Most support messages are the same twenty questions: delivery time, exchange policy, opening hours, fees, how to reset an account. Answering them by hand ties up your team, and customers who message at midnight wait until morning. SaleMag's AI customer support agent answers those questions from your own documents, in the customer's language, and passes the rest to the people who should handle them.
What is an AI customer support agent?
An AI customer support agent is an AI agent that answers customer questions from a knowledge base the business controls and hands a conversation to a person when it should. In SaleMag it is the AI agent running inside your shared inbox on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, Telegram and WeChat.
It is not a general chatbot that knows "everything". It answers from what you give it, which is what makes it safe to put in front of customers.
What can an AI support agent learn from?
SaleMag's AI customer support agent learns from material you already have: files, web pages, sitemaps, FAQs, plain text and your products. The table shows each source and what it suits.
| Source | Good for |
|---|---|
| Files: PDF, Word, Excel, CSV, TXT, Markdown, JSON (up to 20 MB) | Policies, price lists, course outlines, service menus |
| Single web page URLs | A delivery or returns page on your site |
| Sitemaps | A whole help centre or website |
| FAQs (question and answer pairs) | The exact wording you want for common questions |
| Plain text | Opening hours, branch addresses, short notes |
| Products | Prices, options and stock from your catalog |
When a customer writes, the agent finds the most relevant passages and answers from them. This approach is called retrieval-augmented generation. A Uttara diagnostic centre, for example, could upload its test list and sample-collection rules, and the agent would answer "fasting lagbe?" from that document.
How does the AI support agent avoid wrong answers?
SaleMag's AI customer support agent is instructed to state facts only from your instructions and knowledge base and never to invent prices, policies, links, phone numbers, dates or availability. When the knowledge base has nothing on the question, it does one of two things, depending on your settings:
- sends your fallback message, such as "Let me check with the team", and tells the customer how to reach you, or
- hands the chat to a person, if handover when unsure is on.
You also set the tone (for example professional or friendly) and write instructions such as "never confirm a refund; pass refund requests to the team". The playground lets you test questions before customers see the AI agent.
Does the AI support agent reply in Bangla?
Yes. SaleMag's AI customer support agent replies in the language the customer writes in, so a question in Bangla gets a Bangla answer, and Banglish such as "delivery kobe pabo?" gets a reply the customer can read. Bangla FAQs in your knowledge base make the answers sound more natural.
When does the AI hand a chat to a person?
SaleMag's AI customer support agent makes a human handover when the customer asks for a person, when the question is outside the knowledge base and handover when unsure is on, and, with order taking on, when the chat is about a complaint, a bulk order, a custom request or a change to a placed order.
The conversation moves to human mode and your team is notified. While a person owns the chat, the AI agent does not reply. Team members can switch a conversation back to the AI agent when they are done.
The AI agent also switches off when someone on your team replies in a chat, even without a handover. It stays off in that chat until someone turns it back on. Replies sent from the WhatsApp Business app on a number using coexistence count too. The customer never gets an AI answer on top of a person's reply.
How does an AI support agent work with a human support team?
SaleMag's AI customer support agent works as one member of the team inside the shared inbox, not as a separate tool. The table shows the inbox features your people use alongside it.
| Inbox feature | How it helps support |
|---|---|
| Roles | Moderators see and assign every chat; agents see chats assigned to them or still unassigned |
| Assignment and notes | Route a handed-over chat to the right person and leave internal context |
| Statuses | Open, pending, resolved and snoozed |
| Saved replies | Consistent answers for the questions the AI hands over |
| Reports | First-response and resolution time, an agent leaderboard, and AI usage |
A practical setup for a Mirpur coaching centre: the AI answers batch times, fees and admission documents from the prospectus; a manager assigns handed-over chats about refunds to the accounts person; and the weekly report shows how quickly the team picks up those chats.
What can't the AI support agent do?
SaleMag's AI customer support agent answers questions from your knowledge base; it does not take actions such as bookings, payments or refunds. Being specific helps you plan:
- It does not watch videos. Those go to your team. Photos, voice notes and documents it understands.
- It does not reply to Facebook or Instagram comments, only to direct messages.
- It does not book appointments, take payments or issue refunds. It can collect the question and hand over.
- It does not tag contacts, fill in contact fields or assign a chat to a teammate. Your staff do that in the inbox and the CRM.
- It can tell customers the status of their recent orders; see the AI order tracking agent.
The agent runs on your own OpenAI, Anthropic (Claude) or Google Gemini key, so AI usage is billed to you by the provider.
Get started
Upload your top FAQs and policy documents, create the AI agent, and test it with last week's real questions. Then link it to your WhatsApp number or Facebook Page and read the conversations for a few days. Create an account or see pricing.
Step by step
- 1
Connect an AI provider
Paste your OpenAI, Anthropic or Google Gemini API key in AI settings and pick a model.
- 2
Build the knowledge base
Upload your policy documents and FAQs, add your help pages or sitemap, and wait for indexing to finish.
- 3
Set tone, instructions and handover
Choose a tone, write short instructions, set a fallback message and turn on handover when unsure.
- 4
Test, then link channels
Ask real customer questions in the playground, then link the AI agent to WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram or Telegram.
Frequently asked questions
Will the AI customer support agent make things up?
No, not by design. SaleMag's AI customer support agent is instructed to state facts only from your instructions and knowledge base and never to invent prices, policies, links, phone numbers or dates. If the answer is not there, it sends your fallback message or hands the chat to your team.
Can the AI support agent reply in Bangla?
Yes. SaleMag's AI customer support agent replies in the language the customer writes in, including Bangla and Banglish. Writing your FAQs in Bangla as well as English gives the most natural answers.
Can a person take over a conversation from the AI?
Yes. Any team member can switch a chat from the AI agent to a human in SaleMag's shared inbox and switch it back later. While a person owns the chat, the AI agent does not reply.
Does an AI support agent replace human support staff?
No. SaleMag's AI customer support agent answers the repeated questions your knowledge base covers, while refunds, complaints and anything it cannot answer go to your staff in the shared inbox.
Can the AI support agent read photos or voice notes?
Yes. SaleMag's AI customer support agent looks at photos and screenshots, such as a damaged parcel or a payment receipt, turns voice notes into text, and reads PDF, Word and Excel files before it answers. Voice notes need an OpenAI or Google Gemini key, or Platform AI. Videos go to your team in the inbox.
Does the AI support agent answer Facebook comments?
No. SaleMag's AI customer support agent replies in Messenger and Instagram direct messages, WhatsApp and Telegram, not in comments under posts.
Do I need a developer to set up an AI support agent?
No. In SaleMag you paste an AI provider key, upload your documents or add your website, and link the AI agent to your channels from the dashboard.
How much does an AI customer support agent cost?
SaleMag's AI runs on your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Google Gemini key, so the provider bills you for usage. SaleMag plans are on the pricing page.
About the author
WhatsApp & F-commerce automation, Dhaka
The Dhaka team that builds SaleMag, the AI sales inbox for WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram used by online sellers in Bangladesh.