AI Agent as First Responder
Configure your AI Agent to be the first point of contact for all conversations.
Use First Responder to make your AI Agent the initial touchpoint for every new and reopened conversation, while keeping your teammates available for more complex escalations.
What is First Responder?
When enabled, available users or AI Agents with the “first responder” skill tag will be assigned to new or reopened conversations. The AI Agent can be designated as the first point of contact.
Setting up the AI Agent as a First Responder is also useful for more complex assignment routing.
This feature is especially helpful if you want all conversations to start with an AI Agent that can handle FAQs and then automatically escalate and route them to team members with the right skill set.
How To Setup
1 Configure AI Agent
- In the Configure Agent settings, on 14. First Responder, select Yes
- Upon clicking Update / Save on your Configure agent settings, the tag “first_responder” will be automatically added to your AI Agent.
2 Auto-Assignment Roster ON
- The auto-assignment roster MUST BE ON with the AI Agent Available for First Responder to work.
- Go to Settings → Team Settings - Auto Assignment
- Your AI Agent (and any teammates you choose) should be included in the roster.
- If you’re using Escalation logic, Available users in the Auto-assignment roster including the AI Agent must be ON as these will be used for routing
3 Initial Assignment
- AI Agent with the “first responder” skill will be automatically assigned to any new or reopened conversation.
- You can add the “first responder” tag to other teammates if you’d like to round robin the initial assignment to both your AI Agent and human agents
- Other routing rules in your inbox (conversation limits, skills, automations, etc.) will still apply.
4 Escalation to Other Agents
- If the First Responder escalates a conversation, all eligible teammates on the auto-assignment roster marked as Available will be automatically assigned the conversation upon escalation
- If there are no teammates available, the conversation becomes unassigned
- The conversation is tagged “ai escalated”
- This ensures a warm handoff from your AI Agent to a human teammate.
- Create custom AI Agent escalation logic in the Instructions and confirm you have the right settings togged ON in the Configure Agent section
- On option 7. Escalate to a Teammate, select Yes
- Options for Configure 8. When Escalating, Skip Responding
- Select Yes if you want the AI Agent to stay silent and not send a message when escalation logic is triggered.
- If you want to keep the AI Agent’s default behavior - sending a reply when escalation logic is triggered - leave this set to No. Selecting No means the AI Agent will not skip its escalation message, so it will still notify the customer that the conversation is being escalated.
Managing First Responders
- Skill Routing Logic - Add or Remove Skills:
- See more details on how to further use Skill Routing here
- To make an agent a First Responder, add the “first responder” skill to their profile.
- To remove them, simply delete the skill.
- Removing AI Agent as First Responder:
- By default, you can make your AI Agent a First Responder.
- If you’d prefer your AI Agent not act as the first point of contact, remove the skill.
- Manual Assignment Still Available:
- Even with First Responder enabled, you can always manually assign conversations to any teammate.
Example Workflow
- A customer sends a new message to your Inbox.
- Avochato assigns the conversation to your AI Agent with the First Responder skill.
- The AI Agent responds immediately, handling FAQs or gathering details.
- The customer triggers the escalation logic and the AI Agent escalates the conversation, it is routed to a human teammate marked as Available on the auto-assignment roster.