Handoff to Human workflow
Learn how the Handoff to Human workflow works in Interlinked — the simplest service workflow where the AI collects basic customer information and then transfers the conversation to a human agent.
When to use this workflow
Choose Handoff to Human when you want the AI to act as a first responder that collects basic customer information before transferring the conversation to a human agent. This is the simplest workflow — it has no qualification questions, no calendar integration, and no payment steps.
This workflow is ideal for:
- Businesses just getting started with AI and want to ease into automation gradually
- Complex sales where every customer interaction is unique and requires human judgment
- Customer support scenarios where the AI greets, collects context, and routes to the right team member
How the AI handles conversations
- Greet the customer using your configured greeting message.
- Engage in initial conversation — The AI answers basic questions about your products or services using the catalog and business context.
- Escalate to a human — When the conversation reaches a point where the AI determines a human is needed (or if the customer requests one), the AI triggers the handoff.
- Notify the business — The handoff creates a notification for the business owner in the CRM.
- Pause AI responses — The AI stops responding for 15 minutes so the human can take over without interference.
The 15-minute AI pause
When the AI hands off a conversation, it pauses for 15 minutes. During this time, the AI will not send any messages to that customer. This same pause triggers when:
- You manually send a message through the messaging app (WhatsApp, Instagram, or Messenger)
- You click Take manual control in the CRM conversation view
After 15 minutes of human inactivity, the AI resumes responding automatically.
Important
Make sure your team responds quickly after a handoff. If no human responds within 15 minutes, the AI will resume and may confuse the customer by continuing the conversation it previously escalated.
Custom configuration steps
None. This workflow adds no additional configuration steps to the wizard. It is the fastest workflow to set up — you only need to complete the standard steps (company info, workflow selection, catalog, context, and channels).
What to do next
Continue to Upload your product catalog, Add business context, Connect channels, and Publish and go live.
Related in Interlinked
Connect this documentation topic to the relevant product, workflow, or commercial context.