How does Sarrai classify conversations by topic and question type
Short answer: Sarrai reviews every closed conversation and notes what it was about (the topic) and what the customer wanted (the question type). She always picks from the list of topics you manage under Settings → Topics. You read the result in the Topics and question types report.
When a conversation gets its turn
Only closed conversations get classified. While a conversation is still running, nothing happens.
That has a consequence worth knowing before you look at today's figures. A conversation Sarrai handled herself only closes after 24 hours of silence. So the classification usually shows up a day later, and the report about today always lags a little. See Closing and reopening a conversation.
If you switch classification on today, Sarrai picks up the closed conversations of the past seven days. She doesn't look back further than that. If you want your full history in the report, use the buttons in Classifying existing conversations.
If a customer writes again later and the conversation closes again, it gets classified again. Classification runs in the background in small batches, so expect minutes rather than seconds.
What one conversation produces
One conversation produces one to three mentions. A mention is one topic from that conversation, together with a question type: Question, Problem, Bug, Request, Complaint or Other.
If a conversation covered two things, you get two mentions and that conversation counts twice in the report. That's why the report shows the number of mentions and the number of conversations separately.
Sarrai never invents a topic
This is the part that clears up the most confusion. Sarrai always picks from your list. If no topic fits a conversation, the mention lands on Not classified and only the question type remains. With no topics in your list yet, literally everything ends up there.
The same happens when Sarrai is too unsure about her choice: the topic drops away and the question type stays. You set that line yourself with the Confidence threshold on the settings screen. The report doesn't show you which of the two causes applied, and it doesn't need to: both ask for the same fix, namely a sharper or an extra topic.
What classification does not do
It changes nothing about the conversation itself. The customer notices nothing, no message goes out, and the status stays closed.
It also doesn't steer Sarrai's answers. Classification happens long after the last message and has no effect on how Sarrai decides during a conversation. That's covered in How Sarrai works.
And it doesn't work retroactively. A topic you add today changes nothing about conversations that were already classified.
As soon as someone steps in by hand
If a colleague adjusts a conversation's classification in the inbox, Sarrai leaves that conversation alone for good. It never gets classified automatically again, not even when you add topics later or reclassify your history. See Adjusting a conversation's classification.
Good to know
Classification is part of the paid plans. See How does Sarrai's pricing work?
Every classification is an AI call and counts towards your usage. It does not count as a conversation, so it doesn't touch your conversation limit or your chat limits. If you work with your own key at the AI provider, classification runs on your credit. See The AI agent: billing mode, limits, and usage.
A conversation where the customer never typed anything gets skipped. No mention appears and it costs no usage. A blocked manipulation attempt does get classified, usually as Other without a topic, and you'll see those in the report as noise.
Also searched as
"what are my conversations about", "categorise conversations automatically", "why is everything not classified", "what does question type mean", "does the AI label my chats"
See also
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