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Configure handoffs for email

You can enable your AI agent to hand off an email conversation to your support team, using the agent platform you already use.

Understand attachment handling​

By default, your AI Agent hands off all emails that have attachments to human agents. To ensure those attachments pass through to your live agents as part of handoff, you'll need to add an additional configuration in your handoff block.

We currently support passing email attachments on the following handoff blocks:

  • Zendesk Ticketing block
  • Salesforce Case block
  • Email block

Ada securely saves attachments upon receiving them, and deletes them automatically after 24 hours.

In the Conversations view, you can see if customers sent attachments by looking in the conversation metadata. If the email_has_attachments metavariable appears in the list, the customer's email inquiry contained attachments. If the variable doesn't appear, there weren't any attachments.

Accepted file types​

Your AI Agent can pass along files with the following extensions to agents:

  • .avif
  • .csv
  • .doc
  • .docx
  • .eml
  • .gif
  • .heic
  • .heif
  • .jpeg
  • .jpg
  • .keynote
  • .log
  • .m4a
  • .m4v
  • .mov
  • .mp3
  • .mp4
  • .mp4a
  • .mpeg
  • .mpg
  • .numbers
  • .pages
  • .pdf
  • .png
  • .ppt
  • .pptx
  • .svg
  • .txt
  • .wav
  • .xls
  • .xlsx
  • .zip

File size restrictions​

AI Agents can send up to 30 MB in files with a handoff. Different email clients and receiving agent platforms have their own limitations on file sizes (e.g., Gmail has a limit of 25 MB), so if a customer tries to send a large attachment, it might not get delivered to your AI Agent or passed on to your agent platform.

Restricted file handling​

If your AI Agent restricts a file from being passed through to your agent platform, either due to its size or an unsupported file extension, it adds a comment to the ticket explaining which file(s) it restricted, and why.

Create a handoff​

To create a new handoff specific to email, follow the instructions in Manage how your AI Agent hands customers off to live agents. Under Set availability in your handoff flow, you can set a rule to make the handoff only available for email conversations.

You can create email handoffs using any of the following blocks:

  • Zendesk Ticketing block
  • Salesforce Case block
  • Email block

Zendesk Ticketing​

  1. If you haven't already, configure Zendesk Ticketing in your AI Agent.

  2. In your handoff flow, in the block drawer on the right side of your screen, under Action Apps, click and drag the Fetch Chat Metadata block into your handoff. With the Fetch Chat Metadata block, you can save the chat transcript as a variable, so you can pass it along to the live agent.

    1. Under Select Variables for Inputs, beside Chatter Token, click inside the field and add the red chatter_token metavariable.

    2. Under Save Response as Variables, click the Select Optional Variables drop-down menu, then select any optional variables you’d like to capture:

      • Chat Transcript: Select this option to save the conversation transcript to a variable.
      • Chatter Info: Select this option to save the customer’s metadata to a variable. This is the same information available about the customer’s meta variables when you’re viewing a chat transcript.

    3. For each optional variable you selected, click the Choose a Variable drop-down menu, then select an existing variable, or create a new one, to capture the information.

    4. Under Fallback Answer, you can click to edit the AI Agent's response if an error occurs.

  3. In the block drawer, under Action Apps, click and drag the Zendesk Ticketing block into your handoff, below the Fetch Chat Metadata block.

    1. Follow the instructions in Use the Zendesk Ticketing app block, ensuring that you add any fields and variables you want to include in your tickets.
    2. Add the File Data Token field, and in that field, add the email_attachments variable to ensure that your AI Agent can pass any attachments to Zendesk.
    3. Turn on the Count as Handoff toggle to ensure your reporting is accurate.

  4. Add any other custom messaging you want customers to receive during your handoff, and click Save. At the top of your screen, ensure your handoff toggle is set to Active so your AI Agent can start handing customers off as needed.

Salesforce Case​

  1. If you haven't already, configure Salesforce actions in your AI Agent.

  2. In your handoff flow, in the block drawer on the right side of your screen, under Action Apps, click and drag the Fetch Chat Metadata block into your handoff. With the Fetch Chat Metadata block, you can save the chat transcript as a variable, so you can pass it along to the live agent.

