Taking over a conversation from the AI

Some cases need a person. Taking over is one click — and it’s permanent for that conversation.

How to take over

Open the conversation from Resolutions → In Progress and choose Take Over at the bottom of the thread.

You’ll get a confirmation:

Take Over Conversation? If you proceed, the AI assistant will be paused and you won’t be able to switch back.

Yes, Take Over pauses the AI. You’ll see AI has been paused. You are now in control.

It’s one-way

Read that confirmation again, because it’s the part people miss: you cannot hand the conversation back to the AI. There’s no undo. From that point every message in that thread is written by you.

That’s not a reason to avoid taking over — it’s a reason to do it deliberately rather than to peek. If you just want to see what’s happening, read the thread; don’t take it over.

Afterwards the thread shows a banner — AI assistance has been paused. You’re now managing this resolution manually — with a message box. Shift + Enter sends.

When you should take over

Always, for:

• Illness, injury, or food safety
• Legal threats, or a regulator being mentioned
• Allegations about a staff member’s conduct
• Safeguarding concerns
• A customer explicitly asking for a person

Usually worth it for:

• A regular customer you know personally
• High value at stake
• The AI has replied twice without progress

Don’t bother when the AI is handling it fine. Reading every resolution defeats the purpose — check the flagged ones, spot-check the rest.

Writing the first message

Don’t pretend to be the bot, and don’t make them repeat themselves:

Hi Sarah — this is Feras, I own the restaurant. I’ve read what happened on Tuesday and I want to sort it out properly.

Naming yourself and acknowledging you’ve read the history removes most of the frustration people feel about automated support.

Closing

A resolved thread shows This thread has been marked as resolved. No further responses will be exchanged.

If you’re taking over constantly

That’s a settings problem, not a workload problem. Either the tone is wrong, or these cases shouldn’t be automated at all — in which case route them away with an automation rather than catching them by hand.

→ Safety rails: what to never automate