Enable AI Agent in BoldDesk Live Chat for 24/7 Support

The AI Agent enhances live chat by handling customer queries with automated responses. Once enabled by an admin, it operates 24/7, even outside business hours, ensuring continuous support and reducing human agent workload.

Steps to Enable AI Agent in Live Chat

Customize the AI Agent settings based on your requirements. Learn more on BoldDesk AI Agent: A Complete Guide to 24/7 Virtual Support for detailed instructions on configuring the AI Agent in BoldDesk.
Go to Admin > Chat > Live Chat.
Select an existing widget or click Add Widget to create a new one.
In the General tab, toggle on the “Enable AI Agent” option.
Choose the handover options Assign to AI Agent (Direct) to automatically take over customer conversations upon creation or Assign to AI Agent (Workflow) to manually transfer conversations to the AI agent via workflows.

If a workflow is configured and Assign to AI Agent (Direct) is selected, both AI messages and workflow messages will reply in parallel within the conversation. To avoid this, the best approach is to use Assign to AI Agent (Workflow) when a workflow is configured. If no workflow is configured, you can continue with Assign to AI Agent (Direct).

Select the appropriate AI agent to map with the widget. Please note that a widget can be mapped to only one AI Agent.
Click Update to save the changes.

The AI Agent leverages conversation history, knowledge base (KB) documents, custom answers, files, and web pages to provide relevant responses to customer queries. Explore How to Add AI Data Sources in BoldDesk.

Why Chat Workflow May Fail During AI Auto-Assignment

When a chat is created, the AI auto-assignment may trigger immediately after the customer’s first question. At the same time, the workflow begins collecting customer details. If required details—such as an email address—are not provided, the workflow cannot complete successfully.
In such cases:

The AI Agent continues responding in parallel.
If the customer selects “Transfer to Agent” before the workflow ends, the chat is handed over to an agent.
However, because the workflow remains incomplete, the system does not allow the agent to respond. It will show the error, ‘A reply cannot be sent while the workflow is in progress. Please contact your administrator.’

This issue occurs when AI auto-assignment and workflow run simultaneously, and the workflow fails due to missing mandatory information.

How to Prevent Workflow and AI Overlap

To ensure smooth chat transitions:

If you want the chat to move to a live agent after collecting details, use “Transfer from AI to Agent” in the workflow.
If you prefer handover only after all details are collected, set the workflow to Assign to AI Agent (Workflow) in your live chat settings and configure the handover block accordingly.

These settings prevent conflicts between AI auto-assignment and workflow, ensuring a clean transition.

Regardless of the response time to a chat, no chat messages or replies are automatically converted into tickets. However, you can link chat conversations to a ticket. Explore How to Link and Manage Tickets in BoldDesk Chat Conversations.
When the requester submits content unsupported in chat conversations — for example, a sticker, reactions, or specific emojis — the system will show a private message “The user attempted to send a message in an unsupported format”. This behavior is consistent across both desktop and mobile platforms.

Handling Offline Hours

The AI Agent will be active 24/7 to manage customer conversations. If a customer starts a conversation outside business hours, the AI will pick up the conversation and respond. Explore how to Configure the Chat Widget to Use Closed Business Hours.

If the contact form is not enabled, the AI Agent will continue to handle all customer conversations throughout the session without offering a form-based escalation option.
If the offline form is enabled, the customer will be presented with a Contact Form option within the response, which they can use to submit a ticket for further assistance. The label of the contact form button can be customised to reflect the intended action (e.g., “Create Ticket,” “Request Support,” “Submit Inquiry”).

If you prefer to use only the AI Agent, or if live agents are unavailable, please select the offline option to ensure that all chats are handled exclusively by the AI Agent.

The offline message configured in the widget is displayed along with the Contact Form option when the customer sends a message indicating the need to speak with a human agent.

Enabling AI Agent in Live Chat to the Customer Portal

Once you have configured the AI Agent in the live chat widget, you can add the live chat to the customer portal. BoldDesk offers two options to perform the action. You can either automatically embed the chat widget in the customer portal or use custom JS code to embed it. For more insights, explore Embedding the BoldDesk Live Chat Widget in the Customer Portal.

Enabling AI Agent in Live Chat to an External Site

Once you have configured the live chat widget and embedded the AI Agent, you can add the AI Agent to an external site. Learn more on BoldDesk Live Chat Widget Setup Guide for more details on how to add the AI Agent in live chat to the external site.

FAQs

Q1. Is it possible to disable AI Agent responses for specific departments or brands?
A: Yes. You can manage AI Agent availability by configuring separate widgets for each brand or department and enabling/disabling the AI Agent per widget.

Q2. What happens if the customer abandons the chat during workflow collection?
A: The workflow remains incomplete, and the chat session will not transition to an agent unless manually reassigned.

Q3. Can I restrict AI Agent responses to business hours only?
A: No. The AI Agent operates 24/7 by design, but you can configure workflows to manage escalation during business hours.

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