When and Why the AI Escalates to Your Team

Escalation is how your AI Agent hands off a conversation when it needs human attention. The agent doesn't try to handle everything on its own. When it recognizes a situation that requires your team, it routes the conversation to your Inbox and stops responding.

Reasons the AI Escalates

1. The customer asks a question the AI can't answer

If the AI doesn't have relevant information in your knowledge base and can't find an answer using its skills, it escalates rather than guessing. The escalation is labeled Knowledge Gap in your Inbox.

What you can do: Check the escalation details and add the missing information to your Knowledge Base. The escalation banner includes a direct link to your Knowledge Base for this purpose.

2. The customer asks to speak to a human

When a customer explicitly requests a person ("can I talk to someone?", "get me a real person"), the AI respects that immediately. Labeled Customer Request.

3. The customer reports a product complaint

Damaged, defective, wrong item, or quality issues always get escalated. These require human judgment and often involve inspection, replacement, or investigation. Labeled Product Complaint.

4. The customer wants a return, refund, or exchange

Even if your return policy is in the knowledge base, actual return and refund processing requires a human. The AI shares the relevant policy information, then escalates so your team can handle the logistics. Labeled Refund Request.

If the Initiate Return skill is enabled, the agent gathers order details first so your team has context when they pick up the conversation.

5. The issue requires human judgment

Billing disputes, sensitive situations, or anything that involves making a decision the AI shouldn't make on its own. Labeled Billing Inquiry or Order Issue depending on the context.

6. The customer is still unsatisfied after multiple attempts

If the AI has tried to help but the customer is still frustrated after two or more exchanges, it escalates rather than continuing to go back and forth. The specific label depends on the nature of the issue.

Automatic Escalations

Some escalations happen automatically based on safety checks, without the AI choosing to escalate:

Abusive Language If a customer sends abusive or threatening messages, the conversation is escalated with the label Abusive Language. The AI does not send a response to the customer in this case. Your team can decide how to handle it.

Malicious Behavior If a customer attempts to manipulate the AI, the conversation is escalated with the label Malicious. The subscriber is automatically opted out of SMS to prevent further abuse.

Conversation Limit If the conversation exceeds the message limit, it escalates with the label Conversation Limit.

What Happens After Escalation

When the AI escalates:

The conversation appears in your Inbox with an escalation banner showing the category and reason
The AI stops responding to this conversation. It will not send further messages until you override.
Your team reviews the banner, reads the conversation history, and takes over by clicking Override Conversation
Once overridden, you can reply to the customer directly

The AI provides the escalation reason to give your team context so they can pick up the conversation without asking the customer to repeat themselves.

Reducing Unnecessary Escalations

If the AI is escalating too often, it usually means your knowledge base has gaps. Here's how to address each type:

Escalation Type	How to Reduce It
Knowledge Gap	Add Facts, Verified Answers, or Knowledge Sources for the topics customers are asking about
Customer Request	Some customers will always want a human. This isn't a problem to solve.
Refund Request	These will always escalate since refunds require human processing. This is expected.
Product Complaint	These will always escalate since complaints require human judgment. This is expected.
Billing Inquiry	Add Facts covering common billing questions (e.g., "We bill on the 1st of each month") to handle the informational ones. Complex billing issues will still escalate.
Order Issue	Make sure Track Order is enabled so the AI can answer status questions. Issues beyond status (missing items, wrong address) will still escalate.

Escalation and Billing

Escalated conversations are not billed as resolutions. If the AI escalates before fully resolving the customer's questions, you're not charged. You only pay for sessions where the AI handled everything without needing your team.

The one exception: if the AI answers some questions and then escalates for a different question, the session is only billed if all questions were resolved. A partial resolution with an escalation is not billed.