covered by a skill. So you can introduce skills incrementally: start with one or two for your highest-volume conversation types and add more over time — each one gives AI Agent a more specific way to handle one more conversation type.

For any conversation type Gorgias detects, you have three choices:

Cover it with a skill. AI Agent follows the skill's instructions every time it detects a matching conversation.
Leave the intent on, with no skill. AI Agent handles conversations using your knowledge — your help center articles, website content, documents, and guidance.
Turn the intent off. AI Agent doesn't handle the conversation. Every matching ticket is automatically handed to your team.

In AI Agent, go to Skills > View intents to see all the conversation types Gorgias detects and create a skill to define how AI Agent handles each one.

When to create a skill

Not every piece of content you create for AI Agent belongs in a skill. Some content fits better with other types of knowledge. A simple rule of thumb to decide: ask whether the content describes what AI Agent should do when a shopper takes a specific action, or what AI Agent should know in general.

If it's about what AI Agent should do for a specific type of request (like processing a return, cancelling an order, or updating a shipping address), it belongs in a skill as instructions.
If it's something AI Agent should know regardless of the conversation (like your store locations, payment methods, or free shipping policy), it belongs in your knowledge.

Within your knowledge, where exactly the content lives depends on who else needs to see it. If AI Agent is the only audience, use guidance. If you also want shoppers to find the content through your help center, store website, or search, put it in a help center article or connect the relevant URL.

A few concrete examples:

If you want AI Agent to...	It belongs in...
Follow a specific returns process every time a shopper requests a return	Instructions inside a skill
Know the store's locations and opening hours	Knowledge (help center article)
Handle subscription cancellations with specific retention steps	Instructions inside a skill
Know that Gold loyalty members qualify for free shipping	Knowledge (guidance)

You can build a skill from scratch, or start with a template. Templates are pre-built skills covering common conversation types (like returns, cancellations, order status, and shipping address updates) that you can review, edit, and turn on. See create a new skill for AI Agent for a step-by-step walkthrough.

How skills work with your knowledge

Each skill has an option to use knowledge, which decides whether AI Agent can pull from additional content like your guidance, help center articles, web content, and documents, to supplement the skill's instructions:

Knowledge toggle on. AI Agent uses the skill's instructions as the primary source and can also pull from your knowledge to fill in supporting details, like a published returns policy that complements your return process steps.
Knowledge toggle off. AI Agent works only from the skill's instructions. Anything not covered in the instructions won't appear in the response.

For most skills, leaving the knowledge toggle on works best. The instructions stay in control of how AI Agent handles the conversation, but your knowledge is there to fill in details the instructions don't anticipate.

For a deeper explanation of how AI Agent draws on your content, see knowledge explained.

FAQ

What's the difference between a skill and guidance?

A skill handles a specific type of request the same way every time. It's triggered by the intents you link to it, and AI Agent follows the instructions you write. Guidance is general reference knowledge AI Agent draws on by relevance, for questions that aren't tied to a specific request.

A simple rule: a step-by-step procedure for a specific request, like processing a return or canceling an order, belongs in a skill, not guidance. General information AI Agent should know, like your store policies or shipping details, belongs in your guidance. If you already have guidance written as a procedure for one type of request, you can convert it into a skill.

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