How to use AI Support Agent

AI Support Agent is included on Scale. Your site must be on an eligible plan, and an administrator must activate the feature. This guide uses the workspace; available actions still depend on your role.

1. Open and activate AI Support Agent

Select your website in the workspace. Under Customers, open AI Support Agent. If it is inactive, an administrator can choose Activate AI Support Agent.

Plan access and activation are separate. Upgrading to Scale does not start conversations or overwrite an existing pause. Activation also does not enable the website chat switch for you.

2. Set behavior and permissions

Open Your agent. Review Let the agent handle conversations, then add your tone, policies and instructions under Private business instructions. Save your changes.

Be specific about what the agent can confirm and when it should ask you. For example:

Use our published delivery policy when answering shipping questions. Ask our team before promising a delivery date or an exception. Keep private guidance out of customer replies.

Review Agent permissions. Enable only the tools you want it to use. Customer-record tools still require verified identity and stay limited to that customer. Business instructions cannot expand these permissions or authorize website edits.

3. Add reliable knowledge

In Knowledge, add support hours, service details, delivery rules, return policies and other facts customers need. Lock a note when you want to prevent agent changes. Human-authorized controls manage locks.

Website search lets the agent read your live public website when enabled. It cannot read signed-in pages or change website content. Approved sources saves specific public webpage text as a reference; it does not crawl the whole website.

The agent can learn reusable facts from eligible private team guidance and approved sources. A customer’s claim does not authorize a shared knowledge change.

4. Enable website chat

Open Chat & settings. Under Website chat, enable Enable website chat. Review the contact fields, chat title, accent color and greeting. The customer preview changes appearance only; it sends no messages. Save your changes.

Your live Frontpage website loads chat automatically. No website file edit or Publish action is needed. For another website or app you manage, add its exact website address and use the installation code shown in settings. Adding an address alone does not install chat.

Your existing business-owned chat title and greeting are yours to keep. They do not need to say “AI Support Agent.”

5. Set up support email and private team guidance

Your support email is the public address customers can write to. If you have not created one, enter an available business alias in this panel and choose Create support address. Common names such as support and help are reserved; use your business name. Copy the resulting address from Chat & settings. If you change or retire it, review the confirmation: old addresses stop receiving new mail, while saved conversations remain.

In Your agent → Owner help, set the Private guidance email. Use your address or a shared team mailbox. Teammates should reply as that exact mailbox. Keep it separate from the public support address. Save changes.

Private guidance tells the agent how to help without taking over or sending your text directly to the customer. Changing the guidance destination revokes old private routes.

6. Test the customer experience

1. Open your live website and the chat launcher.
2. Ask a general question covered by your saved knowledge.
3. Use an email address you control and follow the email verification instructions.
4. Ask a question that needs your team’s judgment and check the configured private guidance mailbox.
5. Review the conversation and message delivery state in the workspace.

Customers can ask general business questions before verification. Private customer details and earlier customer history require proof of identity. Requiring an email field does not verify that address.

Verified chat customers can receive an email follow-up when they are away. Native email customers continue through email. A stored message is not the same as a delivered email; check the displayed delivery status if something is delayed.

7. Guide the agent or take over

Open a conversation in Conversations. While the agent handles it, use Guidance for private instructions or Note for an internal entry.

Choose Take over before sending your own customer-facing Reply. Check the composer mode before sending: private guidance and a public reply serve different purposes. Changing control never converts private text into a reply.

Use Return to agent when you want the agent to handle the thread again. Automation must be enabled. Close or reopen a conversation to manage its lifecycle; closing is separate from changing who handles it.

8. Understand usage and pauses

Support AI draws from the same site AI budget as other AI work. The platform fixes the support model and its billing rate. Existing storage and mail rules apply; Scale does not grant unlimited AI messages.

Pausing automation routes new customer messages to the configured owner for manual handling. If AI pauses for credits, your team can still handle conversations manually. Existing support-address forwarding has its own state; retiring the address stops new mail to it.

You’re ready when: a real test reaches the correct conversation, the agent answers from approved facts, private guidance stays private, and your team can take over and return control.