Every way a conversation is handed to a person, and what happens next
Everything that hands a conversation to a person — rules, goals, workflows, built-in checks, the WhatsApp Business app — and how to hand it back.
A conversation goes to a person when an escalation topic matches, the customer sounds frustrated, a rule requires a person, a goal marked to escalate completes, a workflow runs escalate_conversation, a reply fails verification, the agent hands over itself, or a safety limit trips — and also when someone replies from the WhatsApp Business app. The agent then stops replying on that conversation until somebody presses Return to AI.
What escalation does
- The conversation switches to human mode. The agent does not reply to it again until somebody presses Return to AI in the inbox.
- Live goals are paused, and resume with everything captured when it is returned.
- Follow-ups stop — they only chase conversations the agent owns.
conversation.escalatedfires, so workflows and webhooks on it run (assign an owner, create a task).- Messages the customer sends meanwhile wait in the inbox. Nothing answers them automatically.
Every trigger
| Trigger | Where it is set | How to recognise it |
|---|---|---|
| Escalation topic matched | AI settings › Human escalation | Automatic events show a Rule line naming the topic rule. |
| Customer sounds frustrated or upset | Built in; cannot be turned off | Hand-over on an angry or upset message, no rule named. |
| Require human before tool rule | AI settings › Agent rules | A Rule line naming the rule, on a turn where the agent tried that action. |
| Goal completed with Escalate to a human when this goal completes | The goal | Hand-over on the message that filled the goal's last required field; the goal shows as completed. |
| Workflow with escalate_conversation | Settings › Workflows | Audit log entry workflow:<trigger> listing escalate_conversation; often a task created beside it. |
| The agent handed over itself | Its role allows changing the conversation | Typically the customer asked for a person; the hand-over is attributed to the agent. |
| A reply failed verification | Built in | The customer got a holding reply ("let me check and come back to you"); the audit log names the reason. |
| 40+ messages in 10 minutes | Built in | The thread says the agent stopped because of a burst of messages. |
| The person's daily AI-reply limit | Workspace setting | Banner: this person reached today's limit on AI replies. |
| Someone replied from the WhatsApp Business app | Using the number on a phone | No event or rule at all — a person was in the chat, so the agent stepped back. |
| A new email that is a notice, not a customer | Built in | Banner: not answered — this looks like a notice. |
| A website enquiry by email | Built in | These conversations start with a person, never the agent. |
The escalation topic check fails closed
If the topic check itself cannot run on a message, every configured topic is treated as matched and the conversation goes to a person. A rare hand-over with no obvious topic can be this.
Writing good escalation topics
- Write a full description, not a keyword: "the customer disputes a refund or complains about a payment" rather than "refund".
- A passing mention does not match — the message has to be clearly about the topic.
- Each topic you add is checked on every message, so keep the list to what genuinely needs a person.
Hand it back
Open the conversation and press Return to AI. The agent answers from the customer's next message; it does not reply to messages that arrived while a person had it. See Take over a conversation from the AI agent.
Related
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