How aishaa processes a ticket

In short: Every customer message follows the same path. aishaa reads the message and makes it readable. Then it understands it: what the customer is asking, in which language, about which topic and whether a reply is needed. Then the organisation’s workflows do their work, such as sorting, assigning and replying. The agent in the Write the reply step makes a proposal that a colleague reviews. Only where a person lets that agent send by itself on that topic and every guardrail allows it does the reply go out without a colleague; that is trust.

Where to find this

Open a ticket via Tickets. While aishaa is working, the notice aishaa is analyzing appears above the reply field, with the step it is working on. Once the proposal is ready, it is in the reply field.

Who: everyone from the Viewer role sees the progress. You set what happens to a message with the workflows (Account > Workflows, from the Organisation admin role) and with the agents (Account > Agents, from the Account admin role). Processing happens per organisation.

An open ticket with, above the reply field, the aishaa is analyzing notice and the progress text Gathering the most relevant information.

The path in short

When processing starts

aishaa processes incoming messages from the customer (and from an external party in a forwarded conversation). Replies from colleagues do not start processing.

Before processing begins, aishaa sometimes waits briefly, so that quick follow-up messages from the same customer are processed together:

You set the waiting time for WhatsApp under Account > Account settings, field Wait before analysing WhatsApp messages (minutes): 0 up to and including 10 minutes. With 0, aishaa starts immediately. The setting applies to all organisations in the account.

1. Reading

Progress text: Making the message easier to read.

For email, aishaa extracts the actual text from the message, so formatting and quoted emails do not get in the way of understanding. For WhatsApp, aishaa converts voice messages to text if transcription is switched on for the account. aishaa looks at images in the message first, so they count. If there is nothing to prepare, for example with a short WhatsApp text message, aishaa skips this step.

2. Understanding

Progress text: Deciding where to look for an answer.

aishaa reads the message in the context of the conversation and records:

• the customer’s language, so the reply is in that language;
• the customer’s question in one sentence, and the name the customer uses for themselves;
• whether the message starts a new topic in the conversation;
• whether it is urgent, and why;
• what the customer needs, with the topic from the taxonomy for each need (see Taxonomy: support areas and query patterns);
• whether the message needs a reply (see No reply needed and silent conversations).

With that, the message is understood. aishaa reports this to the organisation’s workflows.

3. The workflows do their work

What happens with an understood message is determined by the organisation’s workflows. Every active workflow that responds to an understood customer message and whose conditions are met starts. Workflows stand on their own: there is no priority and one does not pass anything on to another. See What are workflows.

Examples of what workflows do:

• Replying: a Write the reply step lets an agent write the reply. Each organisation automatically gets the standard workflow Answering customer messages with its first message, if no workflow of that organisation replies yet.
• Sorting and labels: an agent chooses which kind of question the message belongs to and the workflow sets labels, forwards or gives the agent an extra instruction.
• Assigning: the ticket goes to a colleague or support group.
• Sending an acknowledgement of receipt.

If your organisation used to have classification rules, automatic acknowledgements of receipt or triage rules, aishaa has moved them into your own workflows, with the same labels, texts and routes (for example Sorter, Acknowledgement and Routing).

You can see on the ticket which workflows worked on it and what they did. See The workflow tab on the ticket. If no workflow replies, there is no proposal and the conversation is for a colleague.

4. The proposal

Which agent replies is determined by the workflow: the agent named in the Write the reply step. See Answering customer messages with workflows and AI agents.

Gathering information. Progress text: Gathering the most relevant information. aishaa prepares what belongs to this conversation and this customer:

• the conversation itself and, if the agent’s memory allows it, earlier conversations of the customer;
• colleagues’ notes about the customer;
• the organisation’s notices;
• the rules per topic and, if the agent’s memory allows it, the facts from What aishaa knows;
• the organisation information, the writing style and the customer profile;
• records from connected systems, see Records from connected systems on a ticket.

Writing. Progress text: Writing a suitable answer. The agent writes according to its General instructions and the extra instruction of the workflow step, if there is one. Whatever else it needs, it looks up itself, as often as necessary:

• in the knowledge documents the agent may use;
• in earlier replies from the team, if the agent’s memory allows it;
• in catalogues and with the tools of its skills, for example looking up an order (see Skills).

