Escalations
Catch risky or important messages and route them to your team — notify staff, pause the AI, or hand over the conversation.
Escalations#
Some messages should not be left to the AI alone — an angry customer, a legal question, a request for a person. Escalations watches messages, comments, reviews, and email, then routes that item to people: notify your team, pause the AI, or hand over the conversation.
Find it under Agent Studio → Escalations.
Escalations are not Activity tickets. A notification or a handover decides who should respond next. A ticket is a separate owned queue with assignment, status, and notes. Ticket setup stays on the Ticketing tool, not in an escalation rule.
How It Works#
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| Something arrives | A message, comment, review, or email |
| A rule matches | Keywords, tone, rating, question, or the source you chose |
| The rule acts | Notify, pause the AI, hand over, draft a reply, or moderate a public comment |
| No rule matches | The agent replies as usual |
| Your team follows up | In Activity. Team channel notifications are optional |
Suggested rules from recent chats stay queued. They do not change your alerts until you accept them.
What Each Source Can Do#
| Source | Typical actions |
|---|---|
| Messages | Notify staff, pause the AI, or hand over the conversation. Messages already reply unless you pause them |
| Comments | Notify, draft or send a reply, or moderate the public comment |
| Reviews | Notify, draft a reply, or hold a review for a careful response |
| Notify, request human review, or create a draft. Email rules are approval-first |
Handoffs are handled in Activity. Optional notification destinations are under Settings → Team Channels. Use queue views such as Needs reply when a person should answer. Pausing the AI on one conversation does not pause the others.
What These Rules Are Not#
| Outcome | Escalations | Ticketing |
|---|---|---|
| Tell a teammate | Yes, when the rule notifies | No. A ticket is not created just because someone was notified |
| Stop the AI for this conversation | Yes, when the rule pauses it | A ticket can also pause the AI, but that setting lives in Ticketing |
| A person owns the next reply | Yes. That is a handover in Activity | No. Ticket ownership is a separate assignment |
| Assignment, status, and private notes | No | Yes, in Activity → Tickets when Ticketing is on |
Flagging a message does not mean a person has replied, and it does not mean a ticket exists.
Best Practices#
- Start with clear risks: complaints, refunds, "speak to a person," and legal or medical questions.
- Review suggested rules before accepting them.
- Pair notify and pause when the AI should stop while someone steps in.
- Check rule history and tune rules that fire too often or not enough.
Related Pages#
- Activity — where handoffs and replies happen
- Ticketing — a separate owned ticket queue
- AI Assistant — ask Alon to use available past-chat evidence when you want help spotting patterns