The AI Agent is WAX's conversational artificial intelligence, connected to your Inbox. Once activated, it replies to your customers on your behalf on WhatsApp: it draws on your Shopify store (if integrated) and on the knowledge base you provide it, and only hands the conversation over to your team when it can't handle it on its own.
In practice, this changes the underlying logic of the Inbox: it's no longer about "closing a conversation," but about knowing who is in control at any given moment, by default, the AI, and your team only when necessary.
👉 To activate and configure it (tone, instructions, knowledge base), see the guide "Configuring the AI Agent".
What the AI does automatically
It connects to Shopify to retrieve useful information in real time (products, stock, order status).
It relies on the Knowledge Base you've configured (FAQ, product sheets, PDFs) in addition to Shopify.
It can recommend products, manage an existing cart (adding/removing items), and send text messages, product carousels, or catalog CTA messages.
It replies in the customer's language and can transcribe and respond to voice messages.
It replies even if the customer has just received an automation or a campaign (unless you've set up flow interruption in Automation > Settings > Customer Intervention).
When and how the conversation escalates to a human
A conversation is automatically escalated to your team when the AI detects a situation it can't handle on its own (ambiguous request, sensitive topic, out-of-scope action). It then appears in:
the Action needed tab of the WAX Inbox;
by email, only if you've enabled this notification in the AI Agent settings (Send email notifications for escalations option, in Escalation Behavior) by default, this notification is not sent;
and your connected third-party tools (Zendesk, Crisp, Gorgias), if integrated.
How to hand control back to the AI
Once a request has been handled by a team member, three options let you hand control back to the AI Agent:
Manually, by clicking the "Let AI agent take over" button directly in the conversation on WAX.
Automatically, by closing the conversation from your customer support tool.
After a set delay, by configuring an automatic AI return after 1, 3, or 7 days, in the AI Agent settings (Escalation Behavior).
👉 This is the same setting that lets you define how long your support team keeps full control over a ticket before the AI takes it back: shorten the delay if your team resolves requests quickly, lengthen it if your tickets take more time to resolve.
👉 This means that even after a manual takeover, the AI resumes control automatically once the delay has passed, with no further action needed.