Answers · one question, one page
What happens when the AI agent does not know the answer?
It says so and hands over. The agent tells the customer that a person will reply and when, passes the whole conversation and a suggested next step to that person, and logs the question as a gap. It does not guess, and it never answers about money or health on its own.
The gap is then fixed at the source: the missing fact is added to the data the agent reads, so the next customer gets an answer. This is how we run our own agent and how we build for clients.
See how handover rules are built on the AI agents page →Handover rules
Every agent we build has a written list of what it may answer and what goes to a person. The list is short and specific: prices from the price list, hours, delivery, preparation, directions may be answered; anything about money owed, health, a complaint, a legal question or a customer who is upset goes to a person without a draft.
A second rule covers confidence. If the answer is not in the data the agent reads, it does not compose one from general knowledge. It says it will check and hands over. The rule is tested before launch with questions the data cannot answer.
- A written list of what may be answered and what may not
- No answer composed from general knowledge
- Money, health, complaints and legal questions always to a person
- A test with questions the data cannot answer, before launch
What the customer sees
A short, honest message: that this is an assistant, that the question needs a person, and when to expect a reply. Not “I do not understand”, and not a made-up answer. The customer keeps their place in the conversation; when the person replies, it is in the same thread.
The agent always says it is an assistant, at the start of the conversation and when it hands over. That is a rule of ours and, for businesses in the EU, a transparency duty; we cover it on the trust page.
What the person gets
The whole conversation, the customer’s details as far as they are known, the question the agent could not answer, and a suggested next step drafted from what the data does say. The person answers in a minute instead of reading from the beginning.
Handovers arrive where the team already works: the inbox, the chat, the CRM. Nothing waits in a separate dashboard nobody opens.
How the gap is fixed
Every handover is logged with the question. Once a week, or once a month for a quiet business, the list of unanswered questions is reviewed and the missing facts are added to the data: a price that was not on the list, a delivery zone, a rule about deposits. The next customer gets an answer from the agent.
What is not done: teaching the agent to guess. If a question needs judgement every time, it stays a handover on purpose.
How we run it for ourselves
Our own assistant drafts replies to enquiries on this site. Its data is our prices, our process and our projects. When someone asks something outside that, for example about a platform we do not work with, it hands over, and the question goes on the list. No client agent is deployed yet; this is the one we test rules on.
When this answer does not work
When these rules are not enough
Handover rules assume there is a person to hand over to. If nobody reads the inbox, an agent that hands over produces a polite silence. They also assume the data is maintained: an agent reading last year’s price list answers confidently and wrongly, and no handover rule catches that. Both are process problems, and we ask about them before we build.
Questions
Related questions
Will the AI agent make up an answer if it is not sure?
No. It answers only from the data it was given; if the answer is not there, it says a person will reply and hands over with the context. This is tested before launch with questions the data cannot answer.
Does the customer know they are talking to an AI agent?
Yes, at the start and at the handover. It is a rule of ours and, in the EU, a transparency duty.
How quickly does a person reply after a handover?
That depends on your team, not on the agent. The handover arrives where the team already works, with the whole thread and a drafted next step, so the reply takes a minute of reading instead of ten.
Ask us the question you think an agent would get wrong.
We reply with how the handover would work for your business.