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.
What visitors see
When a visitor arrives on a page where the widget is active, they see a 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 (required), and phone number (optional).
If a privacy policy URL is configured, a consent checkbox also appears on this form and is required.
The prospect must select it before continuing, just like Name and Email.
After submitting, the agent sends a personalized opening message, and the conversation continues from there.
Recognize returning members
A prospect who already has a Member record shouldn't have to answer the same qualification questions as a new lead. When a prospect enters their email on the chat's opening form, the agent checks it against your Member records before the conversation starts.
If the email matches a Member record, the agent populates the conversation's metadata with the member's Location.
If there's no match, the agent continues with the standard lead qualification funnel.
The agent also recognizes FAQ questions whose correct answer depends on membership status and states the answer that applies to the prospect rather than a generic one. For example, if members can bring dogs into the space but non-members can't, the agent tells each prospect the rule that applies to them.
Hand-offs
When a conversation needs to be escalated to a human, the agent can hand it off to your team. The agent will send an email to your team with the conversation details so a team member can pick it up and continue the exchange. To use hand-offs, your agent needs a configured inbox through which it can route the hand-off.
The prospect is CC'd on the hand-off email, so they get confirmation that their inquiry was passed to a human.
The hand-off email body now includes the full conversation transcript, appended below the existing hand-off summary.
Once a handoff completes, the chat input locks (free-text entry is turned off), and the New Chat button appears. This tells the prospect the agent is no longer active. Starting a new chat begins a fresh session. The locked state stays until the prospect explicitly starts one.
Automatic close and transcript email
A chat conversation automatically closes after 10 minutes of inactivity.
The conversation status changes to Paused.
The chat pane shows two options: Start New and Resume.
When a conversation is closed (due to inactivity or any other reason), a full transcript is generated and emailed:
To the prospect's email address, BCC'd to any addresses configured under AI Hub > Settings in the BCC field.
CC'd to the addresses configured under AI Hub > Settings in the CC field.
Sent from the AI agent.
The email includes the date and time, the channel (chat), and the full message log.
How the chat channel compares to email
Hand-offs work differently in the chat channel. When the agent escalates a chat conversation, it sends your team an email with the conversation details. You need a configured agent inbox for that to work, even if you're only using chat.
Everything else is the same as email: qualification stages, automatic transitions, hand-offs, escalations, and reports. Chat conversations show up in the same reports with a chat source label so you can tell them apart.
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.