Workflow node: AI Respond

What it does

The AI Respond node has one of your workspace's AI agents generate a reply for the active conversation and, optionally, send it to the customer just like a normal agent reply. Available on Scale plans and above.

When to use it

Handy when you want AI to draft (and optionally send) a message at a specific point in a workflow, without handing the whole conversation over to that agent — for example, an automatic follow-up nudge to a stale lead, or asking AI to draft an apology for a delay before the flow continues.

Configuration

• AI agent (required): which workspace agent generates the reply.
• Mode: "Auto" lets the agent answer as if a customer message had just arrived, using its own prompt and the full chat history; "One-shot instruction" swaps out the agent's persona for your own instruction (e.g., "Apologize for the delay and ask for the order number"), while the model still sees the chat history for context.
• Instruction text: required only when "One-shot instruction" is selected; accepts variables like {{contact.name}}.
• Send to channel (on by default): when turned off, the reply is generated but NOT sent to the customer — it's only available as a variable for later steps.
• Save to variable: the variable name that holds the generated text (defaults to $ai.response).

Example

A re-engagement workflow: a lead with no reply for 3 days hits an AI Respond node in "One-shot instruction" mode with "Write a short, warm message asking if they're still interested in the Grow plan." AI generates and sends the message automatically, with no human needing to draft it.

Tips

If your plan doesn't include this node, the workflow simply skips it without erroring — check the workspace's plan if you notice it never produces a reply.

Troubleshooting

If the node returns an invalid agent error, confirm the selected AI agent belongs to the same workspace as the conversation and is active (not paused).