Encyclopedia
AI live chat
What AI live chat is, how it differs from traditional live chat, and how handoff to a human works.
AI live chat is live chat on a website or app where an AI agent handles the conversation in real time, answering from a knowledge base and completing tasks, and hands off to a human when needed, instead of a person typing every reply.
How it differs from traditional live chat
Traditional live chat connects a visitor to a human agent who types every response. It is limited by staffing: outside office hours or at peak volume, visitors wait or leave. AI live chat puts an AI agent in the first line. It answers instantly, at any hour, from the business's own knowledge, and only involves a human for the cases that need one.
It is not the same as a scripted chatbot with fixed buttons. An AI live chat agent answers free-text questions and can take actions, rather than walking the visitor through a decision tree.
How handoff to a human works
The agent hands a conversation to a person in two situations: when it is uncertain or out of scope, and when the visitor asks for a human. On handoff, the human sees the full conversation and any captured context, and takes over in the same thread. When they are done, the conversation can return to the AI.
Benefits and limits
- Availability: instant answers 24/7, without adding headcount.
- Consistency: every visitor gets the same, up-to-date answer from the knowledge base.
- Limit: the agent is only as good as the knowledge it is given; gaps show up as handoffs, which is also a signal of what to add.
From reference to practice
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