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Tools

Escalate to human

Hand the conversation to a real person when the AI is unsure or when a visitor explicitly asks for one.

The escalate-to-human tool is the safety net that makes a Gabbex assistant trustworthy. The AI is great at the routine 80% — but for the remaining 20%, you want a real person involved. This tool makes the handoff smooth, fast, and impossible to miss.

When the tool is called

Escalation triggers under three conditions:

  1. Low confidence. The assistant cannot find a strong answer in your indexed content and would otherwise have to guess.
  2. Out-of-scope topic. The visitor is asking about something the assistant is not configured to handle — billing disputes, custom orders, partnership inquiries.
  3. Explicit request. The visitor says “can I talk to a real person” or anything equivalent.

You control how strict each trigger is from the tool’s settings.

What the tool does when triggered

When escalation fires, the assistant:

  1. Pauses generic answering. It does not invent a guess.
  2. Tells the visitor a human is being notified.
  3. Collects contact details. The visitor’s name and email (or phone) are captured so your team can follow up.
  4. Notifies your team. An email is sent to the operators on the assistant, and the notification bell in the dashboard lights up.
  5. Logs the escalation. It appears in the Conversations tab marked as escalated and stays open until you mark it resolved.

The visitor is never left wondering whether anyone heard them.

Enabling escalation

  1. Open your assistant and go to Tools → Escalate to human.
  2. Toggle it on.
  3. Add the email addresses that should be notified when an escalation fires. By default, these are the workspace owner and admins.
  4. Choose which triggers should be active — low confidence, out-of-scope, explicit request, or all three.
  5. Save.

Configuring the triggers

Each trigger has its own sensitivity:

  • Low confidence threshold. Higher sensitivity escalates more often when the assistant is unsure. Lower sensitivity only escalates when the assistant has nothing reasonable to say.
  • Out-of-scope topics. Add the topics you do not want the assistant to handle even if it could. Common examples: refunds, legal questions, partnership inquiries, anything with a contract attached.
  • Explicit request. This trigger should almost always stay on. If a visitor asks for a person, give them one.

Notification channels

By default you receive escalations via:

  • Email to the addresses on the tool.
  • In-app notification — the bell icon at the top of the dashboard.

You can disable email notifications per assistant if you only want in-app alerts.

Resolving an escalation

  1. Click the notification bell (or open Conversations).
  2. Open the escalated conversation.
  3. Read the transcript. The assistant has already collected the visitor’s contact details.
  4. Reach out to the visitor by email or your usual support channel.
  5. Mark the conversation as resolved.

The dashboard shows open escalations until they are marked resolved, so nothing slips through.

Testing escalation

Open the Chat tab and ask a question you know the assistant cannot answer — for example, something completely unrelated to your business. Or simply type “can I speak to a real person”. The escalation should fire, the assistant should ask for your contact details, and a notification should appear in the dashboard.

Common issues

  • “It escalates too often.” Lower the low-confidence threshold and trim the out-of-scope topic list.
  • “It does not escalate when I expect.” Make sure the tool is enabled. Check that the relevant trigger is on. Add more out-of-scope topics if needed.
  • “I am not getting emails.” Check the operator email list on the tool. Check spam. Verify the assistant has email notifications enabled in General.

Next steps