Escalations & Human Handoff

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How Escalations Work

1. Ticket created — An escalation ticket is logged in your dashboard
2. Team notified — Configured notification channels are triggered (email, Slack, webhook)
3. Customer informed — The user sees a confirmation message
4. Agent paused — AI responses are held until a human responds or the escalation is resolved

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Escalation Triggers

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User-Initiated Escalation

• Clicking the escalation button (if enabled in widget settings)
• Typing phrases like “talk to a human” or “speak to support”
• Submitting a form that triggers escalation

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AI-Initiated Escalation

• Low confidence — Response confidence falls below your threshold
• Tool failure — A critical tool fails repeatedly
• Specific topics — Keywords or intents trigger escalation (configured in system prompt)

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Programmatic Escalation

curl -X POST "https://api.ansa.so/conversations/{conversationId}/escalate" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ANSA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "reason": "VIP customer flagged for priority support"
  }'

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Configuring Escalation Settings

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Auto-Escalation on Low Confidence

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SLA Configuration

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Notification Channels

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Email Notifications

• Recipients — Email addresses to notify
• Include Transcript — Attach conversation history
• Frequency — Immediate or batched (hourly digest)

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Slack Notifications

1. Connect your Slack workspace in Integrations → Slack
2. Select the channel for escalation alerts
3. Configure message format and mentions

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Webhook Notifications

{
  "type": "escalation.created",
  "data": {
    "escalationId": "esc_abc123",
    "conversationId": "conv_xyz789",
    "reason": "low_confidence",
    "confidence": 35,
    "priority": "medium",
    "customerEmail": "jane@example.com",
    "transcript": [
      { "role": "user", "content": "..." },
      { "role": "assistant", "content": "..." }
    ]
  }
}

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Widget Settings

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Escalation Button

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Escalation Button Label

• Default: “Talk to a human”
• Examples: “Contact Support”, “Get Help”, “Speak to Agent”

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Confirmation Message

Your request has been escalated to our support team.
We typically respond within 2 hours during business hours.

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Managing Escalations

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Escalation Dashboard

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Responding to Escalations

1. Click an escalation to view the full conversation
2. Review the AI’s responses and confidence scores
3. Type your response in the reply box
4. Click Send — the customer receives your message in the widget

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Resolving Escalations

1. Click Resolve on the escalation
2. Optionally add a resolution note
3. The AI resumes handling the conversation

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Re-enabling AI

• Toggle Keep AI Paused before resolving
• Manually re-enable via the conversation menu

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Best Practices

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Tune Confidence Thresholds

1. Start with a 50% threshold
2. Review escalated conversations weekly
3. Adjust based on false positive rate

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Set Realistic SLAs

• Consider your team’s capacity
• Account for timezone coverage
• Build in buffer for complex issues

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Train Your AI

• Adding common questions to your knowledge base
• Improving system prompt for edge cases
• Creating tools for frequent actions

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Monitor Escalation Metrics

• Escalation Rate — % of conversations escalated
• Resolution Time — Average time to resolve
• SLA Compliance — % meeting response targets
• Top Reasons — Why escalations happen

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API Reference

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Create Escalation

POST /conversations/{conversationId}/escalate

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Update Escalation

PATCH /escalations/{escalationId}

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List Escalations

GET /escalations?agentId={agentId}&status=open

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Next Steps