When your agent brings a chat to you
3 min readUpdated 9 Oct 2026
In short
Your agent hands a chat to your team when the customer asks for a person, is upset and needs help now, asks about a topic you’ve kept for yourself, or when it isn’t sure of the answer. The chat shows under “Needs you” in Conversations with a short summary — take it over, reply, then hand it back.
Where it isInteractionConversationsNeeds you
When your agent hands over
| When | What the customer is told |
|---|---|
| They ask for a person | “Of course! I’m handing this chat to a person on our team now. They’ll be with you shortly.” |
| They’re upset and it’s urgent | “I’m sorry you’re feeling frustrated. I’m handing this chat to a person on our team right away. 🙏” |
| Your agent doesn’t have what it needs — the answer isn’t in what you’ve taught it, or something it needs is switched off | “Let me check that with our team. A person will pick up this chat and reply here shortly. 😊” |
| It isn’t confident enough | “Let me pass this to a person on our team — they’ll reply here shortly!” |
| They want medical, legal or financial advice | “I want to make sure you get safe, accurate guidance, so I’m passing this chat to a person on our team to review.” |
| It’s about a topic you’ve paused | “Thanks for your message! A person on our team will pick this up and reply here shortly.” |
| A creator or brand wants to collaborate | The same message as asking for a person. |
Each message goes out in the customer’s own language. Scam and spam get no reply at all, because a reply only invites more; that chat is closed rather than handed to you.
What you get
- Your agent stops replying in that chat. In Conversations it shows as “AI paused — needs human judgment”.
- A short summary. A note at the end of the chat, Needs you · chat summarised, says what the customer wants, what your agent tried and why it handed over. Only your team sees it.
- It goes to the right person. The chat is assigned the way you chose under New chats go to in Settings & team › Routing: Round robin, Fewest open, or Nobody, until claimed. If the customer writes again while they wait, it stays with the same person.
- An alert, if you want one. In Settings & team › Notifications, When a chat needs a person can alert you on Slack or by email. You can also turn on Alert me in this browser when something new needs me, and Email a teammate when a chat is assigned to them.
Pick it up
- Open Conversations and click the Needs you filter. It shows chats waiting for a person that aren’t assigned to anyone else, plus the ones you’ve taken over, newest first.
- Open the chat and read the summary note.
- Click Take over, or just start typing — the box says “Type to pause AI and reply…”.
- Reply. If Draft replies for your team is on, click Draft reply for a suggestion you can edit before you send.
- When you’re done, click Hand back to AI and your agent takes the chat again.
WhatsAppWhatsApp
My Buds Pro stopped charging after 2 days. Really frustrating, I need this sorted today
Your agent
I’m sorry you’re feeling frustrated. I’m handing this chat to a person on our team right away. 🙏
Handed to you
You
Hi Rohit, sorry about this. Could you send a short video of the case plugged in? We’ll sort it out today.
sending now
If something’s not right
- There’s no Hand back to AI button. A teammate has the chat — only they can hand it back. Click Take over if you need to step in.
- “Could not pause AI. Your draft is saved; refresh the conversation before sending.” Refresh the conversation, then send.
- The reply box says “Take over this conversation to reply…”. Click Take over first.