For AI agents: the complete documentation index is available at https://docs.clickmax.io/en/llms.txt, the full documentation bundle is available at https://docs.clickmax.io/en/llms-full.txt, and this page is available as Markdown at https://docs.clickmax.io/en/features/automations/ai-sdr-step.md.
  • English

      • How do I let the AI chat with the contact and continue by the chat outcome?

      Add the AI SDR step to the automation. It opens the chat through the assignment connection you choose — WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram or Webchat — and the AI leads: it asks the questions, fills the contact fields you chose and, when the chat ends, the automation continues through the outcome exit — for example Qualified, Booked a meeting, Disqualified or Asked for a person.

      Before you start:

      • An AI agent with an assignment turned on. See How do I put the AI agent to answer on WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram or Webchat?.
      • On official WhatsApp, an approved template on the assignment number. Anyone who has not messaged that number in the last 24 hours always gets the template, because outside that window WhatsApp does not accept free text.
      • On Instagram, Telegram and Webchat there is no template: the AI can only talk to whoever already has a chat with that account, inside the channel window (24 hours on Instagram, or 7 days with the Human Agent tag; no window on Telegram and Webchat). It works well with message received, comment or new conversation triggers.
      • The custom fields the AI will fill already created on the contact. The contact's own fields (name, email, phone, tax ID, Instagram, occupation, city, state, birth date) are already available. The AI does not create new fields.

      Steps

      1. In the automation, click + and choose AI SDR. The block has four groups, and each opens its own settings when you click it on the card: First message, Who leads, What to find out and Rules and limits.
      2. In First message, choose the AI assignment. Only assignments that are on are listed. If you don't have one yet, click Create assignment in the list (or on the step itself, on the canvas). It opens in another tab: with no published agent, the guided SDR setup (see How do I set up the AI SDR from scratch?); with one agent, its Handling tab; with several, the My agents list. When you come back, the new assignment is already listed.
      3. Choose the Connection (only the connections of that assignment, from any channel). What comes next depends on its channel:
        • Official WhatsApp: choose the Approved template and, if it has variables, fill in each one. (Optional) In Free text inside the 24h window, write the message for whoever messaged that number in the last 24 hours. They get the text, with no template cost, and everyone else gets the template. Leave it empty to send the template to everyone.
        • Instagram, Telegram, Webchat or unofficial WhatsApp: there is no template. The notice The agent starts the conversation shows up: the AI itself writes the first message in the chat the contact already has with that account, following the Chat goal and the Way of talking. If the message that triggered the automation was already answered by the assignment a few minutes ago, the AI doesn't send a second reply: it waits for the contact and leads from there.
      4. Check the connection's channel on the card: it shows in Who leads, next to the assignment.
      5. In Who leads, see the assignment's agent, choose the Way of talking (see below) and write the Chat goal. E.g.: "Understand the company size and book a demo."
      6. In What to find out, under Fields to find out, click Add field for each piece of information the AI must find out. The list has the contact fields and the custom fields; if the field does not exist yet, type its name and choose Create field — it is created as a text field. Mark Required on the ones that count for qualification and, if you want, write a tip for the AI.
      7. In Qualified when, set how many filled required fields are enough to qualify.
      8. (Optional) In Disqualified when, click Add condition and build the rule. E.g.: Monthly budget is less than 2000.
      9. (Optional) In Rules and limits, under The AI must never, write the rules the AI follows for the whole chat.
      10. In Limits, adjust Maximum AI messages, Stop words and Wait for a reply for (hours).
      11. Connect each exit of the step to the next step and publish the automation.

      How to choose how the AI talks

      In Who leads, the Way of talking sets how the AI writes: message length, tone, emotion and emojis. It overrides any other style instruction, including the agent's persona and whatever is written in the Chat goal.

      Pick one of the templates. Each card shows an example of how the AI will sound:

      • Close consultant — warm and confident, up to 2 short sentences. Every new step starts with it.
      • WhatsApp chat — laid-back like a friend, one line at a time, with casual abbreviations.
      • Straight to the point — one short sentence, no fluff and no emoji.
      • Upbeat — high energy, exclamation and an emoji now and then.
      • Warm — calm, listens before selling, no pressure.
      • Sophisticated — elegant and concise, no slang or emoji.

      When you pick a template, its text shows in Style instruction and you can adjust anything. Once the text no longer matches the template, it shows as Custom. To write your own, choose From scratch.

      Picking another template replaces the whole text with the new template's.

      The instructions are written in Portuguese, the language the AI talks to the contact in.

      Steps created before Way of talking existed have none set: the AI follows the tone of the assignment's persona until you pick a template. Chats already in progress keep the way of talking they started with.

      Where the automation continues

      The step has ten exits, in two groups.

