How AI replies work
AI replies come with messaging on Premium and higher plans. An AI reply is a step in an automation. It reads the conversation, searches the knowledge you gave it and writes an answer, which is sent on its own. The AI answers only where you add an AI Reply step, and it runs with your own OpenAI, Claude, Gemini or DeepSeek key, so your AI provider bills the usage directly.
The same key turns on reply suggestions in the Unified Inbox, where Suggest a reply with AI drafts an answer that your teammate edits before sending.
Connect your AI provider
- Create an API key with your provider. Create an API key in your OpenAI, Claude, Gemini or DeepSeek account. For AI Knowledge, use OpenAI or Gemini.
- Open the AI integrations. In Postocial, open Integrations in the sidebar and choose the AI tab.
- Connect the provider. Pick the provider, paste your key and choose CONNECT. Keys are encrypted at rest and never sent back to your browser.
All four providers can use your contact tools and custom functions. OpenAI, Claude and Gemini can also search the web, and AI Knowledge needs OpenAI or Gemini.
Give the AI something to answer from
AI Knowledge holds the facts your AI replies may use: your FAQ, policies, product pages and notes. Your plan sets how many sources the workspace can keep: 200 on Premium, 1,000 on Agency and 1,000 on Unlimited.
- Open AI Knowledge. Open Salesbot > Automations and choose AI Knowledge.
- Create a collection. Group your sources by topic, such as Shipping and returns or Opening hours, so each AI Reply step searches only what it needs.
- Add your sources. Upload files (PDF, TXT or MD, up to 20 MB each), add a web page, import a sitemap (up to 100 pages at a time), paste a list of page addresses, or write FAQ entries and notes.
- Test what it finds. Use Test knowledge to ask a question and see the snippets the AI would answer from. If the right one is missing, add or fix a source.
Keep sources short and current. One page per topic answers better than one giant file, and an old price list leads to old prices in your answers.
Add an AI Reply step to a flow
- Open a flow. Open an automation in the flow builder, or start from the AI Customer Service bot or AI Lead Qualification bot template.
- Add an AI Reply step. Add the step where the AI should answer, then write its prompt: who it is, what it may help with and when it must hand over to your team.
- Choose the model and what it reads. Pick the provider and model, how much of the conversation it reads, and the AI Knowledge collections it may search.
- Set a fallback. Write the message it sends when it can't answer, and add a typing delay so replies don't land instantly.
- Try it in the playground. Ask it the questions customers really send, tricky ones included, then publish the flow.
What the AI can do besides answering
- Search your AI Knowledge collections, and the web with OpenAI, Claude or Gemini.
- Read and update the contact: phone number, tags, pipeline stage, notes and custom fields.
- Assign the conversation, move it to the unassigned queue or hand it to a person.
- Call your own systems with custom functions, such as an order lookup.
An example prompt
You answer questions for Northside Bikes, a repair shop. Use only the Services, Shipping and Opening hours collections. Keep answers under 60 words. If someone asks for a repair quote, makes a complaint or asks anything the collections don't cover, say a mechanic will reply and hand the conversation to the team.
Decide when AI may answer
Open Salesbot > Settings > Conversation rules:
- Let the AI reply is your workspace switch. Turning it off stops every AI step at once, and the rest of each flow keeps running.
- Wait before an AI reply adds a pause of up to 5 seconds, so answers land the way a person's would.
- When an agent replies decides whether a teammate's reply pauses the automation.
Inside the flow, the fallback message and a hand-over step cover the questions the AI shouldn't answer, and a Clear AI memory step resets what it remembers about the conversation.
Costs, privacy and your part
- Costs: your AI provider bills you for AI replies, suggestions and AI Knowledge on your key. Postocial doesn't charge per AI reply, and these features don't use your plan's AI credits, which pay for writing and images in the composer. AI credits on each plan.
- Privacy: the messages, contact details and knowledge an AI step needs go to your provider, under your agreement with them. How we handle AI features.
- Disclosure: tell people they're chatting with an automated assistant where the law requires it. Meta's Messenger and Instagram messaging policy asks for it in those cases and recommends it everywhere.
- Accuracy: AI can get things wrong. Keep a way to reach a person, and read AI conversations regularly.