Sign in

Answer a customer automatically in auto reply mode

An inbound customer message on a channel where Auto Reply is active is answered by the AI Assistant without operator involvement — the AI becomes the conversation's responsible party — or the customer receives the fallback message and the conversation transfers to an operator.

When this happens: A customer message is appended to a conversation by the inbound pipeline (FR-15/FR-25).

How it works

  • EasyCRM sends What's your return policy for opened items? on WhatsApp.
  • The inbound pipeline (FR-25) appends the Message and evaluates the Auto Reply gate: company enabled, mode = Auto Reply, channel enabled, responsible party is Ai or Unassigned, and (if OutOfHoursBehavior routes to AI, FR-14) within or outside working hours as configured. All conditions pass.
  • If the conversation was Unassigned, sets Ai; the unassigned alert does not fire (ADR-011).
  • Assembles the request context.
  • Calls IAiCompletionClient.CompleteAsync with a bounded timeout (default 15 s, configurable).
  • The provider returns a reply grounded in the *Return & Warranty Policy* source.
  • EasyCRM checks: groundedness — passed; forbidden topics — none matched; handover rules — none matched.
  • EasyCRM detects the reply's language matches the inbound message's language.
  • EasyCRM sends the reply through the standard outbound pipeline (FR-25) with Ai; the disclosure text is always prepended.
  • EasyCRM records AiInteractionLog (AutoReply, latency, ).

Other paths

A human is already responsible

If User. The gate fails; the message is appended normally and the human sees it — no AI action.

Outside configured hours

If the company's OutOfHoursBehavior (FR-14) for this channel type does not route to AI. The gate fails; standard out-of-hours handling applies instead.

If something goes wrong

Not grounded — see uc-28.22

If the reply is not grounded and . Continues at UC-28.22.

Forbidden topic or handover rule matched — see uc-28.23

If a forbidden topic or handover rule matches. Continues at UC-28.23.

Provider timeout, error or empty result — see uc-28.26

At step 5 or 6, the call times out, errors, or returns an empty result. Continues at UC-28.26. Never silent.

Good to know

  • In Auto Reply mode the AI is the conversation's responsible party, not unassigned and not charged to a human (ADR-011; BRD §3.9).
  • The gate — company, mode, channel, responsible party, hours — is re-evaluated on every inbound message, not cached from the first message of the conversation.
  • Provider calls run under a configurable timeout; a timeout is treated exactly like a provider error. (FR-28-012, ADR-011 risk R-10)