    1. Under Select Variables for Inputs, beside Chatter Token, click inside the field and add the red chatter_token metavariable.

    2. Under Save Response as Variables, click the Select Optional Variables drop-down menu, then select any optional variables you’d like to capture:

      • Chat Transcript: Select this option to save the conversation transcript to a variable.
      • Chatter Info: Select this option to save the customer’s metadata to a variable. This is the same information available about the customer’s meta variables when you’re viewing a chat transcript.

    3. For each optional variable you selected, click the Choose a Variable drop-down menu, then select an existing variable, or create a new one, to capture the information.

    4. Under Fallback Answer, you can click to edit the AI Agent's response if an error occurs.

  3. In the block drawer, under Action Apps, click and drag the Salesforce block into your handoff, below the Fetch Chat Metadata block.

    1. In the Select Action list, click Create Case.
    2. Beside Case Reason, add your transcript variable.
    3. Beside Name and Email Address, add the variables that contain that information.
    4. Add the File Data Token field, and in that field, add the email_attachments variable to ensure that your AI Agent can pass any attachments to Salesforce.
    5. Add any additional fields and variables you want to include in your cases.
    6. Turn on the Count as Handoff toggle to ensure your reporting is accurate.

  4. Add any other custom messaging you want customers to receive during your handoff, and click Save. At the top of your screen, ensure your handoff toggle is set to Active so your AI Agent can start handing customers off as needed.

Email system​

  1. In your handoff flow, in the block drawer on the right side of your screen, under Action Apps, click and drag the Fetch Chat Metadata block into your handoff. With the Fetch Chat Metadata block, you can save the chat transcript as a variable, so you can pass it along to the live agent.

    1. Under Select Variables for Inputs, beside Chatter Token, click inside the field and add the red chatter_token metavariable.

    2. Under Save Response as Variables, click the Select Optional Variables drop-down menu, then select any optional variables you’d like to capture:

      • Chat Transcript: Select this option to save the conversation transcript to a variable.
      • Chatter Info: Select this option to save the customer’s metadata to a variable. This is the same information available about the customer’s meta variables when you’re viewing a chat transcript.

    3. For each optional variable you selected, click the Choose a Variable drop-down menu, then select an existing variable, or create a new one, to capture the information.

    4. Under Fallback Answer, you can click to edit the AI Agent's response if an error occurs.

  2. In the block drawer, under Action Apps, click and drag the Email block into your handoff, below the Fetch Chat Metadata block.

    1. In the Select Variables for Inputs section, complete the mandatory variable fields:

      • Recipient Email(s): Add the primary recipient email address. You can add the email variable, or manually enter the recipient’s email address. Separate multiple email addresses with a comma.
      • Reply-To Email: Enter the Reply-to email address you wish to assign to receive replies to your email.
      • Email Subject: Enter the email subject.
      • Email Content: Enter the body text of the email, including the email_transcript variable.

    2. Click the Select Optional Inputs drop-down menu, then select any optional variable fields you’d like to add:

      • File Data Token: Add the email_attachments variable to pass it on to the agent.
      • BCC Email(s): Add blind carbon copy recipient email addresses. BCC addresses are not visible to other recipients.
      • CC Email(s): Add secondary recipient email addresses. These addresses are visible to other recipients.

      • Content Type: Enter the MIME type you want to use in your email:

        • If you just want to enter plain text, or if you’re not sure what to use, enter text/plain.
        • If you want to use HTML tags, enter text/html.
      • Reply-To Name: Enter the name of the Reply-to recipient.
      • Sender Name: Enter the name of the email sender. This appears in the From field.

    3. Under Fallback Answer, you can click to edit the AI Agent's response if an error occurs.

    4. Turn on the Count as Handoff toggle to ensure your reporting is accurate.
  3. Add any other custom messaging you want customers to receive during your handoff, and click Save. At the top of your screen, ensure your handoff toggle is set to Active so your AI Agent can start handing customers off as needed.

Have any questions? Contact your Ada team, or email us at .