Escalation (Live Chat Handoff)

Escalation is the process of handing a conversation from an AI agent to a human — automatically, based on rules like sentiment, topic, or an explicit request.

Escalation, also called live chat handoff, is the process of transferring a conversation from an AI agent to a human — automatically, based on rules such as detected sentiment, topic, an explicit request from the customer, or the AI agent reaching the limit of what it can resolve.

Why escalation rules matter

Escalation is what makes AI-first support safe to deploy broadly: the AI agent handles repetitive, well-defined questions automatically, while conversations that need judgment, contain a complaint, or explicitly ask for a person are routed to a human without the customer having to repeat themselves.

Escalation across channels

In a multi-channel support setup, the same escalation rules apply regardless of whether the conversation started on the chat widget, WhatsApp, or phone — the handoff carries the full conversation context to the human agent.

Related terms

Keep exploring

Get started

See it in your own support workflow

Start free, no credit card required.