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AI agent capabilities and actions

Last updated on Feb 23, 2026

Your AI agent can perform different types of actions. Some happen automatically, some need to be enabled, and some behaviors can't be changed.

The AI agent also has an optional "Require approval" mode where all messages and actions must be approved by an agent before executing. See the setup guide for details.

Information lookup (automatic)

The AI automatically searches when relevant:

  • Help articles - Your knowledge base content

  • Canned responses - Pre-written templates

  • Shopify products - Product details, pricing, availability

  • Shopify orders - Order status, tracking, history

Conversation actions (always available)

These are always available to your AI agent:

  • Respond to customer - Send messages to customers

  • Hand over to human agent - Transfer to your team

  • Ask human agent - Pause and ask your team for input instead of handing over entirely. Must be enabled in AI agent settings. The AI posts an internal question, a human provides the answer, and the AI uses it to respond to the customer. The answer is automatically saved to AI knowledge for future conversations.

  • Resolve conversation - Close completed tickets

  • Snooze conversation - Pause until a specific time

  • Assign to agent or team - Route to the right person

  • Add or remove labels - Categorize conversations

  • Add private notes - Internal documentation

Shopify actions (must be enabled)

The AI agent can automatically handle common customer requests by performing actions in Shopify. This eliminates delays when customers need immediate changes to their orders, especially outside business hours.

These actions must be enabled in Settings → AI Agent → Actions:

Cancel order
Cancels an unfulfilled Shopify order completely. This will cancel all unfulfilled items, stop pending fulfillment, automatically restock products, process a full refund, and send a confirmation email. If the order is already fulfilled/shipped, the agent will explain that cancellation is no longer possible.

Edit order items
Replaces or swaps items in a Shopify order (e.g., different size/color). The agent will ask which item to remove and what to add, check stock availability, restock removed items, and handle payment adjustments. For price increases, creates a handover to your team for additional payment. For decreases, automatically refunds the difference.

Remove items from order
Removes specific items from a Shopify order when customers change their mind. The agent will confirm which items to remove, restock them in Shopify, refund the amount for removed items, and send a confirmation email.

Change shipping address
Updates the delivery address for a Shopify order. The agent will verify the new address with the customer before making the update.

Hold order fulfillment
Temporarily pauses the fulfillment process. Useful when you need to make changes, verify information, or resolve issues before shipping.

Tag Shopify order
Adds custom tags to orders for organization and tracking (e.g., "urgent", "gift", "review_needed").

Issue full refund
Processes a complete refund for all items in a Shopify order. Use with strict guidance as this refunds the entire order value.

Using actions in guidance

Once enabled, reference actions naturally in your guidance instructions:

1. Check if the order is unfulfilled
2. If unfulfilled, apologize and cancel the order
3. Confirm the cancellation and explain refund timing
4. Resolve the conversation

The AI recognizes action phrases and performs them automatically:

  • "Cancel the order" → Executes cancel

  • "Hold fulfillment" → Pauses shipping

  • "Add tag: rush-delivery" → Tags the order

  • "Assign to returns team" → Routes conversation

  • "Escalate to human" → Hands over to agent

Enabling Shopify actions

Navigate to AI agent → Actions to enable Shopify actions.

Each action can be individually enabled or disabled. Click "Edit" to configure conditions that must be met before the AI executes each action.

Setup requirements:

  • If you installed Commslayer before August 2025, reauthorize your Shopify connection in Settings → Shops to grant order editing permissions

  • Each action requires individual activation using the toggle switches

Extend with custom actions

Need to connect your AI agent to external systems? Custom actions let you trigger HTTP webhooks to tools like Zapier, n8n, or your own APIs.

Default behaviors

Some AI agent behaviors are automatic and cannot be changed via guidance.

Pending on reply

When the AI responds and expects the customer to reply, the conversation moves to "pending" status automatically. The AI determines whether it expects a reply based on context (e.g., asking a question vs. providing final information).

You can customize what happens when a customer doesn't respond. Go to AI agent → Settings under "Use pending status" to configure:

  • Enable/disable pending - Turn the automatic pending behavior on or off

  • Timeout - How long to wait for a customer reply. Options: wait forever (default) or set a custom time in minutes, hours, or days

  • Post-timeout action - What happens when the timeout expires: do nothing (default), hand over to a human agent, resolve the conversation, or send a follow-up message

About the follow-up option: "Send follow-up" is available for email channels only. The AI sends a brief check-in asking if the customer still needs help. If the customer doesn't reply after the follow-up, the conversation is resolved automatically. For non-email channels, the follow-up option falls back to resolving the conversation.

Default settings: pending enabled, wait forever, do nothing.

Order lookup and customer verification

The AI agent has built-in order lookup and identity verification. You don't need to write guidance for this.

How it works:

  • Email/SMS channels: Customer identity is automatically verified from the channel (their email address or phone number)

  • Chat and other channels: The AI asks for their email or phone, then verifies it against the order

What happens automatically:

  • Customer asks about "my order" → AI finds their latest order by verified email/phone

  • Customer provides order number → AI verifies it belongs to them before sharing details

  • Customer wants to cancel/edit → AI confirms identity first, then proceeds

If verification fails:

  • Email/phone doesn't match the order → AI does not share order details or make changes

  • AI asks if they used a different email or phone at checkout

  • If still no match → AI hands over to a human agent

You cannot customize:

  • The verification flow or what information is required

  • The matching logic (email/phone to order)

  • When verification is triggered