AI Agents in UltraCart

Introduction

UltraCart's AI Agents empower you to provide efficient and autonomous customer support. These conversational AI agents are designed with the necessary context to offer meaningful assistance without constant manual oversight. By granting access to specific data and enabling them to take predefined actions, you can save time and resources while enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

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Currently, AI Agents are optimally suited for post-order and auto-order support. Ideal use cases include:

• Assisting customers with modifications to their subscriptions or auto-orders.

• Providing up-to-date order status and information.

• Serving as a first line of support to address general inquiries and open support tickets.

Data Access

AI Agents can leverage various data points to provide informed support:

• Customer Data: When customers are logged in, the AI Agent has immediate access to their lifetime value (LTV), order history, past conversations, recent marketing campaign interactions, and other relevant information. If a customer is not logged in, the agent can send a quick verification email to establish customer context.

• Order and Auto Order Data: If a customer has recently placed an order, the agent can readily access the details of that order.

• Item Data: (Coming Soon)

• StoreFront Data: (Coming Soon)

Available Actions

AI Agents can be configured to perform the following actions:

• Order - Lookup: Retrieve a customer's most recent order or request an Order ID for specific order inquiries.

• Subscription - Lookup: Retrieve a customer's most recent auto-order or request an Order ID for specific auto-order inquiries.

• Subscription - Update Credit Card: Securely update the credit card information associated with a subscription order.

• Subscription - Pause: Temporarily suspend a customer's subscription order.

• Subscription - Resume: Reactivate a previously paused subscription order.

• Subscription - Cancel: Terminate a customer's subscription.

• Subscription - Delay: Postpone a customer's subscription order.

• Transfer Chat to Live Agent: Seamlessly hand over the conversation to a human support agent.

• Open Support Ticket: Create a new support ticket (currently sends an email notification; integration with support ticket systems is planned for the future).

Agent Customizations

You can tailor your AI Agents to align with your brand and support strategies through several customization options:

• Customize the Agent Personality: Define specific personality parameters to fine-tune the agent's tone and demeanor to match your company's voice.

• Customize the Agent Instructions for Webchat: Provide specific instructions on how the agent should respond to customer queries and engage in webchat conversations.

• Customize the Agent Instructions for SMS: (SMS coming soon) Define specific instructions for how the agent should interact with customers via text message.

Customization Tips:

• Subscription Cancellation Alternatives: If the agent has the capability to cancel subscriptions, consider adding instructions to prompt the customer about delaying their order instead. Highlight the benefits of delaying as an alternative to cancellation.

• Proactive Support Ticket Creation: If the agent can open support tickets, define specific scenarios or keywords that should trigger the automatic creation of a ticket for more complex issues.

Setting up AI Agents

Setting up AI Agents in UltraCart is a straightforward process. Agents are created using standard UltraCart user accounts and then designated as AI Agents. This flexible approach allows you to establish dedicated AI agents or configure users to provide live human support during business hours and seamlessly transition to AI Agent support outside of those hours for continuous coverage.

Prerequisites

Before setting up an AI Agent, ensure the following prerequisites are met:

1. Conversations Enabled: Ensure that the Conversations feature is enabled on your UltraCart account. (Refer to the "Enabling Conversations" documentation for instructions.)

2. Chat Department Setup: At least one Chat Department must be configured within Conversations. (Refer to the "Conversation Chat Departments" documentation for instructions.)

3. Webchat Enabled: Webchat functionality must be enabled on your StoreFront. (Refer to the "Adding webchat to your storefront" documentation for instructions.)

4. Queue Setup: At least one Queue must be set up within Conversations. (Refer to the "Setup and Managing Queues" documentation for instructions.)

5. User Account Management Permissions: You need an UltraCart account with the necessary permissions to create and manage other user accounts.

Setup an AI Agent

To configure a user as an AI Agent, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Configuration > Account > Users.

2. Edit an existing user or click Add User to create a new one.

3. Within the user editor, scroll down to the Conversations Chat Departments section, located below the user permissions.

4. Ensure the user is assigned to at least one Chat Department (e.g., Sales). In the following example, the "Sales" department is selected.

5. Check the box next to Use AI to handle chat as this agent.

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Once activated, this AI-enabled user will automatically pick up available chats from the webchat queue.

