Three chat working modes, work schedule, AI model choice, behavior/selection/availability rules, agent-handoff topics and lead collection — in depth, with cases and example dialogues.
An online chat shouldn't work "like everyone else's." One store needs AI on full autopilot, another needs a live team on every message, a third needs something in between that shifts depending on the time of day and workload. That's why in Looma the chat has three working modes, and on top of them — a layer of AI settings: model, behavior rules, product selection rules, availability rules, topics for handing off to an agent, and lead-collection logic.
This is a detailed guide to every option: not just "what it is," but how it actually works in a conversation, which cases it covers, and what exactly to configure. All with examples. At the end — a short "situation → mode" table.
All the settings below live on one tab: Site Settings → AI Assistant → Config tab. Changes apply immediately to both the on-site widget and the connected messenger channels.
The mode is set in the Chat Mode block. It defines the main thing: whether the AI replies, or the message goes straight to a human.
The AI fully handles every conversation without any agent involvement. Agents can only view dialogues and manually take them over — there's no "call a human" button for the customer.
The AI handles conversations, and an agent joins in when needed: the customer asks, the AI decides on its own, or a trigger topic fires. The most common mode for stores with a team.
Every message goes straight to agents with no AI involvement. A classic live chat — with optional AI outside working hours.
The AI answers everything itself — 24/7, no days off. It advises based on your catalog and knowledge base, selects products, answers questions about delivery and payment (within your rules), and collects leads. Agents see every dialogue in the "Chats" section and can manually take over a conversation at any moment, but the customer can't summon an agent themselves — that option simply isn't in the widget.
An important detail: lead collection on autopilot always works, regardless of the work schedule. Since there's no one to hand off to, the only way to "not lose" an interested customer is to capture their contact. That's why in this mode it's especially important to keep lead collection turned on.
The main mode for stores with a team. The AI takes on the bulk of the load — in our own store it closes ≈8 out of 10 dialogues — and brings in an agent only when it's truly needed. The agent replies from the Looma dashboard or from any connected messenger (Telegram, Viber, Facebook, Instagram, email) — the customer doesn't see this; to them it's the same chat.
The handoff to a human happens in one of three ways:
"Call a manager," "I want a human" — in any language and wording. The AI recognizes the intent and hands off.
If a question is complex or the AI isn't confident in its answer, it doesn't "make things up" — it hands off to an agent. How eagerly it does so is controlled by the Agent Connection Mode (below).
You describe in advance the topics the AI shouldn't handle on its own (warranty, complaints, wholesale) — and on those it hands off to a human right away.
At the moment of handoff the dialogue moves to the "waiting for agent" status, online agents receive a notification (in the dashboard, sound, email, messenger), and the customer sees "Connecting you to an agent, please wait." If it's outside working hours per the schedule — instead of this, the message "we're currently outside of working hours" and a contact form are shown, and the dialogue only enters the queue after the customer has left their contact.
Two options that change the handoff "threshold":
High threshold: an agent joins when the customer asks directly or when the AI genuinely can't answer. The rest of the time the AI runs the dialogue itself and collects contact details. Suited for when the team is small and the AI closes most questions.
Low threshold: as soon as the AI can't answer fully and confidently, it immediately offers an agent, even if the customer didn't ask. During working hours lead collection is disabled in this mode — the bet is on live consultation. Suited for expensive products, where personal contact is decisive.
Describe in free form (in any language) the topics the AI shouldn't answer itself: for example, "warranty claims," "wholesale orders," "complaints," "status of an already placed order." The AI recognizes them by meaning, even if the customer phrases them differently — not by keywords. Up to 10 topics per site, 100 characters each. The topics apply in AI + Agent Connection mode (and in Direct Chat when AI outside working hours is enabled).
Every customer message goes straight to a human — the AI doesn't reply at all. Looma works like a classic live chat: a contact form is shown so you get the details even if an agent didn't manage to pick up the dialogue. This is the mode for teams that want live communication on every message or don't want the AI to talk about products at all.
