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# Playbooks Upgrade

Playbooks now give you more control over how your AI Agent handles every part of a conversation — with faster execution and more predictable outcomes.

## What's changing

Playbooks are now built around a structured step-based model that lets you define exactly how your Agent executes each phase of a conversation. The legacy freeform authoring format is now called [Playbooks (Classic)](/docs/automation/playbooks/playbooks-classic).

## More control over each step

Every Playbook is built from six discrete step types, each performing a single, well-defined operation:

* **SEND**: Send a message to the end user (Fixed message or Contextual AI-generated).
* **SET**: Assign a variable value silently (Exact value or Use reasoning mode). Never prompts the end user.
* **ASK**: Ask the end user for a value (Capture exact response or Map using reasoning mode).
* **RUN**: Execute an Action, Handoff, linked Playbook, or Exit.
* **IF/ELSE**: Branch the flow based on conditions, with support for nested AND/OR condition groups.
* **GO TO**: Jump to a specific step to enable loops, retries, and non-linear flows.

For each step, you choose the mode — fixed or AI-driven — so you decide where the Agent follows your instructions exactly and where it reasons on its own.

## Built-in flow intelligence

Playbooks now monitor conversations during execution and intervene automatically:

* **Intent change detection**: Exits the Playbook and reroutes when the end user's intent shifts.
* **Pause and resume for Knowledge search**: Pauses execution to perform a Knowledge search, then resumes where it left off.
* **Automatic escalation**: Escalates to a human agent or exits the Playbook based on end user input, even without an explicit Handoff or Exit step at that point in the flow.

## Action error handling

When an Action returns a 4xx or 5xx HTTP status code, save the status code to a variable and branch on it with `IF/ELSE` to build custom fallback behavior.

## Multi-channel support

Playbooks are supported on [Messaging](/docs/channels/chat), [Email](/docs/channels/email), and [Voice](/docs/channels/voice) channels.

Learn more in the [Playbooks documentation](/docs/automation/playbooks).