AI Agents

UltraCart AI Agents provide autonomous customer support across webchat, SMS, voice, and support tickets. You configure each agent with a personality, instructions, capabilities, and a knowledge base so it can handle common inquiries without human intervention.

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Overview

AI Agents are best suited for post-order and subscription support. Common use cases include:

• Answering order status and tracking questions

• Managing subscriptions (pause, resume, cancel, delay, update payment)

• Providing policy and product information from your knowledge base

• Opening support tickets and escalating to live agents when needed

Each agent operates as an UltraCart user account with the AI flag enabled. This means you can set up dedicated AI-only agents, or configure a user to provide live support during business hours and switch to AI support after hours.

Communication channels

AI Agents can interact with customers through four channels. Each channel has its own instruction set so you can tailor the agent's behavior to the medium.

See Personality and instructions for details on configuring per-channel instructions.

Data access

When a customer is logged in, the AI Agent can access their customer data including lifetime value, order history, past conversations, and recent marketing interactions. If a customer is not logged in, the agent can send a verification email to establish context.

AI Agents can also access:

• Order and subscription data -- details of recent orders and active subscriptions

• Storefront and item data -- product catalog and storefront configuration (requires the Grant access to storefront and item data capability)

Capabilities

You control what each AI Agent can do by enabling specific capabilities in Workforce > Settings > AI Capabilities. These include order lookups, subscription management, coupon generation, live agent transfers, and support ticket creation.

See AI Agent capabilities for the full list.

Token pricing

AI Agent usage is billed by token consumption. UltraCart charges per thousand tokens at these rates:

You set daily and monthly budget caps that apply across all your AI Agents collectively. Once a budget cap is reached, agents stop picking up new conversations until the cap resets or you increase it.

See Budgets for detailed budget planning guidance.

Prerequisites

Before setting up an AI Agent, you need:

• Conversations enabled on your UltraCart account

• At least one chat department configured

• Webchat enabled on your storefront (for webchat agents)

• At least one queue set up

• An UltraCart account with user management permissions

Setting up an AI Agent

1. Navigate to Configuration > Account > Users.

2. Edit an existing user or select Add User.

3. Scroll to the Conversations Chat Departments section below user permissions.

4. Assign the user to at least one chat department.

5. Check Use AI to handle chat as this agent.

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Once activated, this AI-enabled user automatically picks up available conversations from the queue.

Managing AI Agents

Each AI Agent has its own display name, profile image, personality, and instructions independent of the underlying user account.

To manage an agent:

1. Navigate to CRM > Workforce > AI Agents.

2. Select the agent you want to configure.

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From here you can configure:

• Display name -- the name the agent uses when introducing itself to customers

• Agent image -- the profile picture shown to customers during webchat

• Agent personality -- the agent's overall tone and demeanor, applied across all channels

• Channel-specific instructions -- separate instructions for webchat, SMS, voice, and tickets

• Voice personality -- the AI voice used for phone calls (Ara, Rex, Sal, Eve, or Leo)

• Knowledge base -- documents the agent uses to answer brand-specific questions

• MCP servers -- external tool servers that extend the agent's capabilities

AI settings

AI Agent settings live under Workforce > Settings and apply to all AI Agents on your account.

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• AI Budgets -- daily and monthly caps that govern all agents collectively. See Budgets.

• AI Capabilities -- the actions and data access granted to agents. See Capabilities.

Frequently asked questions

How many concurrent conversations can a single agent handle? A single AI Agent can participate in up to 10 concurrent conversations. The agent stops picking up new conversations once your budget cap is reached.

How do multiple agents coordinate? UltraCart distributes incoming conversations across active agents using a round-robin approach, so customers interact with a variety of agents.

Why set up multiple AI Agents? Multiple agents let you assign specific agents to specific queues for specialized support. It also creates the appearance of a larger support team.

Can I review past AI conversations? Yes. All AI-handled conversations are stored in the Conversation Archive with sentiment tags indicating the customer's experience.

Can I take over an active AI conversation? Yes. You can view active conversations in real time and take over from the AI Agent at any point.

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