8. Hand conversations between AI and humans

A handoff lets your team continue where the agent left off, with the earlier messages available in the same conversation. Use it for requests that need judgement, information outside the knowledge base or a customer who wants a person.

Team members need access to the workspace. An Admin configures guidance, the handoff message and workspace assignment settings.

Handoff triggers

Customers can request a person in their message or use the Talk to a person quick reply where offered. Recognised short requests such as “human” trigger handoff directly. Longer requests are interpreted under the agent's handoff instructions. The agent can also hand off when it has no supported answer or the question is outside its scope.

Automatic operational triggers include unavailable credit eligibility, daily limits, the AI reply cap and errors. Guidance can describe useful escalation boundaries, but the Handoff tab currently edits the customer-facing message; it is not a configurable rule builder with timers and condition lists.

Handoff behaviour

During handoff, Converso:

• Sends the saved Handoff message and records the handoff.
• Stops AI handling and leaves the conversation open.
• Keeps earlier customer and AI messages in the thread. A summary may also be recorded when available.

Workspace members can receive a new-conversation notification. If round-robin auto-assignment is enabled, an online, non-away workspace member can be assigned. If no eligible member is available, the conversation remains unassigned. The system does not invent an availability promise or wait for a staff-presence timer before handing off.

Where customer email is enabled, webchat can request an optional email once, after the customer writes and the thread reaches humans. This is an unverified claim, not automatic identity proof.

Team replies

1. Open the conversation in Inbox.
2. Read the earlier exchange and any handoff information.
3. Assign it to an appropriate colleague or take ownership yourself.
4. Write a human reply using Reply, or discuss privately using Note.
5. Close it when complete, or snooze it for a later follow-up.

Manual intervention

Sending a staff reply or assigning the conversation does not automatically stop AI handling. Check that handoff has occurred before continuing as the human responder. For an intervention before handoff, ask an admin to disable the channel's live switch while you review the thread. This affects the whole workspace channel, not only this conversation.

Draft reply prepares text for you to review and send and can consume an AI credit window. It is not the free Test console.

Return to AI

Use Hand back to AI in the thread's more-actions menu when the remaining work is appropriate for the agent. The action requires credit eligibility. Before selecting Hand back to AI let the customer know that your AI agent will respond to their next message as Converso does not send an automatic handback message.

Check that the conversation is open and the channel's live switch is enabled.

Closing ends active handling. Reopening a closed conversation does not automatically restore AI ownership. Decide whether a human should continue or explicitly return it to AI.

Related guides: Assignment, Statuses, Notifications.