Managing AI Agents

Each AI Agent can be customized with its own unique name, profile image, personality, and specific instructions, independent of the underlying user account.

To manage your AI Agents:

1. Navigate to the CRM section.

2. Go to AI Agents > Agents.

3. Select the specific AI Agent you wish to manage.

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Within the AI Agent management section, you can modify the following:

• Display Name: This is the name the agent will use when introducing itself and responding to customers during conversations.

• Agent Image: The profile picture that will be displayed to customers during webchat interactions.

• Agent Personality: Define the agent's general demeanor and attitude. Specific access details and role definitions will be dynamically applied based on the capabilities selected below. (Refer to "Example Agent Personalities" for guidance.)

• Agent Chat Instructions: Provide detailed instructions on how the agent should engage with customers through webchat conversations. (Refer to "Example Webchat Instructions" for guidance.)

• Additional SMS Instructions: (SMS coming soon) Define specific instructions for how the agent should interact with customers via text message. (Refer to "Example SMS Instructions" for guidance.)

AI Settings

The settings configured within the "AI Settings" section apply universally to all AI Agents within your UltraCart account. These settings allow you to control the overall budget and capabilities of your AI workforce.

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AI Agent Budgets

You can set a budget to manage the operational costs associated with your AI Agents. Once this spending limit is reached, the agent will no longer initiate new conversations. Usage is calculated based on the number of tokens consumed during conversations, providing a clear and predictable cost structure.

• Model Input Cost: $0.006 per thousand input tokens

• Model Output Cost: $0.03 per thousand output tokens

UltraCart allows you to set both daily and monthly budget limits. This ensures that your budget is distributed throughout the month and prevents unexpected spikes in spending. If the monthly budget is exhausted, all AI Agents will cease engaging in new conversations until the monthly budget is increased or the next billing cycle begins.

AI Capabilities

You can granularly control the capabilities and data access granted to individual AI Agents. These capabilities empower agents to look up order and subscription information, manage subscriptions, transfer customers to human agents (if available), open support tickets, and more.

For example, if an AI Agent has the "Update Credit Card" capability enabled, it can securely guide a customer through the process of updating their credit card information for an expiring subscription without requiring intervention from support staff.

Refer to the "Learn more about agent capabilities" documentation for a comprehensive list and explanation of available capabilities.

FAQ

• How many concurrent conversations can a single agent engage in? A single AI Agent can actively participate in up to 10 concurrent conversations. However, please note that the agent will cease initiating new conversations once your configured budget limitations are reached.

• How do multiple agents coordinate conversation queues? When multiple AI Agents are active, the system employs a round-robin approach to distribute incoming conversations. This ensures that available conversations are rotated evenly among the agents, providing customers with interactions from a variety of agents.

• What is the advantage of setting up multiple AI Agents? There are several benefits to deploying multiple AI Agents:

  • Specialized Queue Management: You can configure specific AI Agents to manage distinct chat queues, allowing for a more focused and potentially specialized support experience for different types of inquiries.

  • Perception of Robust Support: Having multiple agents can create the impression of a larger and more diverse support staff, potentially increasing customer confidence.

• Can I review past conversations the agent has engaged in? Yes, all conversations handled by your AI Agents are stored within the Conversation Archive. Additionally, each archived conversation includes a general sentiment rating tag, providing you with an initial indication of the customer's experience during the interaction.

• Can I jump in while an agent is in the middle of a conversation and take over? Yes, you have the ability to view and join active conversations in real-time. If you determine that human intervention would be more beneficial for a particular situation, you can seamlessly take over the conversation from the AI Agent.

Next Steps

• Explore the documentation on "Enabling Conversations" to activate the core communication features.

• Learn how to set up "Conversation Chat Departments" to organize your support teams.

• Follow the guide on "Adding webchat to your storefront" to integrate AI Agents into your customer-facing website.

• Review the "Setup and Managing Queues" documentation to effectively manage incoming chat requests.

• Consult the "Example Agent Personalities" and "Example Webchat Instructions" for best practices in customizing your AI Agents.

• Refer to the documentation on "budgets and how to effectively calculate your AI Spend" for optimal cost management.

• Stay tuned for updates on "Learn more about agent capabilities" and the FAQ section for more in-depth information.