When does Sarrai transfer a conversation over to a human?
Sarrai hands the conversation over to a human when it is not sure of its answer or when the customer's tone calls for it.
Short answer: Sarrai hands off to a human when she's not sure of the answer, when an internal expert doesn't respond in time, or when the customer's tone calls for it. Think of something urgent, or an angry customer who needs a human touch.
The moments she hands it over
Sarrai doesn't guess. The moment she's unsure of the right answer, she first puts the question to an internal expert. If no answer comes within the time limit, she apologises to the customer and moves the conversation to the support inbox.
She also reads the tone. If she senses a question is urgent, or that a customer is angry and needs de-escalation, she brings in a human right away instead of answering herself.
In the conversation, the customer then sees a message along the lines of: an agent will pick this up as soon as possible. The conversation lands in the Inbox, where someone takes over.
Beyond these three reasons that Sarrai judges herself, a conversation also reaches a human when a colleague who was asked doesn't answer in time (the expert channel timeout, two minutes by default), or as soon as an agent answers and takes over the conversation themselves.
A knowledge gap is not a reason to escalate
An important distinction: "I don't know the answer, but a colleague does" is not an escalation. In that case Sarrai first asks a colleague through the expert channel and keeps talking to the customer herself. She only escalates when a human is genuinely needed (a human was asked for, there's frustration, or an action a human has to take). That's why some conversations stay with the AI instead of coming to the inbox, and that's by design.
On a vague opener like "my order never arrived" or "I can't sign in", Sarrai finds nothing at first. She doesn't give up there either: she asks one short clarifying question, and the reply to that starts a fresh search. That comes before the out-of-knowledge message and is capped at two follow-up turns in a row. See How Sarrai works: from question to answer.
Opening hours are not the same as having someone available
Your helpdesk can be open without anyone being reachable. If everyone is set to temporarily away or on leave, or if only blocked or deleted accounts are left, Sarrai no longer offers to check with a colleague. So she no longer promises "let me check that for you" when the question would reach nobody.
What the customer hears instead is that no colleague is available right now, with an offer to pass the conversation on. That's a different message from the one outside opening hours, where she says you're closed.
Only the statuses available and focus count as reachable, and only colleagues with the admin or operator role. An expert channel with nobody available at that moment drops out of the options, and the question takes the personal route instead. See Setting your presence.
Good to know
This is built this way on purpose: the human stays involved at the moments that matter most. The faster your team responds in those cases, the sooner the customer is helped.
One setting is crucial here: the default escalation assignment. If it isn't set, an escalated conversation ends up unassigned under All conversations and no one gets a notification. This is the most common setup mistake, so make sure there's always someone responsible (a person or a team). See Setting the default assignment for escalated conversations.
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See also
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