# AI settings

> Turn the AI on per channel, set when it replies and how long it waits for your team, choose what it may do, and test it before customers see it.

Source: https://docs.message24.net/owners/ai/ai-settings/

Everything that controls the AI lives on one page: what it knows, when it replies, what it is allowed to do on each channel, and a private test chat to try it out. Open it from **Settings > AI Settings**.

:::note
If you don't see **AI Settings**, your role doesn't include AI settings. Ask a business admin. Only members who can manage schedules can add or edit schedules and the AI agent.
:::

## How the page is laid out

On a large screen the settings are on the left and the **Try out your AI** chat stays on the right, so you can change something and test it straight away. On a phone, switch between the **Settings** and **Try it out** tabs.

From top to bottom, the settings are:

1. **What your AI knows**: your knowledge base articles. See [Knowledge base](/owners/ai/knowledge-base/).
2. **Business Hours**: your schedules, which decide when the AI replies.
3. **Your AI agent**: a name, personality and voice. Only shown if this feature is enabled for your business.
4. **Channel Settings**: which schedule, language, articles and permissions each channel uses.
5. **Product links**: the address of product pages on your website.

A banner at the top of the page tells you if something is stopping the AI from replying, such as a channel with no schedule or a $0 balance, with a button to fix it.

## Turn the AI on for a channel

A channel only gets AI replies once it has a schedule. Assigning a schedule is the on switch.

1. Go to **Settings > AI Settings**.
2. If you have no schedules yet, create one under **Business Hours** (see below).
3. Under **Channel Settings**, pick the schedule for the channel. With one channel, use the **Replies during** menu. With several channels, use the **Schedule** column.

The channel's badge changes to **AI on**. To turn the AI off for a channel, set its schedule back to **No schedule** (or **Not set**).

Each channel shows one of three states:

| Badge | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **AI on** | The AI is replying on this channel. A grey note may say which hours it doesn't cover. |
| **AI off** | The channel has no schedule. |
| **AI paused** | The channel has a schedule, but the schedule never lets the AI reply, or your balance is $0. The note under the badge says which. |

## Create a schedule

A schedule sets your opening hours and how long the AI waits before it steps in, with one delay for open hours and another for after hours. One schedule can be shared by several channels.

1. Under **Business Hours**, select **Add Schedule**.
2. Enter a **Name**, for example "Main Hours", and choose a **Timezone**.
3. Under **Weekly Hours**, set each day to **Closed**, **24 Hours** or **Custom**. For **Custom**, enter the opening and closing time.
4. Under **Business Hours**, set the **AI delay (seconds)** that applies while you are open, or tick **Never use AI** to keep the AI out during open hours.
5. Under **After Hours**, do the same for when you are closed.
6. Select **Create**.

New schedules start with 900 seconds (15 minutes) during business hours and 30 seconds after hours.

### What the delay does

When a customer sends a message, the AI waits for the delay before replying. If someone on your team replies within that time, the AI stays out of it. If nobody does, the AI takes over the conversation and replies.

- A delay of **0** means the AI replies immediately.
- **Never use AI** means the AI never takes over in that window. Messages wait for your team.
- Once the AI has taken over a conversation, it answers the customer's next messages without waiting, until someone on your team replies.

Each schedule card sums this up in one sentence, for example "During open hours the AI replies after 15m. Outside them it replies after 30s.", and shows **Open now** or **Closed now** in the schedule's own timezone.

:::tip
Opening hours only decide which delay applies. A schedule with every day closed still lets the AI reply, using the after-hours delay all the time. The AI only stays silent on a channel when both delays are set to **Never use AI**, or when the schedule has no open days and the after-hours delay is **Never use AI**.
:::

For how conversations move between the AI and your team, see [Handoff and escalation](/owners/ai/handoff-and-escalation/).

To edit or delete a schedule, use the pencil or bin icon on its card. A schedule that a channel is using may not be deletable until you assign that channel a different one.

## Channel settings

Each channel has its own settings under **Channel Settings**.

### Default language

Choose **English**, **Arabic** or **Kurdish**. The AI replies in whatever language the customer writes. The default language is only the fallback when it can't tell.