The agent then checks its own reply: is it supported, is anything missing, does it contain a decision a person has to make, and is a reply actually needed at all. A value that only a colleague knows is left open as a placeholder. A knowledge document that the agent used and that may be sent as an attachment is prepared as an attachment.

The result is a proposal in the ticket’s editor. If two workflows write a reply to the same message, there are two proposals; with the Proposal 1 of 2 bar and the Previous proposal and Next proposal buttons you switch between them. How you review, adjust and send a proposal is described in Replying to a ticket.

An open ticket with aishaa’s proposal in the editor and above it the Proposal 1 of 2 bar with the Previous proposal and Next proposal buttons.

After writing, aishaa also notes whether the customer asked something it could not resolve and updates its summary of the conversation. That has no effect on how quickly the proposal appears.

5. Trust: who sends

By default a colleague decides on every proposal: send it as it is, adjust and send it, or clear it with Clear AI answer.

If an Account admin has given the agent Let it send by itself on the topic of this message, because colleagues sent its proposals on that topic unchanged often enough, aishaa tries to send the reply by itself. That only happens if every guardrail allows it: the emergency stop is off, the conversation does not run via a marketplace, it is not one of the replies that goes past a colleague as a sample, there is no placeholder in it, the agent has no doubts and the independent safety check lets it through. Otherwise it stays a proposal. See Trust and letting an agent send by itself.

Coming back to a message later

If a colleague later asks aishaa something, or a planned moment arrives, aishaa does not start over. The agent that wrote the last reply continues with what it already knew about the message. The message is not read or understood again.

• Run analysis again in the top bar, optionally with Extra instructions (optional): the agent looks at its work again and writes a new version of its proposal.
• Handle anyway on a message that according to aishaa did not need a reply: the agent writes a proposal after all.
• A follow-up check that the agent planned itself, a snooze with Let aishaa pick this up when the snooze ends, or an expired deadline for a response from an external party: the agent picks the work up again.

When a new customer message comes in, the path starts again for that message. Proposals for earlier messages are then set aside, because the question has moved on.

A slower pace when nobody is waiting

If nobody is waiting for a reply, aishaa sometimes works at a slower pace. The progress notice then says so, for example Nobody was waiting, so aishaa took the slow lane. She is still on it. As soon as someone opens the ticket, processing continues at full speed.

If processing does not start

If automatic processing is switched off for a ticket, you see the No AI draft notice instead of a proposal, with the text Automatic ticket analysis is paused. and the reason. With Analyze anyway you start the processing after all. See Turn AI analyses on or off.

The No AI draft notice with the text Automatic ticket analysis is paused and the Analyze anyway button.

Good to know

• If a customer sends 10 messages without a colleague replying, aishaa pauses automatic processing for that ticket, until a colleague replies or clicks Analyze anyway.
• Automatic system emails (such as no-reply messages and notifications that an email could not be delivered) and extremely large messages are not processed.
• If the customer belongs to a customer group for which AI analysis is switched off, aishaa only makes the message readable. No understanding, no workflow on an understood message and no proposal follow. See Customer groups.
• If AI analysis is switched off for the organisation, none of the steps run. See Turn AI analyses on or off.
• Translating messages is not part of the processing. See Translation.
• The progress text can also show the general notice Working on: understanding the conversation, finding relevant information, and deciding whether a reply is needed. when no specific step is known yet.
• If aishaa does not make a proposal when you expect one, see aishaa does not make a proposal.

Related

• What are workflows
• Answering customer messages with workflows
• The workflow tab on the ticket
• AI agents
• Skills
• Trust and letting an agent send by itself
• Knowledge documents
• What aishaa knows
• Notices
• Organisation information
• Writing styles
• Taxonomy: support areas and query patterns
• No reply needed and silent conversations
• Turn AI analyses on or off
• Replying to a ticket
• Records from connected systems on a ticket
• Customer groups
• aishaa does not make a proposal