AI Assistant
AI-to-Staff Escalation & Human Takeover Workflow
Learn how complex customer conversations are escalated from the AI assistant to human staff members in the unified Inbox, and how to resume bot automation.
Overview of AI Escalation
While the AI assistant resolves standard inquiries automatically, complex requests, custom discount negotiations, or sensitive support issues can seamlessly transition to human team members.
Escalation Triggers
A conversation escalates to human staff through three mechanisms:
- 1. Customer Keyword Trigger: When a customer requests human assistance (e.g. "I want to speak to an agent"), the AI flags the thread (``) and notifies staff.
- 2. Low Confidence Fallback: When a query cannot be answered from the Knowledge Base, the AI offers human escalation.
- 3. Proactive Staff Intervention: Staff browsing Dashboard -> Inbox (`/dashboard/inbox`) can open any active chat thread and reply directly.
Human Takeover State Machine (`is_human_tookover`)
When a staff member sends a message in a customer conversation:
- Automated Bot Silencing: The thread is marked with `is_human_tookover = true`. The AI assistant immediately stops generating automated responses for that thread, ensuring human control.
- Visual Indicator in Inbox: A blue "Human Took Over" banner appears at the top of the chat thread in the dashboard.
- Resuming AI Automation: Once the issue is resolved, staff can click "Resume AI Assistant" (or the `RotateCcw` icon) to reset `is_human_tookover = false`, returning the conversation to automated AI handling.