Agent Capabilities
Understanding what your AI agent can and cannot do helps you optimize its effectiveness and set appropriate expectations for your customer communications.
Core Capabilities
1. Natural Language Understanding
Your agent can:
- Understand questions in natural language
- Interpret various phrasings of the same question
- Identify customer intent and sentiment
- Handle misspellings and informal language
Example: All of these are understood as return policy questions:
- "What's your return policy?"
- "Can I return something?"
- "How do I send something back?"
- "whats the deal with returns"
2. Document-Based Knowledge
Your agent can:
- Search across all uploaded documents
- Find relevant information quickly
- Synthesize information from multiple documents
- Quote specific policies and procedures
Powered by your documents, the agent provides:
- Accurate information based on your uploaded documents
- Consistent answers across interactions
- Verifiable responses based on your content
3. Contextual Responses
Your agent can:
- Remember conversation history within a thread
- Reference previous messages
- Build on earlier context
- Maintain coherent multi-turn conversations
4. Brand Consistency
Your agent can:
- Apply your configured tone of voice
- Follow your defined rules
- Maintain consistent personality
- Use appropriate formality level
5. Multilingual Support
Your agent can:
- Understand questions in multiple languages
- Respond in the language of the question
- Maintain tone across languages
What the Agent Does Well
Answering Common Questions
Excels at:
- FAQ-style questions
- Policy inquiries
- Product information
- Process explanations
Providing Information
Strong at:
- Quoting policies and procedures
- Explaining features and benefits
- Directing to resources
- Summarizing complex information
- Checking product availability (with Shopify connected)
Maintaining Consistency
Reliable for:
- Consistent brand voice
- Accurate policy information
- Professional communication
- Following defined rules
Limitations
Limited Real-Time Data Access
By default, your agent cannot access external systems. However, with integrations, some real-time data becomes available:
| Capability | Without Integration | With Integration | |------------|---------------------|------------------| | Check inventory levels | No | Yes (Shopify) | | Look up order status | No | Not yet available | | Access live pricing | No | Yes (Shopify) | | Query databases | No | Not yet available |
With Shopify connected, your agent can:
- Search your product catalog
- Check real-time inventory levels
- View current pricing and variants
- Report accurate stock status
Without integrations, include relevant information in documents or direct customers to self-service tools.
No Actions Outside Email
Your agent cannot:
- Process refunds
- Modify orders
- Update account information
- Make reservations
Workaround: Provide instructions for customers to take these actions themselves or direct them to support.
No External Website Access
Your agent cannot:
- Browse the web in real-time
- Check competitor websites
- Access URLs not imported as documents
- Verify external links
Workaround: Import relevant web content as documents.
No Learning Between Sessions
Your agent cannot:
- Remember information not in documents
- Learn from previous conversations
- Update its knowledge automatically
- Retain customer-specific information
Workaround: Keep documents updated with relevant information.
Capability Summary
| Capability | Can Do | Cannot Do | |------------|--------|-----------| | Understanding | Interpret natural language questions | Read images or attachments | | Knowledge | Search uploaded documents | Access arbitrary external systems | | Integrations | Query connected services (Shopify) | Modify external data | | Responses | Generate helpful, on-brand replies | Take actions (refunds, etc.) | | Context | Remember conversation history | Remember across sessions | | Languages | Respond in multiple languages | Translate documents |
Optimizing Agent Effectiveness
Maximize Strengths
Good document coverage:
- Cover all common questions
- Include specific details
- Keep content current
Clear configuration:
- Define tone precisely
- Set comprehensive rules
- Test thoroughly
Work Around Limitations
For order-specific questions:
Rule: "For order status questions, direct customers to
the order tracking page at [URL]"
For actions requiring human help:
Rule: "For refund requests over $100, offer to connect
with our support team"
For technical issues:
Rule: "For technical problems, collect error details
and suggest contacting support"
Response Quality Factors
| Factor | Impact on Quality | |--------|------------------| | Document relevance | High - agent can only use available information | | Document clarity | High - clearer docs = more accurate responses | | Question clarity | Medium - agent handles ambiguity reasonably | | Tone configuration | Medium - affects communication style | | Rule specificity | Medium - guides behavior in specific situations |
Continuous Improvement
Improve your agent over time:
- Monitor responses in the Activity feed
- Identify gaps where agent couldn't answer well
- Add documents to cover missing information
- Refine rules for better handling
- Test changes before relying on them
When to Use Human Support
Design your rules to escalate appropriately:
Always Escalate
- Safety concerns
- Legal issues
- Complex complaints
- High-value transactions
Consider Escalating
- Repeated questions in one thread
- Expressed frustration
- Requests for manager/human
- Edge cases not in documents
Agent Can Handle
- Common questions with document coverage
- Simple policy inquiries
- Information requests
- General guidance