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AI replies & the approval queue

HelpStack can draft replies for you using AI. You stay in control: a draft is generated, you review it, and you decide whether to send it. You can also let channels draft automatically the moment a customer writes, or even send without review. This guide explains how to generate replies, what the draft panel offers, how the approval queue behaves, and what the AI actually knows when it writes.

Sections#

Before you start#

Two things make AI replies work well:

  • An AI provider must be configured. Connect OpenAI or Anthropic first. See the AI providers guide.
  • A knowledge base gives better answers. Without one, the AI can still reply, but it won't know the specifics of your business. Set one up in the knowledge base guide.

Both are configured per channel under Settings → Channels → (your channel) → AI & Knowledge.

Generating a reply#

Open a conversation at /conversations/[id] and click the Sparkles button. HelpStack generates a draft reply using the channel's AI provider and any attached knowledge base. The draft appears for your review — nothing is sent until you approve it.

The draft panel#

Once a draft is ready, the panel gives you these choices:

  • Approve — send the draft to the customer as your reply.
  • Reject — discard the draft without sending.
  • Send Original — if the draft was translated into the customer's language, send the original (untranslated) version instead.
  • Retranslate — re-run translation on the draft, useful if the language was detected incorrectly.

Approving is the same as sending a manual reply — it goes out on the channel and joins the thread as an outbound message.

How older drafts are handled#

If several drafts pile up for a conversation, you don't have to clean them out by hand. When you approve a newer draft, older unapproved drafts are automatically rejected. This keeps the approval queue tidy and ensures only the reply you actually chose is sent.

Auto-reply and auto-approve#

Each channel has an auto-reply mode with three settings, configured under Settings → Channels → (your channel) → AI & Knowledge:

  • Off — no automatic drafting. You generate replies manually with the Sparkles button.
  • Prepare draft — when a customer message arrives, the AI automatically drafts a reply and places it in the queue for an agent to review. Nothing is sent without approval.
  • Auto-approve — the AI drafts and sends the reply automatically, with no agent review. Use this only when you trust the AI to handle a channel end-to-end.

Choose based on how much oversight you want. Many teams start with prepare draft to keep a human in the loop, then move specific channels to auto-approve once they're confident.

Replies are written in the customer's language#

When translation is in play, AI replies are generated in the customer's language so they read naturally to the recipient, and translated back so you can read them in your language. That's why the draft panel includes Send Original and Retranslate — they let you control exactly what text goes out if the translation isn't perfect.

What the AI knows when it replies#

When the AI drafts a reply, it draws on several sources of context so the answer is relevant and on-brand:

  • Recent conversation history — the back-and-forth in the current thread.
  • Prior closed conversations with the same customer — past resolved threads, so the AI remembers history with that person.
  • Attached knowledge-base groups — the articles and information you've linked to the channel.
  • The channel's system prompt — your instructions about tone, policy, and how to behave.
  • The customer's email or identifier — so the AI knows who it's addressing.
  • Any agent tools — actions the AI is allowed to take on the channel (see the agent tools guide).

The more complete your knowledge base and system prompt, the better the drafts. Keep them up to date as your business changes.

Related#

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