Staff-first AI & response windows
Give people the first opportunity, with a controlled AI fallback.
Enable the policy
In AI ticket support, enable automatic replies, the desired ticket systems, staff-first handling and notifications. Select preferred roles only where those roles already belong to the ticket’s authorised team. Category-specific AI settings and allowed category scope also apply.
Read availability conservatively
Confirmed offline teams permit an immediate AI answer. Online staff receive the configured response window. Unknown availability also waits rather than being treated as offline. Reliable presence detection requires the host’s optional Presence Intent setup and a sufficiently complete member cache. DND and Idle count as online; Invisible appears offline.
How the timer works
The default is 3600 seconds. The first member question or submitted opening answers begin the wait. Further member messages do not restart it. If staff still have not handled the case at expiry, AI can take over. Once it has taken over, follow-up questions continue without restarting an hour-long wait.
Human takeover remains available
A staff claim or reply pauses the assistant and cancels the wait. A direct request for a person hands off instead of waiting for the timer. Staff may explicitly resume AI. An unanswered timer does not guarantee that an AI provider is available or that a question has a grounded answer.
Test before rollout
Try known-answer questions, an unknown question and a human request in a private test server. Temporarily shorten the timer if needed, then restore it. Confirm a real staff response stops takeover and that private source material is excluded. See AI knowledge and privacy.