When should the AI stop? Handing conversations to your team as cases with an owner
An AI assistant should stop when it does not have the answer, when the customer asks for a person, or when your own rules say so. In AdaptiveReply the conversation then becomes a case: a record with a summary, the full conversation and an owner, while the assistant stays silent until your team resolves it.
By the AdaptiveReply teamPublished 7 min read
Key takeaways
- A good handoff is a summary plus an owner, so nobody rereads the thread and nobody assumes someone else replied.
- While a case is open, the assistant stays paused for that customer; it starts answering again when the case is resolved.
- Answers your team gives can be saved from the case, so the assistant knows them next time.
What is a handoff, and what is a case?
Most teams are not afraid that an AI assistant will answer. They are afraid of two other things: that it will keep answering when a person should have stepped in, and that the message it passes on will land in a shared inbox where everyone assumes someone else has it. An angry customer who gets a third cheerful automated reply, or a ready-to-buy customer whose “I’ll take it” sits unread until Monday, costs more than a slow first answer.
A handoff is the moment the assistant stops replying and passes the conversation to a person. A case is the record that handoff creates: a conversation that needs a person, with a summary of what the customer wants, the full conversation and an assignee. In AdaptiveReply, cases live on the Cases screen and appear in the inbox under the Needs you tab.
When does the assistant hand off?
AdaptiveReply’s assistant hands off in a few defined situations, and you can add your own.
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| The assistant cannot answer | The answer is not in your catalogue, sources or business information. By default the assistant does not guess; it hands off and tells the customer the team will get back to them. |
| The customer asks for a person | The conversation is handed to your team. |
| The customer is ready to buy | The assistant first collects the details you require, such as name and phone, records the request, then hands it off for your team to confirm. It does not create the order itself. |
| A complaint or an unhappy customer | Add a rule such as “WHEN the customer feels frustrated or unhappy, DO hand off to the team”, and a person is brought in right away. |
| Any moment you define | Rules can also hand off by what the customer wants (a return, a wholesale order), by channel, or when the customer sends media the assistant cannot read. |
Each handoff rule has one more choice: hand off without asking, or after the customer agrees. The second suits moments where the assistant should offer “shall I pass you to a colleague?” before stepping back. Writing these WHEN → DO sentences is covered in the setup guide, and how the assistant speaks until that point in the brand voice guide.
What does your team receive?
Your team receives a case it can act on without scrolling. The assistant writes the summary for the person who takes over, not for the customer.
- A summary: what the customer wants, where the conversation stands and what was promised.
- The full conversation, on the same screen, with the reply box under it.
- The collected details: for a purchase request, the items and contact information the assistant gathered.
- An owner: a new case has none, and one click on Take case shows the rest of the team who is on it. A case can also be assigned to a teammate.
From that moment the assistant is paused for that customer. The conversation shows Paused: open case, and the assistant stays silent until someone marks the case resolved; then it starts answering again.
What happens outside working hours?
The assistant has no shift, so it answers at night and at weekends exactly as it does during the day. Working hours matter at one point only: when it hands off, it tells the customer that a person will get back to them when the business opens.
How does a case get from open to done?
A case is done when the customer has what they need, and many cases take more than one reply: a refund to approve, a parcel to trace, a colleague to ask. AdaptiveReply keeps that follow-up next to the case, in Team & Tasks, instead of in a separate chat app.
- Create a task from the case, with an assignee and a due date, linked back to the record.
- Mention a teammate with @ in the case discussion to ask a question without leaving the screen.
- Request an approval when a decision needs a second person; the task cannot be marked done until it is decided.
- Add a rule such as “when a case opens, create a follow-up task due in one day”, so no case depends on someone remembering it.
The rest of the workspace is shown in the features section.
How do you stop the same question coming back?
Every case that opened because the assistant lacked information points to a gap. AdaptiveReply lets you close it from the case itself: write the answer once, approve it, and the assistant can find it the next time a customer asks.
- Open a case whose reason is missing information.
- Under What your assistant should know, write the answer as you would give it to a customer.
- Approve it. The answer is saved as knowledge the assistant searches.
- Resolve the case, and the assistant takes over again.
The assistant does not learn silently from conversations; it uses only what a person approved.
Can you take over from your phone?
Yes. The AdaptiveReply mobile apps for iOS and Android show the same inbox and the same cases. A status bar at the top of each conversation says whether the AI is answering, and one tap pauses or resumes it.
A short checklist for a handoff that works:
- Decide which situations always go to a person, and write a rule for each.
- Enter your working hours, so customers hear an honest follow-up time.
- Agree who checks the Needs you tab, and when.
- Make “Take case” a habit, so every case has an owner.
- Once a week, turn repeated cases into saved answers.
You can see the inbox and the case screen in the product section, or start for free and try a handoff in the test chat.
Frequently asked questions
Can a person take over any conversation?
Yes. In AdaptiveReply every conversation has a status bar showing whether the AI is answering. One click on Pause AI on the web, or one tap in the mobile app, stops the assistant for that conversation so a teammate can reply. The assistant is resumed the same way.
Does the customer have to repeat everything after a handoff?
No. A case carries a summary written by the assistant, covering what the customer wants, where things stand and what was promised, together with the full conversation. The teammate who takes the case replies in the same thread on the same channel, so the customer continues the conversation instead of starting over.
Can the assistant ask before transferring to a person?
Yes. Each handoff rule in AdaptiveReply has two modes: without asking, or after the customer agrees. In the second mode the assistant offers to bring in a colleague and hands off only when the customer accepts.
Does the assistant learn from cases?
Only from what you approve. When a case opened because the assistant lacked information, you can write the correct answer on the case and approve it. AdaptiveReply saves it as knowledge the assistant searches in later conversations. It does not learn automatically from what your team writes to customers.
This guide is part of a series. Start with the overview: One inbox for Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, email and web chat: why scattered channels lose customers