Customizing the Knowledge reply in an AI agent with agentic AI

TheKnowledge replyis one of the defaultsystem repliesin an AI agent withagentic AI. This reply is triggered during a conversation between a customer and an AI agent when no relevantuse caseis detected based on the customer’s question. When this happens, the AI agent searches the availableknowledge sourcesto generate an answer. If no relevant knowledge is found, the AI agent informs the customer that it can’t answer their question.


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The functionality described in this article is being rolled
out to all Suite and Support plans from May 11 through June 12, 2026. You may not
see this functionality in your account yet. See this announcement for details.

The Knowledge reply is one of the default system replies in an AI agent with agentic AI. This reply is triggered during a conversation
between a customer and an AI agent when no relevant use case is detected based on the customer’s question. When
this happens, the AI agent searches the available knowledge sources to generate an answer. If no relevant
knowledge is found, the AI agent informs the customer that it can’t answer their
question.
This article contains the following topics:

Understanding the default Knowledge reply procedure
Customizing the Knowledge reply procedure



Understanding the default Knowledge reply procedure

The Knowledge reply uses a generative procedure as its reply method. By default,
the procedure is populated with a simple procedure map that includes a Search for knowledge block with two
branching conditions:


Knowledge found: When knowledge is found, the AI agent sends an
AI-generative answer to the customer.

No knowledge found: When no knowledge is found, the AI agent falls back
to the Default reply.





Customizing the Knowledge reply procedure

While the default Knowledge reply procedure works out of the box, you can customize
it to better suit your business needs.
Some common customizations you might want to make include:

Sending a waiting message
Asking a follow-up question
Escalating after repeated knowledge search attempts

To customize the Knowledge reply procedure


In the AI agents workspace, select the AI agent you want to work
with.
Click
Content in the sidebar, then select Use cases.
In the list of use cases, find the Knowledge reply row.
In the Reply method column, click Procedure. The procedure
builder opens.

Edit the procedure as necessary. For more information on working with the
procedure builder, see Creating generative
procedures.

Click Publish procedure.




Sending a waiting message

You can customize the Knowledge reply procedure to have the AI agent send a
waiting message to the customer before searching the connected knowledge
sources.


Note: If you configure a waiting message in the procedure,
make sure you do not also turn on the Send a waiting message while generating
knowledge answers setting. Doing both results in double waiting
messages being sent to the customer.

To add a waiting message


Open the Knowledge reply
procedure for editing.
In the procedure builder’s free-text field, enter text similar to the
following:
Add a Generate answer block before the Search for knowledge
block to acknowledge the customer’s question and set
expectations (for example, “One moment while I check that for
you.”).


Click Update procedure.
Verify that the procedure map looks the way you expect. If not, repeat
the previous two steps until it does.

To make your changes live, click Publish procedure.





Asking a follow-up question

You can customize the Knowledge reply procedure to have the AI agent ask a
follow-up question after delivering a knowledge answer to make sure the
customer’s issue has been resolved.
To add a follow-up question


Open the Knowledge reply
procedure for editing.
In the procedure builder’s free-text field, enter text similar to the
following:
After the knowledge answer is shared, add an Ask question block
to confirm whether the customer is satisfied with the answer. If
the customer says “no,” route to another knowledge search, a
clarifying question, or escalation.


Click Update procedure.
Verify that the procedure map looks the way you expect. If not, repeat
the previous two steps until it does.

To make your changes live, click Publish procedure.





Escalating after repeated knowledge search attempts

You can customize the Knowledge reply procedure to have the AI agent escalate the
conversation to a human agent if it’s unable to generate an answer based on the
connected knowledge sources after multiple tries.
To escalate after repeated knowledge search attempts


Open the Knowledge reply
procedure for editing.
In the procedure builder’s free-text field, enter text similar to the
following:
Trigger an action to track how many times the Knowledge block
returns No answer found. Then perform Check condition on that
count and, if it’s greater than 2, perform Escalate to
immediately.


Click Update procedure.
Verify that the procedure map looks the way you expect. If not, repeat
the previous two steps until it does.

To make your changes live, click Publish procedure.





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