Table of contents
- AI Answer assistant feature overview (separate article)
- Answer assistant's functions overview
- Formality of generated messages
- Improver actions
The Answer assistant feature is an AI-powered tool built into the reply editor. It helps agents to generate professional responses to customer queries & refine answer drafts based on provided instructions, supporting a wide range of AI LLM models. This article covers the vast options of the feature's functions in detail.
In order to use the Answer assistant feature, it is required to connect your LiveAgent account with FlowHunt or OpenAI account, and set the feature up.
When integrated via FlowHunt, the AI session is maintained across all modifications of the draft until the Answer assistant window is closed. OpenAI integration does not maintain the session but starts a new one on every draft generation.
FlowHunt, our no-code AI automation platform, is a product of our company, Quality Unit, like LiveAgent. By utilizing our AI features with FlowHunt, we ensure data safety and offer priority support. For customers with active LiveAgent & FlowHunt subscriptions, our support team offers a full initial setup. If you're interested in our free setup service, feel free to contact us at support@liveagent.com.
Answer assistant's functions overview
To generate/refine a draft message using AI, click on the "Answer assistant" button in the ticket reply editor when either creating a new ticket or replying to an existing one.
If you are creating a new ticket, or you wrote a draft answer upfront and selected it, the feature's window enters modification mode right away. This enables you to generate or refine a response by setting the formality level, and either applying one of the three predefined actions (improve, extend, simplify), or entering your custom instructions.
The Answer assistant's Improver function can be used in multiple ways, you can:
- write your draft message in the ticket reply editor, highlight your draft, and use the feature to apply either pre-set actions or custom instructions on the draft,
- write your draft message and the instructions by which it should be modified directly in the Answer assistant window,
- or enter only notes or instructions based on which the AI should generate the message.
Writing a draft message is optional. Without any draft in the reply editor/Answer assistant's window, you can still enter custom instructions by which a fresh new message will be generated. The pre-set actions (Improve, Extend, or Simplify) can only be used if a draft message is present.
Once an AI answer is generated, you can modify the suggested message further again either with custom instructions or by using one of the available quick actions to change the formality of the message, improve, extend, or simplify it. Answer assistant stores every version of the draft, allowing you to navigate between all versions of the draft by using the arrows in the top right corner to choose the best proposed answer at any time.
Once you are satisfied with the result, click the "Use in answer" button to pass the draft response to the ticket answer editor, from where you can send it right away.
Formality of generated messages
The formality of the generated message sets the tone of the message. There are three available formality options:
- Causal formality - Informal, conversational tone
- Neutral formality (default option) - Balanced, everyday language
- Business formality - Formal, professional tone
The difference between the formality options is demonstrated in the following screenshots, where each formality option was applied to the same text " your order #123 was shipped, wait for sms from curier".
Selecting the formality triggers AI answer generation if any draft message is available. If the draft field is empty, selecting the formality does not trigger Answer assistant right away, but requires also writing custom instructions, or writing a draft and applying an action or instructions.
Casual formality
Neutral formality
Business formality
Improver actions
There are three predefined actions that can be applied on a draft message:
- Improve - Enhances clarity, grammar, and style while keeping the original meaning
- Extend - Expands a short draft into a complete, well-formed response
- Simplify - Rewrites complex or technical language into simpler terms
In addition to the predefined actions, you also have the option to define custom instructions for the AI to refine your draft message, or to simply instruct AI to generate a new message without providing any draft. The behavior of the actions & custom instructions is illustrated in the following screenshots, which show the text on which the given action/instruction was applied and the corresponding generated results.