An optional toggle in "Direct Chat settings." During working hours an agent joins immediately; outside the schedule the chat temporarily behaves like AI + Agent Connection mode — the AI answers, collects leads, and connects an agent when it can't help. Requires an enabled Work Schedule — without it the toggle does nothing.
The schedule tells the system when your agents are available. The customer can only request a chat with an agent during the specified hours; outside them, only the AI is available. The schedule is set once for the whole account — it's stored at the owner level, so changes here apply to all of the account's sites. You configure the timezone, hours for each day of the week, and days off.
The system takes the current time in your timezone, looks at the day of the week, and compares the time against that day's "from–to" range. A few important nuances:
So if you need night shifts, set the hours within a single day for each day separately, rather than "wrapping" the range across midnight.
One more detail: outside the schedule, agent notifications are muted by default — so the team isn't woken up at night. The dialogue still enters the queue and waits for the morning; each agent can turn on 24/7 notifications for themselves in their profile.
Separately from the mode, you choose the model the assistant "thinks" with. It determines the answer quality and the price per message.
An OpenAI model, fine-tuned for sales, consulting, and the specifics of your store. Enough for basic dialogues and search. Selected by default.
The most powerful model: faster answers, better understanding, and more accurate search. Worth taking for complex catalogs and expensive products, where consultation quality directly affects conversion.
Regardless of the mode, the assistant's behavior is shaped by a set of settings on the same tab.
When enabled, the AI doesn't just advise — it drives the order to completion: it identifies the product the customer is interested in, collects contacts through the configured fields, and places the order. The customer can also press the "Order" button next to a product. The order can be edited right in the chat — add another product, remove one, change it — until an agent picks it up. All orders land in the "Leads" section.
The AI continuously learns from your agents' real dialogues, deeply analyzes the catalog and categories (including promotions and discontinued products), and remembers the chat history — so over time it understands your store's specifics better and better. For example, noticing a recurring query that isn't in the product names, it picks a synonym on its own and adds it to search. A paid feature: the price scales with the volume of agent messages and the size of the catalog.
These are two different blocks of free-form rules (5000 characters each), and the difference matters:
Tone, language, formality, forbidden phrases, mandatory clarifications, business policies. They affect how the AI writes an answer.
Priority of brands, materials, sizes; what to exclude and what to boost in results. These rules shape the search query itself, so they're guaranteed to fire on product questions — unlike the general ones, which are a "fallback."
You control whether the AI talks about stock. Three options:
Where the AI gets stock data from is set separately, in "Availability settings" (feed or warehouse). The availability rules only control whether and how the AI talks about it.
A lead is a captured contact of an interested customer, and an order is that same lead with products added (there's no separate "order" entity). Here's how the AI collects them:
Not "at the end of the chat," but as soon as the AI sees an intent to buy — "I'll take it," "I want to order," "how do I buy" in any language. In "on request + leads" mode and on autopilot — always; in "agent priority" — when agents are offline.
As soon as the customer provides at least one field (for example, an email) — a lead is already created with the "new" status. Subsequent fields (phone, name) are merged into the same lead, rather than spawning duplicates. If the customer changes their mind about finishing — you already have the contact.
They're taken from your lead-collection settings: by default, email and phone, plus name and custom fields with hints. The AI asks for exactly what you configured — nothing extra.
All leads land in the "Leads" section: contacts, order products, text, time, channel, and the assigned agent. Statuses are new → in progress → done / rejected (they can be renamed and you can add your own). When an agent takes a lead into work, it's automatically assigned to them; in the dashboard the new-leads counter updates in real time across all devices.
If you've connected Telegram, Viber, Facebook, or Instagram in "AI Assistant" mode (tied to a site), the channel inherits the site's mode. If the site is in Direct Chat — messages from the messenger also go straight to an agent (taking the "AI outside working hours" toggle into account), just like the widget. One mode — the same everywhere.
You can switch the mode anytime in Site Settings → AI Assistant → Config tab — the changes apply immediately to both the widget and the connected channels.
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