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AUTOMATION AND AI
AI agent (WhatsApp)
A WhatsApp AI agent is an automated responder powered by a large language model that reads the customer's message, retrieves relevant passages from a business's knowledge base, and writes a reply in natural language following a system prompt, instead of matching keywords or walking a fixed tree. Good agents know when to stop and escalate to a person.
knowledge baseescalationhuman takeoverdebounce
Why it matters
Flows handle structured tasks; AI agents handle the long tail of questions that no menu anticipates, in the customer's language and tone. The risks are equally real: answers invented from thin knowledge, replies to questions the business should not automate (medical, legal, complaints), and cost per reply. Grounding, escalation rules and a takeover pause are what separate a useful agent from a liability.
In VGraple CRM
The AI chatbot answers from a knowledge base of crawled pages, pasted articles and FAQ pairs, follows a per-channel system prompt, waits for the customer to finish typing (debounce), pauses when a person joins the conversation, and escalates on rules you set. It runs on Groq-hosted models by default with the option to bring your own OpenAI or Anthropic key; the plan gate is Growth and above. The AI chatbot guide covers setup.
Related terms
Knowledge base, Escalation, Human takeover, Debounce, Intent.