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With the AI Chatbot, you have full control over how and when conversations are handed off to a human agent. Using the Builder, you can design a flow that determines the exact conditions for triggering a handoff. The two key components are:
  • Human Handoff block — An action block that transfers the conversation to a human agent when reached in the flow.
  • Intent trigger — Detects when a user’s message matches a specific intent (e.g. requesting human support) and routes the conversation to the handoff block.
This guide is for setting up handoff for a Chatbot. For AI Agent, see Set up handoff for AI Agent.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Builder, refer to the Builder introduction first. For intents, see Introduction to Intents.

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Set up automatic handoff

This guide walks you through setting up an automatic handoff that triggers when the AI detects the user wants to speak with a human agent.

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Step 1: Create a handoff intent

First, create an intent that defines when the conversation should be handed off.
  1. Go to your chatbot’s dashboard and open the Builder page from the sidebar.
Accessing the Builder page
  1. Click on the Intents button in the top left.
Accessing the Intents page
  1. Click the Templates button in the top right.
  2. Select the Human agent / Live support template. This creates a pre-configured intent with common phrases like “live agent” and “speak with human”.
You can customize the intent’s description and phrases to match your use case. For more details on managing intents, see Manage Intents. Configure Human agent / Live support intent template
  1. Click the Create intent button.
The template includes common handoff phrases, but you should add any phrases specific to your business or industry to improve detection accuracy.

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Step 2: Add an Intent trigger block

Next, add an Intent trigger block to the canvas so the chatbot knows what to do when the handoff intent is detected.
  1. Open Blocks from the sidebar.
  2. Under the Triggers section, drag and drop the Intent block onto the canvas.
Add Intent trigger block
  1. Click on the intent block to open its editor.
  2. Select the Human agent / Live support intent from the dropdown.
Configure Intent trigger block

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Step 3: Add a Human Handoff block

Now add the block that will actually transfer the conversation to a human agent.
  1. Open Blocks from the sidebar.
  2. Under the Actions section, drag and drop the Human Handoff block onto the canvas.
Add Human Handoff block
  1. Click the block to open its editor and configure the following settings:
  • Auto-assign priority: Automatically assign a priority level to the conversation.
  • Handoff confirmation message: Automatically generate and display a confirmation message to the user when the handoff is initiated.

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Step 4: Connect the blocks

Connect the Intent trigger to the Human Handoff block so the handoff is executed when the intent is detected.
  1. Drag a connection from the Intent trigger block to the Human Handoff block.
Connect Intent trigger to Human Handoff block

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Step 5: Enable intent matching on input blocks

Finally, tell the chatbot to check for the handoff intent when users send messages.
  1. Open the input block where users enter their queries (e.g. a Capture Text block).
Open Capture Text block
  1. Under the Match intent section, click the + icon.
  2. Select the Human agent / Live support intent.
Select human handoff intent Now, whenever a user sends a message through that input block, the chatbot will check if it matches the handoff intent. If it does, the Intent trigger fires and the Human Handoff block is executed, transferring the conversation to your team.
If no intent matches, the chatbot continues with its normal flow.

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Complete flow

Your finished flow should look something like this: Complete flow showing Intent trigger → Human Handoff block

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Alternative: Manual placement

You don’t have to use intents for handoff. You can place the Human Handoff block anywhere in your chatbot flow and connect it directly to other blocks. For example, you could:
  • Connect it after a Buttons block where one option is “Talk to a human”.
  • Place it at the end of a troubleshooting flow as a fallback when the chatbot can’t resolve the issue.
  • Trigger it from a Condition block based on a variable value.
This gives you full flexibility to design the exact handoff experience you want.

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What happens after handoff

Once the handoff is triggered:
  1. The conversation is flagged as Needs agent intervention in the Conversations page.
Indicator in the conversation thread that the conversation needs agent intervention
  1. An AI summary of the conversation is generated for the agent.
AI summary for the agent after handoff
  1. If notifications are enabled, your team will be notified.
  2. A team member can then pick up the conversation and reply directly.

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Next steps

Availability

Set office hours and reply time for your team.

Notifications

Configure notifications for your team.

Managing Conversations

Learn how to manage handed-off conversations.