Use rules with AI AgentUpdated an hour ago

AI Agent and Gorgias rules are separate systems that both act on tickets — and when set up without considering each other, they can conflict. This article explains how they work together, how to use Gorgias' two pre-built rules for AI Agent, and how to avoid the most common setup mistakes.

This article covers:

• How rules and AI Agent work together
• Use pre-built rule templates for AI Agent
• Avoid conflicts between rules and AI Agent

How rules and AI Agent work together

AI Agent settings and Gorgias rules are two separate systems that can both act on the same ticket:

• AI Agent settings — configurations inside AI Agent itself, like handover topics, tone of voice, and ticket tagging. These tell AI Agent how to behave when it handles a ticket.
• Gorgias rules — automations that run across all tickets in your helpdesk. They can apply to any ticket, regardless of whether AI Agent is involved.

When a ticket arrives, rules run first. AI Agent picks up after rules have finished processing. This matters because rules can tag, assign, close, or send a reply before AI Agent ever sees the ticket. If a rule sends an auto-reply, AI Agent may still attempt its own response — resulting in the customer receiving two messages.

Use pre-built rule templates for AI Agent

Gorgias includes two pre-built rule templates designed specifically for AI Agent. These rules give you more control over which tickets AI Agent handles and what happens after it responds — without interfering with AI Agent's core behavior.

Prevent AI Agent from responding to specific tickets

The Prevent AI Agent from answering rule tags tickets with ai_ignore, which stops AI Agent from responding to them or taking any actions — including automatically tagging tickets or autofilling ticket fields. Use this rule when there are tickets you never want AI Agent to touch.

Common use cases:

• Messages from VIP or high-value customers who always receive human attention
• Tickets from specific email addresses, such as partner accounts or internal addresses
• Inquiries that contain specific words or phrases requiring human review
• Tickets already tagged or assigned by another process

Install the rule

1. Go to  Settings > Rules, then select Create rule.
2. Search for and select Prevent AI Agent from answering.
3. Select Install rule.
4. Add conditions to specify which tickets AI Agent should ignore.
5. Select Save Changes.

When you install the rule, Gorgias creates an Ignore ticket view in the AI Agent section so your team can find and manage excluded tickets in one place.

Re-open tickets when AI Agent gets a low CSAT

The Re-open low CSAT AI Agent tickets rule automatically re-opens closed tickets that AI Agent handled when they receive a low CSAT score. It also adds an internal note for follow-up, so your team has context when they pick it up. Use it to route poor AI Agent experiences back to your team for review and recovery.

Install the rule

1. Go to  Settings > Rules, then select Create rule.
2. Search for and select Re-open low CSAT AI Agent tickets.
3. Select Install rule.
4. Customize the conditions if needed.
5. Select Save Changes.

Once installed, any AI Agent-resolved ticket that receives a low CSAT score is automatically re-opened, assigned an internal note, and routed back to your team.

Avoid conflicts between rules and AI Agent

The most common setup issue is an auto-reply rule and AI Agent both responding to the same ticket, causing the customer to receive two messages. A rule is an auto-reply rule when it contains a reply to customer or apply macro action.

If any of your rules include these actions and apply to tickets AI Agent handles, you'll need to reconcile them.

1. Go to  Settings > Rules.
2. Look for any rules with a reply to customer or apply macro action.
3. For each one, decide whether AI Agent should also respond to those tickets. If not, turn off the rule or add a condition to prevent it from triggering on tickets AI Agent handles.

Autoresponder rules

Autoresponder rules were Gorgias pre-built rules for common use cases like responding to customer emails with an order tracking or returns portal link. Because they used reply to customer and apply macro actions, they can conflict with AI Agent.

Accounts created after September 2024 no longer have access to autoresponder rules. If your account still has access, they're automatically turned off when you enable AI Agent on email.

AI Agent as a rule condition

AI Agent isn't available as an assignee option in rule conditions. You can't currently create a rule that triggers specifically when a ticket is assigned to AI Agent.

Instead, use AI Agent's automatic tags as rule conditions. AI Agent tags every ticket it touches to reflect what it did — ai_handover for tickets escalated to your team, ai_ignore for tickets excluded from AI Agent, and others. Because these tags are applied automatically, they're reliable rule condition targets. Learn more about AI Agent tags.