Escalation Patterns

When Rian escalates

Rian escalates a conversation when any of these conditions are met:

• The customer explicitly asks for a human (e.g. "I want to speak to someone")
• The message matches a configured escalation topic (Billing disputes; Legal questions; Enterprise account issues; Refund requests)
• Rian fails to resolve after multiple attempts
• The flow outcome is escalated (visible in the Sandbox Flow State panel)

What happens on escalation

The conversation moves to the Escalated view in the inbox. Rian stops responding. The assigned agent (or default assignee) receives the conversation.

Resolve an escalation

Open the escalated conversation and click Resolve in the header. Two options:

• Resolve: closes the conversation; Rian stays off for this contact
• Resolve and re-enable agent: closes the conversation; Rian turns back on for future messages

Disable Rian per conversation

Any agent can toggle Rian off for a specific conversation using the Agent Reply toggle in the composer (⌘T). This does not affect other conversations.

Test escalation in the Sandbox

1. Open AI Agent > Sandbox
2. Select New Visitor as the simulation mode
3. Send a message that matches one of your escalation topics
4. Check the Session > Flow State panel: the outcome should show escalated
5. Check the Events tab: the transition event should confirm the escalation

If the escalation doesn't trigger, verify the topic is enabled in AI Agent > Configuration.