AI Agent Action: Assign to agent or team

This action assigns the right human agent, team, or even another AI Agent once the AI Agent has done its part. This is especially useful for escalating to a human when the AI Agent can’t resolve an issue, ensuring customers always get the right level of support.

You can also control how team members get assigned. There are two methods:

• Round Robin: Assigns conversations in rotation so workload is shared evenly.

• Least Open Conversation: Assigns to whoever currently has the fewest active conversations.

  Note: If no method is specified, AI Agent defaults to round robin.

- If the contact asked about their appointment schedule, assign to @Scheduling Team by round robin.

You can also assign to individual agents or even unassign a conversation by instructing, "Unassign the conversation".

When to use

• Use this action when the conversation needs to move beyond the AI Agent’s scope—for example, to a human agent for deeper support, to a specialized team (like Billing or Sales), or even to another AI Agent designed for a different task.

Best practices

• Use these terms in the actions instruction: “Assign to @User/Team Name” to trigger this action for a scenario. For example, “If {something happened}, assign to @User/Team Name”.

• Ensure your AI Agent asks relevant qualification questions to determine the right team.

• Clearly define conditions in your instructions (e.g., “Assign to Sales if customer mentions pricing or demo”).

Limitations

• AI Agents cannot see who is online. They have no visibility into agent availability or presence, so they cannot choose the “next available” or “currently active” user. Always specify the exact team or agent name if availability matters.

• AI Agents cannot schedule assignments for a future time. Instructions like “Assign to Sales at 5pm” will not work because the AI cannot delay an assignment. However, immediate assignment logic based on current conditions (e.g., “Assign to Sales if within business hours”) will work, as the AI evaluates the condition in real time and assigns immediately.

• AI Agents cannot run round robin across multiple teams. They can only distribute conversations within one specific team at a time.

• AI Agents do not choose the assignment method (round robin vs least open). However, round robin can only be applied within a team, not across individual users. This means agents must be part of a team for round robin to work. If you want to use least open or any other method, you must explicitly specify it in your instructions; otherwise, the AI will default to round robin at the team level.

• Explicitly instruct AI Agent to stop responding after assignment. To prevent AI Agent from replying again after handing the conversation to a human, include a clear instruction such as:

Do not respond to the Contact when assigning conversations to @Sales Team 

This helps avoid unexpected AI replies after handoff and ensures a clean transition of ownership to the human agent or team.