      The AI decides

      • Qualified — the required fields reached the number in Qualified when.
      • Booked a meeting — the AI booked a meeting with the contact on the assignment's calendar, at a free time the contact accepted. The AI confirms the time to the contact and only then the automation continues here. The meeting is created like any CRM booking: the booking confirmations are sent and automations with the Meeting Booked trigger fire.
      • Disqualified — the answers matched Disqualified when, or the AI ended the chat because the contact is not a fit. If both rules apply at once, Disqualified wins.
      • Asked for a person — the contact asked to talk to a person.
      • AI not sure — the AI could not answer with confidence.

      Automatic — not decided by the AI

      • Limit reached — the AI reached Maximum AI messages, or was about to ask the same question for the third time.
      • AI error — the AI failed on two replies in a row (for example, an invalid provider key; brief failures, like a busy provider, it retries on its own before counting), a message from the AI did not reach the contact because the channel refused it (for example, the WhatsApp number is disconnected or blocked), or the chat could not start because the assignment was turned off or the contact is already in a chat with that same assignment. If you cancel the automation run, the step's chat ends with it and the contact is free for another one.
      • No reply — the contact stayed silent for Wait for a reply for (hours). If the assignment has follow-ups set up, they happen first, and after the last one the contact still has that same time to reply. The automation also continues here right away when the chat could not even start: the first message did not reach the contact (for example, they opted out of WhatsApp) or, on Instagram, Telegram and Webchat, the contact never talked to that account or is outside the channel window.
      • Asked to stop — the contact wrote one of the Stop words in a short message. The contact stops receiving messages on the chat's channel (WhatsApp, Instagram or Telegram) even if this exit is not connected to anything.
      • Person took over — someone on the team took over or was assigned the chat in Live Chat. If the contact is already being handled by someone on the team on that connection when the automation reaches the step, nothing is sent and the automation continues here right away. To stop the contact's other automations (a follow-up cadence, for example) at the same moment, use the Attendant took over the conversation trigger as an exit condition — see how to stop the cadence when an attendant takes over the conversation.

      Good to know

      • Asked for a person, AI not sure, Limit reached and AI error already hand the chat to the team before continuing (see Where the chat goes when it is handed to the team). The contact is not left without an answer even if the exit has no next step.
      • When the chat ends, through any exit, the AI stops answering in that chat. If the contact replies after that, the chat is handed to the team, with the message Contato respondeu depois que o SDR de IA encerrou and the exit the chat ended through. This happens once: the contact's next messages stay in the same chat, which is already with the team.
      • On official WhatsApp, the AI knows which message started the chat: the template or free text the step sent is part of its context, so a "yes" from the contact is read as an answer to that message.
      • If someone on the team takes over the chat while the AI is still writing, its reply is not sent.
      • If the contact sends several messages in a row while the AI is replying, it replies again to what was left unanswered.
      • If the contact sends a voice message and Live Chat automatic transcription is on, the AI waits for the transcription (up to about a minute and a half) and replies to what the contact said. Without a transcription, it replies knowing only that a voice message arrived. For photos, videos and documents, the AI reads the caption.
      • If the chat has already ended and the automation stayed stuck on the step, it moves on by itself through the chat's exit within 20 minutes.
      • An exit with no next step ends the automation for that contact.
      • Outside the assignment's business hours, the AI tells the contact once that the team is closed and resumes on their next message within business hours. Time outside business hours does not count as silence.
      • If the automation reaches the step outside the assignment's business hours, the first message does not go out: the contact waits in the step and gets the message (or the AI opens the chat) when business hours open.
      • Stop words only count in short messages. "Stop" ends the chat; "I'll stop by the office at 6pm, call me later" does not.
      • The AI saves answers as text, the way the contact said them. With Replace what the team filled in off, it only fills empty custom fields or ones it filled itself, and contact fields that are empty.
      • For Birth date, the AI only saves a recognizable date; "next week" is left out.
      • The chat follows the step settings as they were when it started. Editing the step later does not change chats already in progress.

      Where the chat goes when it is handed to the team

      When the AI hands the chat to the team — through one of the exits above or because the contact replied after the end:

      • The chat goes into the Live Chat queue.
      • A message in the chat, visible only to the team, explains why. E.g.: SDR de IA passou a conversa para a equipe (saída: Pediu um humano), followed by the reason the AI recorded. These messages are always in Portuguese.
      • If the assignment has a team in Who gets the conversation (set on the agent's Handling tab, under Edit), the chat is assigned to someone on that team, using the team's own rotation. Only people who handle the chat's connection take part. If no one on the team is available, or the assignment has no team, the chat stays open with no attendant, for anyone on the team to pick up.
      • If someone on the team is already handling the chat, it stays with that person.

      How to see what the AI did in a chat

      Open the contact's execution in the step-by-step execution panel and select the AI SDR step. It shows whether the chat is In progress or Ended, which exit it left through and why, how many messages the AI used out of the limit, the current value of each field in the step and every tool the AI used. Fields with no value and no Saved fields entry mean the AI never saved them.