Callbacks and hand-offs

Some conversations need a person. The AI hands off rather than guesses, and it never keeps a customer talking past the point where it can help.

When the AI hands off

• The customer asks for a person, or says they don’t want automated replies.
• The issue needs a decision the AI can’t make — a dispute, a refund outside your offers, a safety or legal matter.
• It has run out of ways to help, or out of replies (see below).

The customer gets a short message straight away — “I’m bringing in a real member of our team to help you personally” — whatever your playbook’s autonomy setting, so nobody waits on an approval to hear that. The conversation is assigned to the workspace owner, flagged in the Inbox, and the AI stays out of it from then on.

Promised callbacks

With Let the AI promise a callback on in the playbook, the AI can offer a phone call instead of more messages when that would serve the customer better: “A manager will call you on +1 415 555 0123 within one business day.” If we don’t have a number, it asks for one. The conversation is flagged as Callback requested so someone actually makes the call.

The reply budget

Every conversation has a budget of AI replies (four by default, set in the playbook). The AI is told how many it has left and that its last one must move things forward. When the budget is spent, the conversation is handed to your team — or, if you’ve switched hand-off off, the AI sends a wrap-up and closes it.

Taking it from here

A handed-off conversation is yours: reply from the thread, give an offer, or mark it resolved. You can also take over any conversation yourself at any time. → Taking over a conversation