How the AI agent answers

Understanding the steps helps you set it up well and trust what it says.

What happens to a customer message

1. A customer writes in the widget.
2. If the agent is on, nobody is assigned and the conversation has not been handed over, the agent considers it. If you chose to answer only outside business hours, it also checks the hours.
3. It checks your handoff rules. If the customer asks for a person, or a handoff phrase matches, the conversation goes to your team.
4. Otherwise it looks across your knowledge sources, using the recent messages in the conversation, and writes an answer in the tone you chose.
5. The reply appears in the widget with links to the sources it used.
6. If no source supports the answer and No source answers the question is on, the conversation is handed over instead.

Citations

Each answer lists the pages or documents it drew on. Customers can open them, and your team can see them in the thread.

What it will not do

• Answer from outside your sources. It does not use the wider internet.
• Discuss topics you excluded, or go beyond topics you limited it to.
• Reply while a person is assigned to the conversation.
• Keep going after a handoff.

When something goes wrong

If the AI service has a problem, the conversation is handed to your team with a note, so no customer is left without a reply. If many questions arrive at once, the customer sees that their message is saved and that you will reply shortly.

Languages

The agent answers from your sources, so it works best when they are in the language your customers write in. Answers are only as good as the material behind them, so add sources in the languages your customers use. Tirver does not translate answers for you.

Related: set up the AI agent, what counts as a resolution.