When does the AI Agent reply?

The AI Agent replies automatically to your customers' WhatsApp messages, but not in every case. This article covers the conditions for a reply and the priority order with your automations.

Scale plan required
The AI Agent is available on the Scale and Business plans.

Conditions for a reply

The AI replies to an incoming message only when all of these conditions are met:

1. The AI Agent is enabled on your account.

2. Your Shopify store is connected to Kanal.

3. No automation has handled the message.

4. The message is a text, an image or an audio. Videos do not trigger a reply.

5. The AI is not turned off in the conversation (AI Off button) and is not paused after an escalation.

The AI Agent works on WhatsApp only.

Priority order with your automations

When a customer writes to you, Kanal processes the message in this order:

1. Automations triggered by a keyword (Inbound message trigger).

2. Unsubscribe keywords, set in Settings > Opt-out (click your team name, then Settings).

3. "Any text" automations.

4. The AI Agent.

5. The Business hours message.

An "Any text" automation cuts off the AI Agent
An active automation using the "Any text" mode handles every incoming message, so the AI Agent no longer replies. Turn it off if you want the AI to reply.

If the AI Agent is active and the message meets the conditions, the Business hours message is not sent, even if the AI ends up not replying. See Set up Business hours.

Hours

The AI replies 24/7. The AI Agent's Support Hours setting is informational only: it does not limit when the AI replies.

Language

The AI replies in the customer's language. If your store is multilingual, add your pages in each language for more accurate answers.

When your team replies

The AI does not pause automatically when a team member replies in the Inbox. To take over, open the conversation and click AI Off. See AI Agent escalation to your team.

Billing

Each AI reply costs 0.05 €, deducted from your message balance. See AI Agent pricing.