Overview

You can take over a customer conversation whenever you want to respond personally instead of letting your AI Customer Agent reply automatically.

For full control of a conversation, switch it from Autopilot to Copilot. You can also reply manually while Autopilot is active, handle Support Needed conversations, or assign a different Agent.

Take over one conversation

Go to Inbox and open the customer conversation you want to handle.

Turn off the Autopilot control in the conversation. This switches the conversation to Copilot and stops the Agent from automatically sending replies to that contact.

You can now type and send your own messages. You can also use Generate when you want the Agent to prepare a suggested response for you to review, edit, and send.

Other conversations can continue using Autopilot.

Take over all conversations

If you want to temporarily stop automatic replies across your conversations, go to Inbox and turn off the global Autopilot control.

On Web, you can find the control next to the search bar. On mobile, use the Autopilot control in the Inbox toolbar.

Your conversations will remain available for you to handle manually while Autopilot is off.

Handle Support Needed conversations

When your Agent needs human assistance, the conversation can appear as Support Needed in Inbox.

Open the conversation and review the customer context and AI summary to understand what happened. Then respond manually and resolve the customer’s request.

If the handoff revealed missing information, update Knowledge or add a Strategy so the Agent can handle similar situations more effectively in the future.

When you’re ready, turn Autopilot back on for the conversation.

Reply manually while Autopilot is on

You can also jump into an active conversation and send a manual response without first turning off Autopilot.

However, Autopilot remains active and may handle the customer’s next message. If you want complete control over the conversation, turn Autopilot off before continuing.

Switch to another Agent

You can assign a different AI Customer Agent when another Agent is better suited to handle the conversation.

Open the conversation in Inbox and use the Agent selector to choose another Agent. The conversation can then continue using the selected Agent’s configuration, Knowledge, and Strategies.

Hand the conversation back to the AI

When you’re finished handling the conversation, turn Autopilot back on if you want the Agent to resume automatic replies.

If you want to continue reviewing responses before they are sent, leave the conversation in Copilot and use Generate for suggested replies.

Use takeovers to improve your Agent

Human takeovers can reveal areas where your Agent needs better information or guidance.

When you repeatedly need to answer the same question manually, consider adding that information to Knowledge. If the Agent needs guidance for a recurring customer situation, create or update a Strategy.

Over time, these improvements can reduce unnecessary handoffs while keeping your team in control.