Test your agent, then switch it on
3 min readUpdated 9 Oct 2026
In short
In AI Studio › Agents, open your agent and set “On its own?” to “Assist”, so every reply waits for you. Use “Try it” to see how it handles a message, approve its first real replies yourself, then switch to “Autopilot”.
Where it isAgentAI StudioAgents
1. Hold every reply for your OK
- Go to AI Studio › Agents. Each agent card shows Running, Paused or Needs setup.
- On a running agent, press Manage. Find On its own? and press Change →.
- Choose Assist — “You press send”. Every reply your agent writes now waits for you as a draft.
The other choices are Autopilot (“It presses send”) and Manual (“Nothing is sent” — every chat comes to your team). This setting applies to all your agents. You’ll also find it under Set up › Settings & team › AI controls.
2. Start the agent you want
Is the agent you want paused? Press Start on its card. You go through five short steps — What it handles, What it may use, On its own?, How it sounds and Go live — and the chat on the right shows what a customer would get. Payment links and discounts stay off until you switch them on in What it may use. On the last step, press Start with the agent’s name, for example Start Sales & Commerce.
3. Try a message
- On a running agent, press Manage, then Try it at the bottom.
- Type something a customer would send — like “where is my order?” — and pick Instagram or WhatsApp.
- Press Run test.
Your message goes through every check a real message does. You see the reply your agent would send, how confident it is, whether it would hand the chat to you (and why), and whether the reply would wait for your OK. Nothing reaches a customer.
4. Check its first real replies
Send your shop a message from another account — a personal Instagram, or a different phone on WhatsApp. While you’re on Assist, the reply waits in AI Studio › Overview › Needs you. The AI Studio item in the sidebar shows how many are waiting.
Open a held reply to read it. Edit the text if you like — your version is what goes out — then press Approve & send. Or press Dismiss without sending.
5. Let it reply on its own
When its drafts read the way you’d write them, go back to On its own? and choose Autopilot. Changes apply from the very next conversation.
Even on Autopilot, your agent always:
- quotes price, stock and delivery from your catalog — it never guesses,
- hands complaints, bulk requests and anything it isn’t sure of to your team,
- never gives money back — refunds are always yours to make.
To stop an agent at any time, press Manage on its card, then Pause. Its chats come to your team with the full conversation.