The chat channel adds a widget to your website that visitors can use to start a conversation with your AI sales agent. The same agent handles both email leads and chat, with the same qualification stages, hand-off logic, and reports. The only difference is the entry point: a button on your site instead of an email form submission.
You can run chat alongside email or use it as your only channel.
In this article:
Understand how chat conversations work
See what visitors experience
Compare chat and email
Review frequently asked questions
Related articles
How chat conversations work
A conversation starts the moment a visitor submits the start-conversation form in the chat widget. From that point, it behaves like any other conversation in AI Hub: it appears in the conversations list, goes through the same stages, supports handoffs, and is counted in the same reports.
One important difference from the email channel is that the chat has no Shadow Mode. The agent's replies go directly to the visitor as soon as they're generated. There's no review step before the agent responds.
What visitors see
When a visitor arrives on a page where the widget is active, they see a small chat button in the bottom-right corner. When they click it, a chat pane opens with a short form asking for their name (required), email (optional), and phone number (optional). After submitting, the agent sends a personalized opening message, and the conversation continues from there.
Chat vs. email at a glance
| Chat | |
Entry point | Widget on your website | Email to the agent's inbox |
Shadow Mode | No shadow mode. The agent is always active | Shadow mode available |
Source label in reports |
|
|
Required visitor identity | Name only | Sender email address |
Everything else works the same across both channels: stages, automatic transitions, hand-offs, escalations, and the activity audit.
FAQs
Can I use chat without the email channel?
Yes. Chat works as a standalone channel. The one exception is hand-offs: if you want the agent to escalate conversations to your team, you need a configured agent inbox for the hand-off email to route through.
Can the agent hand off a chat conversation to a human?
Yes. When a hand-off is triggered, the agent sends your team an email with the conversation details so a team member can continue managing it.
Does chat count in the same reports as email?
Yes. Chat conversations appear in the same reports as email conversations. You can tell them apart using the Source label, which shows chat or email depending on how the conversation started.
What happens if a visitor closes the chat pane mid-conversation?
The conversation remains open in AI Hub. If the visitor provided their email address, the agent can follow up by email. If they didn't, the conversation stays available in the conversations list for your team to review.