Skip to navigation
Other

Images

Overview

Your AI Agent can read images that end users send and use them to resolve inquiries. A vision model produces a text description of each image, and the Agent reasons over that description. The Agent never receives the image itself.

Supported formats and channels

The AI Agent reads images on Email and Messaging. See Messaging conversation guidance for image and handoff-upload behavior.

  • Formats: PNG, JPEG, GIF, HEIC, and HEIF on both channels. WebP is read on the Messaging SDK only. Other file types, such as AVIF, SVG, PDFs, documents, and video, are not read.

  • HEIC and HEIF: the Agent converts each HEIC or HEIF image it reads to JPEG. The JPEG is stored and is passed to human agents on handoff. Images wider or taller than 4096 pixels are scaled down during conversion. Images over 50 megapixels are not read. An image the Agent does not read keeps its original format, for example the fourth image in an email.

  • Size: on the Messaging SDK, each image can be up to 50 MB. On Email, the whole message, including every attachment, can be up to 30 MB.

  • Messaging SDK: the AI Agent reads each image an end user uploads. Ask your Ada team to enable image uploads for your AI Agent. After that, the Enable image uploads to your AI Agent toggle controls them. The Agent does not read images from legacy Chat. To stop end users from uploading images:

    1. Go to Config > CHANNELS > Messaging.
    2. On the Appearance tab, open the General drawer.
    3. Turn off Enable image uploads to your AI Agent.
    4. Click Save changes.

    On the legacy Ada Web Chat, the toggle is locked because image uploads are not available there. Contact your Ada team to move your AI Agent to the Messaging SDK. This toggle does not change file uploads to human agents.

  • Email: the Agent reads up to 3 images per email. The inbox’s attachment handling setting decides whether it reads them:

    • Hand off to a human (default): every email with an attachment is handed off. No image is read.
    • AI Agent replies without the attachment: attachments are discarded. No image is read.
    • AI Agent replies using the attachment: images are read, and every accepted attachment is kept for a later handoff.

    AVIF and SVG attachments are never read. They count as non-image attachments.

What the Agent reads

The AI Agent receives a description of each image. It includes all visible text: order numbers, error messages, codes, dates, and amounts. It also includes the visible content: products, damage, packaging, and the screen shown in a screenshot. Text inside an image is treated as end-user input, never as instructions.

Sensitive images

An image is withheld when the AI Agent detects any of the following anywhere in it. The Agent learns only the document type, not its contents, and the filename is dropped.

  • A payment card with any part of the card number visible
  • A government identity document: passport, driver’s license, national or state ID, residence permit
  • Another credential, such as a Social Security card or a bank statement showing full account numbers

Detection is automatic and best-effort. A card number that detection misses is still masked by the built-in payment card redaction before the Agent sees the description. Any other text that gets through is handled like typed text, including your Redaction settings.

The Agent tells the end user the image could not be processed because it appears to contain sensitive information. It does not ask them to resend it. For a payment card, the Agent may ask for the last 4 digits as text. For an identity document or other credential, the Agent offers a human agent instead of asking for the number. In the dashboard, a withheld image appears as [Image withheld: sensitive content]. The Agent does not read a withheld image. On Email, the withheld image still goes to the human agent on handoff, like any other accepted attachment.

Redactions

Redaction settings apply to image descriptions the same way they apply to typed messages.

Retention

Images are deleted 7 days after upload, consistent with other attachments. The text description remains part of the conversation transcript.

Unreadable images

If an image cannot be read, the AI Agent tells the end user and asks them to describe it or send it again.

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