The AI Assistant answers your customers' product questions on your product pages and in your help center. It answers only from what you give it: product specs, help articles, Q&A and documents. When it can't help, it hands the conversation to your team. This article is for the people who set it up and keep it accurate.
Open AI Assistant in the main menu. The side menu has Get started, Playground, Conversations and Performance, plus a Build group with Guidance, Knowledge, Skills and Handoff.
Get your assistant ready
AI Assistant › Get started is a five-step checklist:
- Knowledge added - publish help articles, or add Q&A and documents
- Guidance set - describe your brand, pick a tone, set escalation rules
- Handoff configured - choose where questions go when the assistant can't help
- Tested in the playground - ask the questions your customers ask
- Assistant is live - turn on the Live switch in the page header
The same page shows how many unanswered questions and open handoffs need attention, and lets you switch the assistant on or off in your help center. On product pages it is always on while the assistant is live.
Turn the assistant on or off
Use the Live / Off switch in the header of any AI Assistant page. Turning it off asks for confirmation, and customers then no longer see the assistant on product pages or in your help center. You can still test it in the Playground.
Add knowledge
Go to AI Assistant › Knowledge. The four buttons at the top are Add web page, Add file, Add Q&A and Write help article.
- Product coverage lists each product as Good, Thin or Missing, based on how many articles, Q&A and documents it has. Start with the Missing ones. Use Add articles or Edit articles to open the product's help articles.
- Q&A holds short answers to common questions. Each answer can apply to all products or one product, and the assistant uses it for similar questions in any language.
- Documents holds manuals, FAQs and policies. Add them as an uploaded PDF (up to the size limit shown in the upload dialog), a Web page address, or Paste text. A web page is read once, so add it again if it changes. Each document shows Ready or Couldn't read, and very long documents are shortened to the first 200,000 characters.
- Unanswered lists questions the assistant couldn't answer from your content. Add an answer once and it is used from then on, or dismiss the question.
Set guidance
AI Assistant › Guidance controls how the assistant sounds. Save to apply it from the next message.
- Identity: an Assistant name (shown above every reply) and a Greeting. Use
{product}in the greeting to insert the product name. - Brand summary: a short brief about your company that the assistant reads before every answer.
- Tone: Friendly, Professional, Neutral, Playful, or Custom where you describe the voice yourself.
- Show source articles: shows up to two articles an answer is based on as links under it.
- Style rules: up to 8 short instructions, such as "Keep answers under 3 sentences".
- Escalation rules: checked before every answer. If one matches, the conversation goes to your team instead of being answered. Suggested rules are Safety issue, Asks for a person, Defective or broken product, Legal or complaint threat and Repeated frustration. You can add your own with Add rule (up to 20) and switch each on or off.
The assistant answers in the customer's language.
Choose skills
AI Assistant › Skills turns on the buttons the assistant can offer. It only offers a skill when it fits the question. Changes save right away.
| Skill | What it does |
|---|---|
| Register product | Offers a button to your registration page |
| Warranty info | Explains coverage from your warranty terms |
| Start a warranty claim | Offers a button to your claim form |
| Spare parts | Shows matching spare parts with prices from your product data |
| Repair guide | Links to repair and self-fix information |
Set up handoff
AI Assistant › Handoff decides what happens when a customer asks for a person, an escalation rule matches, or the assistant doesn't know the answer.
- Send to the Helpdesk: a ticket with the full chat lands in your Helpdesk inbox. See Helpdesk.
- Email my team: the question and the customer's email go to the Team email you enter.
- Create a Zendesk ticket: opens a ticket with the full conversation. Connect Zendesk first from Settings › Integrations (subdomain, agent email and API token). Until it is connected, handed-off questions are only listed in Conversations.
- Show a message: shows your own text, such as a phone number, instead of collecting the customer's email.
Test in the Playground
AI Assistant › Playground lets you chat as a customer. Choose the product under Test as and a Language. The Why this answer panel shows the sources used, the escalation rule that matched, the actions offered and the response time. Customers never see it. Playground chats are not saved, don't count toward your plan and don't appear in Conversations.
Review conversations
AI Assistant › Conversations has two tabs:
- Conversations lists real chats with product, channel, status (Resolved, Handed off, Couldn't answer, No question), rating and topic. Open one to read the full transcript.
- Handoffs lists customers who asked for your team, with their email and the reason. Mark each Open or Done.
Measure performance
AI Assistant › Performance shows conversations, AI resolution rate, handoff rate, questions it couldn't answer, helpful ratings and average response time for the last 7, 30 or 90 days. It also shows top topics, top unanswered questions and a breakdown by product. Playground tests are not counted.
Tip: Review Unanswered every week. Each answer you add makes the assistant better for the next customer.