RIO in Live Chat

RIO helps answer customer questions using your application’s published content. You decide whether AI answers visitors directly or prepares suggestions for your team. Configure it under Settings → Live chat → AI assistant after completing Live Chat setup.

Choose how the assistant replies

Enable Answer with AI in Live chat, then choose the reply mode and save.

Mode	Customer experience	Team responsibility
Direct replies	The assistant can answer visitors in the conversation.	Maintain the knowledge sources and review conversations that need attention.
Suggested replies	AI prepares a response for staff to review.	Review, edit and explicitly send the customer reply.

A suggested reply is a draft, not a sent message. Check its accuracy, tone, and cited sources before sending. Changing the mode affects what the assistant is available to do; a Conversation Flow step that asks AI for a direct answer needs direct-answer availability and a usable fallback.

Choose the knowledge it can use

Review What it answers from and the source controls offered by your current application. The assistant uses published content; drafts, private items and internal team notes are excluded from its published knowledge sources.

Keep troubleshooting articles specific: describe the symptom, the exact action to take, and what the customer should see afterward. Publish policy changes before expecting the assistant to explain them. A flow’s Help article step also needs an article that is currently published.

AI answers can include sources. Open them when reviewing an answer and verify that they support the claim. An enabled assistant does not guarantee that it has enough information to answer every question.

Decide whether visitors can contact the team

In direct mode, Allow visitors to contact the team controls whether visitors are offered a team route. With it enabled, visitors can choose AI or your support team; choosing AI keeps the conversation with AI until they ask to switch. The team still needs working conversation routing.

With it disabled, the widget offers AI support only, including when AI cannot answer. Your team can still review conversations in the dashboard. Do not tell customers that an unanswered question will automatically reach a person when this setting is off. Configure an honest alternative support channel where needed.

Review the available person-topic settings as well, and choose topics that fit your support policy. Avoid promises about response times or escalation that your actual team process cannot meet.

Add RIO to a Conversation Flow

Use AI assistant answers for a deliberate AI step. It can answer what the visitor just chose or typed, or prompt for a new question. When reusing the previous answer, link from an option, Collect text, or the appropriate Condition path; an intervening message can remove the usable input for that AI step.

Always configure the fallback. For example: collect a description, check whether AI answers directly, then ask AI; otherwise hand to the team. Give the team step its own fallback for situations where team handoff is unavailable. See the full Conversation Flows guide.

Test before offering AI to customers

1. Publish a helpful source article and enable the intended reply mode.
2. Ask a question that the article answers; review the answer and source.
3. Ask a question outside the published knowledge. Check that the response does not invent a policy or promise.
4. Test an explicit request to contact the team with handoff enabled.
5. Test the experience with handoff disabled and verify the wording remains accurate.
6. If using a flow, test its AI and team fallback branches in preview and then from the actual widget.

The editor preview simulates branches. It does not prove provider availability, answer quality, or successful delivery in a real customer conversation.

Troubleshooting

• AI does not answer directly: check enabled state, reply mode, plan, service availability and RIO’s AI budget.
• The answer lacks needed information: publish or improve the relevant knowledge source and verify it is eligible for the assistant.
• A flow takes the fallback: review direct-answer availability and whether the step receives a usable chosen option or visitor question.
• Visitors cannot contact a person: check the handoff setting, application conversations, and the available default team.
• Staff see a draft but customers see nothing: in suggested mode, a teammate must review and send the reply.

Continue with working live conversations to manage the thread after an AI or team handoff.