### Which articles the channel uses

By default every channel uses every knowledge base article. To leave some out for one channel, for example an article that only applies to your WhatsApp customers:

1. Select the article count next to **Knows about** (or in the **KB** column), for example "12 articles".
2. Untick the articles this channel should not use.
3. Select **Save**.

The label changes to show how many are included, for example "10 of 12 articles". You can also tick channels on each article directly in the knowledge base list.

### More settings

Select **More settings** next to a channel to open what that channel's AI is allowed to do:

- **Reply to comments on posts**: comment replies are now set up under [Automations](/owners/ai/automations/), where you choose which posts they cover. Not available on TikTok.
- **Send product links**: the AI can link customers straight to a product page on your website. You need to fill in **Product links** first, or the switch stays disabled.
- **Take orders**: the AI collects a customer's order details and saves them for you as a suggested order. On by default. Turn it off on channels where you don't want the AI to take orders; it will then point customers to the buying steps in your knowledge base instead.

In the channel table, a **Links** chip shows when product links are on and a **No orders** chip shows when order taking is off.

Which order details the AI asks for (name, phone, address and so on) is set for the whole business under your order settings. See [Orders](/owners/catalog/orders/).

## Product links

If you have an online shop, the AI can send customers a link to the product they asked about.

1. Expand **Product links**.
2. Enter the address of a product page, using `{id}` where the product code goes, for example `https://shop.example.com/products/{id}`.
3. Select **Save**.
4. Turn on **Send product links** for each channel that should send them (under **More settings**).

When **Product links** is empty the AI sends no links.

## Your AI agent: name, personality and voice

:::note
This section only appears if AI agents are enabled for your business. If you don't see **Your AI agent**, ask Message24 support to enable it.
:::

Without an agent, the AI replies with text and has no name. An agent gives it a name, a personality and a voice. You have one agent per business, and you switch it on per channel.

1. Under **Your AI agent**, select **Create agent**.
2. Enter a **Name**. This is what your customers will know the assistant as.
3. Choose a **Personality**:
   - **Warm & friendly**: relaxed and personal, like a shopkeeper who knows you. A good default.
   - **Precise & professional**: measured and exact. No exclamation marks, emoji or small talk.
   - **Upbeat & playful**: energetic, with a light emoji touch.
4. Under **Voice**, choose a **Female** or **Male** voice and select **Hear this voice** to listen to a sample.
5. Choose **When to speak**:
   - **Persuasive**: answers voice with voice, and speaks at the moments that close a sale. A good default.
   - **Reserved**: only replies with voice when the customer sends a voice note.
   - **Voice-forward**: speaks whenever the reply can be spoken.
   - **Off**: never sends voice notes.
6. Choose whether to **Admit to being an AI when a customer asks**. It is ticked by default.
7. Select **Create agent**.
8. Under **Channel Settings**, pick the agent in the **Agent** column for each channel that should use it. The **Agent** option is part of the multi-channel list; if you only have one channel, starting a test chat adds the "AI Test" channel and the list appears.

Channels without the agent keep replying as an unnamed, text-only AI.

When the AI speaks, it sends a short voice note for the conversational part of the reply and puts anything the customer needs to read, such as prices, product names or links, in a text message. Voice notes aren't sent on TikTok. If a language can't be spoken yet, the agent form says so and conversations in that language get a text reply.

If your knowledge base sets a tone of voice, the article wins over the personality you pick here.

To delete the agent, first set every channel's **Agent** back to **No agent**.

## Try out your AI

The **Try out your AI** chat lets you message the AI as a customer would, before real customers do. Only you see it and no real customer is contacted.

1. Select **Start test chat**.
2. Type a message as a customer and wait for the reply. It is shown in an Instagram-style chat so you see what customers see.
3. Change an article or setting, then ask again.
4. Select **Start over** to clear the chat and begin a fresh conversation.

The first time, Message24 creates a private test channel called "AI Test" with a "Test customer" conversation. The test channel uses your first schedule. If you have no schedule yet, a note above the chat explains why the AI isn't answering.

:::tip
Test the questions your customers actually ask: your delivery fee, whether a specific product is in stock, a price for two of something, a complaint. If an answer is wrong, the fix is usually a clearer knowledge base article.
:::