AI Agent Skills
AI Agent skills are the actions an AI Agent can take besides replying. With skills, an agent can route a conversation to the right team or teammate, close it when the customer is done, move the contact through your lifecycle stages, save details it learns into contact fields, add or remove tags, and leave internal comments for your team. Each skill has its own instructions that tell the agent when and how to use it, and optional limits so it only touches the stages, tags and fields you allow.
Before you begin
- You need an AI Agent and the Configure AI agents permission. See AI Agents.
- Create the teams, lifecycle stages, tags and contact fields you want the agent to use first.
Available skills
| Skill | What the agent can do | Settings |
|---|---|---|
| Assign to agent or team | Hand the conversation to a person or a team. The AI stops replying in that conversation. | Assign to: a specific team, a specific teammate, or Let the agent choose a team. |
| Close conversations | Close the conversation once the customer has what they need. | Leave a summary comment when closing. |
| Update lifecycle stage | Move the contact through your lifecycle stages. | Stages the agent may use. |
| Update contact fields | Save details the customer shares (company, city, budget…) into contact fields. | Fields the agent may fill. |
| Update tags | Add or remove tags on the contact. | Tags the agent may use. |
| Add comments | Leave an internal comment for your team (customers never see it). | None. |
For limits, leave every box unchecked to allow any stage, tag or field.
How to add a skill
- Open the agent from AI Agents.
- In AI skills, click Add skill and pick one. Each skill can be added once.
- Under When and how should this skill be performed?, write the rule in plain language. The box starts with a suggested rule you can edit, for example "If the customer asks about pricing or wants to buy, assign the conversation to the sales team."
- Set the skill's options (destination, allowed stages, tags or fields, or the summary comment).
- Click Save, then try it in the Test panel. When a message would trigger a skill, the test shows Would run: and the skill name.
AI Agents › open an agent › AI skills
The AI skills section with three skills added: Assign to agent or team (Assign to set to the Sales team, with instructions), Update lifecycle stage (two stages checked under "Stages the agent may use"), and Close conversations (the "Leave a summary comment when closing" switch on); the Add skill button.
File: screenshots/ai-agent-skills-card.png
How to write good skill rules
- Be specific about the trigger: "When the customer confirms they want to place an order" is better than "When appropriate".
- Say what to do: name the team, the stage or the field. Use mentions in the agent's Instructions (@ for teams and teammates, % for tags, $ for contact fields) so names match exactly.
- Keep one job per skill: write the condition for that skill only; put general behaviour in the agent's instructions.
- Combine skills: for lead qualification, use Update contact fields to save the answers, Update lifecycle stage to move qualified leads, and Assign to agent or team to pass them to sales.
AI Agents › open an agent › Test panel
A test chat where the customer says they want to buy, the agent's reply, and under it the "Would run: Assign to agent or team" note and the confidence percentage.
File: screenshots/ai-agent-skills-test.png
How to remove a skill
Click the remove icon on the skill card, then Save. The agent stops using that action straight away.
Notes and limitations
- An agent can have each of the six skills once.
- Each skill's rule can be up to 2,000 characters.
- After Assign to agent or team runs, the conversation belongs to that team or teammate and the AI stops replying in it.
- AI Agents can't read a contact's existing tags or internal comments, and can't send videos or voice notes. The Review panel flags instructions that ask for these.
FAQ and troubleshooting
The Review panel says a skill isn't enabled.
Your instructions mention an action (for example closing conversations) but the matching skill isn't added. Add the skill, or remove that part of the instructions.
The Review panel says a skill has no destination or guidance.
The Assign to agent or team skill needs either a destination or a rule that says where to assign. Pick a team or teammate, or describe in the rule which team to choose.
The agent moved a contact to the wrong lifecycle stage.
Limit the stages under Stages the agent may use and make the rule more specific about when each stage applies.
Can the agent leave a summary when it closes a conversation?
Yes. In the Close conversations skill, turn on Leave a summary comment when closing. The agent adds a short internal comment before closing, so your team can see what happened.