The AI Dispatch Rules feature allows setting up quick rules to run selected AI agents on unassigned new and open tickets waiting in the queue of selected departments. Every ticket that lands in the queue is automatically handed over to AI on its own.
Unlike the "Run AI agent" action in automatic rules, a dispatch rule does not need a trigger or conditions. It serves as a queue-driven automation layer alongside other LiveAgent AI-powered features.
Note: To use the AI Dispatch Rules feature, it is required to integrate your LiveAgent account with an AI provider, and to have at least one AI agent and one AI budget already configured.
Tip: It is recommended to integrate FlowHunt as your AI provider and set up your AI agents via it to have full control over the workflow and troubleshooting.
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 full control over the AI workflow, and offer priority support. For customers with active LiveAgent & FlowHunt subscriptions, our support team offers a full initial setup of our AI features or FlowHunt AI automations. If you're interested in our free setup service, feel free to contact us at support@liveagent.com.
How it works
A dispatch rule is a quick automation binding four things:
- a set of departments the rule watches,
- an AI agent to run,
- an AI budget to charge,
- and a dispatch mode that decides whether the AI agent may handle the same ticket only once or every time it enters the queue.
You can create as many dispatch rules as you need. Every dispatch rule executes its own separate run, so a single department may appear in any number of rules. This allows you to, for example, run one AI agent to tag new tickets and re-tag them when customers reply, and another AI agent that drafts only a first reply, both working in the same department, each with its own spending limit.
Once a dispatch rule is in place and a ticket enters the to solve queue, every dispatch rule that covers the ticket's department queues one dispatch for that ticket. A background process picks up pending dispatches every 30 seconds and starts an AI agent run for each one, in the same priority order the queue itself follows (by the ticket's Importance/SLA due date), so the most urgent tickets are processed first.
If a dispatch rule is deleted, or the ticket is transferred out of the department it is handling, its pending dispatch is discarded and won't execute.
Note: Dispatch rules only apply to unassigned tickets. If a ticket is assigned to an agent before the AI gets to it, the pending dispatch is dropped.
Postponed dispatch
Before starting a run, the system verifies that the dispatch rule's AI agent and budget exist, that your AI provider is currently not throttled, and that the budget's monthly limit has not been reached. If any of these checks don't pass, the dispatch is postponed, staying in the queue, and is retried later.
The retry delay increases with each unsuccessful attempt, starting at one minute, multiplying up to approximately an hour. This way, a temporarily throttled provider delays automatic ticket handling only briefly, while a rule that stays blocked, e.g. because its budget is exhausted, is retried less and less often instead of constantly hammering the provider with requests.
Creating a dispatch rule
To create a dispatch rule, navigate to Configuration > AI > AI Dispatch Rules and click "Create rule". In the configuration window, enter the following details:
- AI agent - select the AI agent that will process the tickets covered by this rule.
- Budget - select the AI budget from which credits for runs of this rule are charged.
- Dispatch mode - decide how often the AI agent should handle the same ticket. See dispatch modes below.
- Departments - select the departments whose ticket queues the rule should watch.
Click the "Create rule" button to save it.
Warning: A new dispatch rule starts working through the backlog of existing tickets that are already in the chosen departments' queues right away when you create it. Large backlogs are processed in batches of up to 500 tickets per department, with more tickets being handled when their status changes.
Dispatch modes
The dispatch mode controls how many times a single ticket may be handed to the AI agent by the dispatch rule:
- Once per ticket - the AI agent works on each ticket only a single time.
- Each time the ticket is queued - the AI agent re-runs whenever the ticket re-enters the queue.
What counts as "queued again" is decided by the ticket's lifecycle, not by the queue alone. When a ticket is answered and later returns to the queue because the customer replied to it, rules set to "Each time the ticket is queued" fire again. On the other hand, assigning the ticket to an agent and unassigning it back again unchanged won't trigger the dispatch rules.
Tip: Use the "Each time the ticket is queued" dispatch mode for agents that genuinely add value on every turn, e.g. those that re-tag a ticket as its topic evolves. Keep in mind that each AI agent run spends credit.
Managing an existing rule
All of your dispatch rules are listed in Configuration > AI > AI Dispatch Rules section. The rule's record shows the AI agent the rule uses, departments it watches, the budget attributed to it, and its dispatch mode.
To manage an existing dispatch rule, click on it in the list to open its configuration dialog. Use the "Change" button in the Rule settings or Departments section to adjust the rule. You can switch its AI agent, budget, or dispatch mode, and change which departments the rule watches at any time. The change takes effect since the next dispatch cycle.
To remove a dispatch rule, open the Danger zone section and click "Delete dispatch rule". The rule stops being applied to new tickets. Runs that are already in progress finish normally and remain visible in reports, already dispatched tickets are unaffected. Deleting a dispatch rule cannot be reverted. Deleting the AI agent that a dispatch rule uses does not remove the rule. The rule simply stops dispatching tickets, and tracks tickets it should handle as retrying, until you select an existing agent for the rule again.
Monitoring a rule's activity
The Activity section of a dispatch rule's detail view shows the rule's current planned work:
- Pending tickets - queued tickets that are valid for this rule and are waiting to be dispatched to the AI agent.
- Of which retrying - the count of pending tickets currently held behind a retry delay, typically because the rule's AI agent or budget is missing, or your AI provider is throttled. This detail appears only when there is something to report, so a healthy rule shows just the pending tickets' count.
A continuously growing number of retrying tickets is the signal to check the rule's configuration. The numbers reflect the remaining work to do, not work that has already been done. Tickets already handed over are no longer counted here.
The AI agent runs themselves are recorded like any other AI agent run, in the Reports > AI Agent Runs section, where you can review each run's status, the number of tool calls it made, and if it failed, the reason. See the Monitoring AI agent runs article for details.
Credit & budget for dispatch rules
Runs started by a dispatch rule are billed the same as any other AI agent run. Every MCP tool call an AI agent makes draws from your account's credit pool, where 1 tool call = 1 credit, charged from the budget you selected in the rule. For a full explanation of how credits and budgets work, please visit the AI Budgets & credits article.
When the monthly budget limit is reached, the dispatch rule stops firing, and the tickets it should handle accumulate as pending (and retrying). Once the limit resets or you raise it, the tickets will be dispatched, so no ticket is silently skipped.