Set up an AI agent for customer support

Set up an AI agent that answers customer questions from your knowledge and hands over to your team. Start from a template, test and go live in about 20 minutes.

AI agent for customer support: setup guide

An AI agent answers customer messages on your channels. It follows your instructions, answers from your knowledge base and hands over to your team when it cannot help. More in the glossary.

Support bots can no longer be created. In the app you now set up an AI agent instead, and this guide shows how to do that for customer support.

A Professional, Scale or Enterprise plan.

Content in your knowledge base (website, documents or FAQ) for the agent to answer from.

At least one connected channel or the live chat widget.

Create with AI asks about your company and goals, builds a first draft from your website and notes, and lets you review it. Start blank gives you full control over every setting.

SendSeven dialog New agent with three cards: Create with AI (marked Recommended), From a template and Start blank.

You can change everything afterwards. The other five templates work the same way.

SendSeven dialog Choose a template with six cards, among them Customer support for first-level support with handoff to your team.

You can reword the AI disclosure but not remove it. An empty field uses the default text, and publishing is blocked without a name and an AI disclosure.

SendSeven Greeting & AI disclosure card with the required disclosure text, a human-mention switch, the greeting and a quick-reply switch.

Adjust tone and limits to your company. You edit the template skills, or add your own, under Agents & Bots → Skills.

SendSeven Instructions card with the template rules: answer from the knowledge base and hand complaints and refunds to the team.

Before a reply goes out, the agent checks facts such as prices and dates against its sources, removes what it cannot back and hands over or sends a fallback message if nothing useful is left. If you have no content yet, see Build your knowledge base.

SendSeven Knowledge base & FAQ card with the whole knowledge base and FAQ switched on and a field to add a folder.

Handoff does not assign the conversation to anyone by itself. Assign it with a skill goal or a Flow, as shown in Route conversations to the right team.

SendSeven Handoff to your team settings with three switches, the keywords human and agent, two limit fields and a tag selector.

Set your business hours once in your workspace Settings, and Custom hours for this agent overrides them. Agents are checked in the order of the Agents & Bots list, and you can reorder it there.

SendSeven Channels & hours tab with a Live Chat row, its switch on, the When menu set to Always and the switch for nobody online.

Nothing is sent to customers. Try typical questions, a question your knowledge does not cover and a request for your team.

SendSeven test panel with Restart, a Draft and Live switch, a sample customer question, the agent reply and Why this answer?

An agent without a channel shows Not connected. To throw away unpublished changes, use Discard in the three-dot menu.

SendSeven Overview tab with the checklist Ready to go live? and four checks: name, instructions, knowledge and a connected channel.

Once real customers write in, three tabs show what works and what to change.

Conversations: recent turns with the customer message, the agent answer and Why this answer?, so you see which sources and skills it used.

Feedback: your team's ratings of the agent replies. For each skill, Suggest improvements proposes revised skill text that you approve or dismiss.

Insights: usage and outcomes over time, so you see how much the agent handles and where it hands over.

  1. Open Agents & Bots and click New agent
  2. Choose From a template and pick Customer support
  3. Set the name, the AI disclosure and the greeting on the Identity tab
  4. Review the instructions and skills
  5. Connect your knowledge base, folders or FAQ
  6. Set handoff keywords, limits and a tag
  7. Choose channels and hours
  8. Test with Try it, first as draft, then as Live
  9. Check Ready to go live? and click Publish

FAQ

Does the agent assign conversations to my team?

No. When the agent hands over, it does not assign the conversation to anyone by itself. You assign it with a skill goal or a Flow. A tag on handoff helps your team find these chats in the inbox.

What happens when the agent does not know an answer?

The agent answers from your knowledge and instructions. A fact check removes facts it cannot back, such as prices and dates. If nothing useful is left, it hands over to your team when handoff is on, or sends a fallback message. If your team is offline, you choose in the handoff settings what the customer sees, for example a request to leave a message.

Can the agent answer only outside business hours?

Yes. Open "Channels & hours", click "Times" on a channel and set "When" to "Outside business hours". Your business hours come from your workspace Settings, and "Custom hours for this agent" overrides them. A separate switch, "Only when nobody from your team is online", limits the agent to times when your team is away.

Does testing send anything to customers?

No. "Try it" opens a test chat, and nothing is sent to customers. By default it tests the draft including unpublished changes, and you can switch to "Live" to test what customers get. "Why this answer?" under each reply shows the sources, skills and outcome.

Which plan do I need?

Professional, Scale or Enterprise. AI agents are not available on Basic or API Only. Every agent reply uses AI credits.

Can my team review replies before they are sent?

Yes. Each conversation has a mode: Off, Assist or Auto. In Assist, the agent only writes drafts, and a teammate decides what to send. In Auto, the agent replies on its own.