AI Agent Escalation
In this article, you'll learn how to configure escalation for your AI Agent — including what action to take when escalation is triggered, how the handover is initiated, and the conditions that determine when escalation fires.
Before you start
Your AI Agent must be created. See Create AI Agent.
A ticketing system must be connected if you plan to route escalations to an external system. See AI Agent Ticketing.
You must have an Admin or Owner role in your workspace.
How it works
Escalation triggers define the conditions under which your AI Agent hands off a conversation to a human agent. When a trigger fires, the agent takes a configured action such as routing to the Inbox or creating a ticket in an external system and sends a handover acknowledgement message to the user.
The Escalation page is organized into four sections:
Escalation Action — what happens when escalation is triggered.
Handover Method — how the handover is initiated.
Handover Acknowledgement Message — what the user sees after escalation completes.
Escalation Triggers — the conditions that determine when escalation fires.
Step 1: Open escalation settings
Go to AI Agents and select the agent you want to configure.
In the left navigation, click Escalation.
Step 2: Choose the escalation action
Under Escalation Action, choose what happens when escalation is triggered:
Handover to Agents in Enjo Inbox — routes the conversation to a human agent in the shared Inbox.
Handover to Agents in external ticketing system — creates a ticket in your connected ticketing system (for example, Jira or ServiceNow). Requires a ticketing integration to be configured.
Trigger an AI Flow — hands off to an AI Flow for further automated processing before or instead of human handover.
Close conversation with message — closes the conversation and sends a message to the user without routing to a human agent.
💡TIP: Handover to Agents in Enjo Inbox is the default for most IT and HR deployments. Use Close conversation with message for out-of-scope requests you want to acknowledge and dismiss cleanly.
When you select Handover to Agents in external ticketing system, two additional fields appear:
Configured Ticketing App — displays the ticketing system currently connected to this agent. If empty, connect a ticketing system under AI Agent Ticketing.
Ticketing Configurations — configure ticket types, advanced ticket creation, and syncing behavior. Click Configure to open the ticketing settings.
Step 3: Configure the handover method
Under Handover Method, choose how the handover is initiated:
Create ticket immediately — a ticket is created as soon as an escalation trigger condition is met.
Show button to create ticket — a button is shown to the user, who can choose to initiate the handover.
💡 Use Create ticket immediately for high-urgency workflows where you don't want users to decide. Use Show button to create ticket when users should opt in to escalation.
Step 4: Set the handover acknowledgement message
In the Handover Acknowledgement Message field, enter the message shown to users after a successful handover.
💡 Keep the acknowledgement message brief and action-oriented. For example: "I've passed this on to our support team — someone will join you soon."
Step 5: Configure escalation triggers
Under Escalation Triggers, choose when the AI Agent escalates. You can enable one or more triggers simultaneously.
💡 You can enable multiple triggers at the same time. The AI Agent escalates whenever any active trigger condition is met.
Always Escalate
When enabled, every message in the channel creates a ticket regardless of content or topic.
Enable Allow AI Agent to reply if you want the AI Agent to respond to users while also creating a ticket.
Disable Allow AI Agent to reply if you want tickets created silently, with no AI response.
💡 Use Always Escalate for channels where every request must be tracked, regardless of whether the AI Agent can resolve it.
Note: When Always Escalate is enabled with Allow AI Agent to reply turned off, no AI response is sent regardless of any other trigger settings.
Specific Message Patterns
When enabled, escalation fires when a user's message matches a configured keyword or phrase pattern. Click Manage to open the pattern configuration panel.
Pattern | When escalation fires |
|---|---|
If the request starts with certain keywords | The message begins with a configured keyword or phrase |
If the request does not start with certain keywords | The message does not begin with the configured keyword or phrase |
If the request contains certain keywords | The configured keyword appears anywhere in the message |
If the request does not contain certain keywords | The configured keyword does not appear in the message |
If the request starts with emoji | The message begins with a specific emoji |
If the request does not start with emoji | The message does not begin with the specified emoji |
To configure a keyword pattern:
Select the radio button for the pattern type you want.
In the Messages will be matched against this pattern field, enter your keyword or phrase.
Click Update to save.
To configure an emoji pattern:
Select If the request starts with emoji or If the request does not start with emoji.
Click the emoji picker and select the emoji to match against.
Click Update to save.
💡 Enable Allow AI Agent to reply under this trigger if you want the AI Agent to still respond while escalating.
Specific Topics
When enabled, escalation fires when the AI Agent determines that the user's request matches a defined topic. Click Manage to open the topic configuration panel.
To add a topic:
Enter a Name for the topic.
Enter a Description — a short explanation of what requests belong to this topic.
Optionally, add Sample phrases to help the AI Agent identify this topic. Click + Add new to add each phrase.
Click Add to save.
💡 Add at least two to three sample phrases per topic. More specific examples improve matching accuracy.
Matches Ticket Type
When enabled, escalation fires when the user's request maps to a request type defined in your connected ticketing system. The AI Agent identifies the request type from the user's message automatically.
No additional configuration is required beyond enabling this trigger.
No AI Response
When enabled, escalation fires when the AI Agent cannot find an answer in the connected knowledge sources. This ensures unanswered requests are escalated rather than left unresolved.
💡 Use No AI Response as a safety net alongside more specific triggers to catch edge cases where the AI Agent has no relevant knowledge.
Step 6: Save your settings
Click Update after configuring each trigger. Each trigger saves independently.
What's next
AI Agent Ticketing — Set up and manage your connected ticketing system for escalations.
AI Agent Playground — Test your AI Agent's escalation behavior before going live.
AI Agent AI Flows — Build multi-step automation flows with conditional escalation logic.
Set Up Jira Ticketing — Configure Jira as the external ticketing system for your AI Agent.