AI agent capabilities and actions

Your AI agent can perform different types of actions. Some happen automatically, some need to be enabled, and some behaviors can't be changed.

A teammate can approve the AI agent's replies and actions before they go out, with Require approval before AI actions. See "Approval" below.

Information lookup (automatic)#

The AI automatically searches when relevant:

• Help articles - Your knowledge base content

• Canned responses - Pre-written templates

• Shopify products - Product details, pricing, availability

• Shopify orders - Order status, tracking, history

• Shopify store credit - The customer's store credit balance in each currency, plus recent credits, spends and expiries and the orders they came from. Useful when a customer can't find credit from a return or refund at checkout. This is always on and has no setting.

Conversation actions (always available)#

These are always available to your AI agent:

• Respond to customer - Send messages to customers

• Hand over to human agent - Transfer to your team

• Ask human agent - Pause and ask your team for input instead of handing over entirely. Must be enabled in AI agent settings. The AI posts an internal question, a human provides the answer, and the AI uses it to respond to the customer. The answer is automatically saved to AI knowledge for future conversations.

• Assign to agent or team - Route to the right person

• Add or remove labels - Categorize conversations

• Add private notes - Internal documentation

Shopify actions (must be enabled)#

The AI agent can automatically handle common customer requests by performing actions in Shopify. This eliminates delays when customers need immediate changes to their orders, especially outside business hours.

Switch these actions on in AI agent → Actions. Only Administrators see Actions in the menu:

Create order
Creates a draft order in Shopify for the customer and emails them a payment link to complete the purchase. The AI agent can add several items, a shipping address and a shipping method.

Cancel order
Cancels a Shopify order that hasn't been fulfilled and refunds the full amount the customer paid. The refund is always in full. The action can't cancel without a refund, refund part of the amount or keep back a fee. If the order is already fulfilled, the AI agent explains that it can no longer be cancelled.

Restocking and Shopify's cancellation email are not guaranteed. The AI agent decides both for each cancellation.

Edit order items
Adds, removes, swaps or changes the quantity of items on a Shopify order that hasn't shipped. The agent confirms the change with the customer first and checks stock for anything added. Removed items are restocked. If the new total is lower, the difference is refunded automatically. If it's higher on a paid order, the agent hands the conversation to your team to collect the extra payment.

Change shipping address
Updates the delivery address for a Shopify order. The agent will verify the new address with the customer before making the update.

Hold order fulfillment
Temporarily pauses the fulfillment process. Useful when you need to make changes, verify information, or resolve issues before shipping.

Tag Shopify order
Adds custom tags to orders for organization and tracking (e.g., "urgent", "gift", "review_needed").

Update marketing consent
Updates a customer's email marketing consent status in Shopify, allowing them to subscribe or unsubscribe from marketing emails.

Refund order
Refunds part or all of a paid Shopify order without cancelling it. The customer keeps the products. You configure guardrails: max refund percentage, max dollar amount per refund, daily spending cap, and daily refund count. The AI agent can never exceed these limits. It's also limited to one refund per conversation, per order, and per customer every 30 days. You can optionally allow the AI to offer store credit instead of refunding to the original payment method.

When this is useful: a customer contacts support because they received a damaged item, were overcharged, or are unhappy with a purchase. Instead of making them wait for a human agent, the AI handles the refund instantly within your configured limits.

Reship order for free
Creates a free replacement of a Shopify order: a completed order with the same items at 100% discount and free shipping, so the customer pays nothing. Supports partial reships if only specific items need replacing.

When this is useful: a customer's order arrived damaged, was lost in transit, or never showed up. Rather than refunding and making them re-order, the AI creates a replacement order on the spot. The customer gets their product without any extra steps, and you retain the sale.

Other actions (must be enabled)#

Create new conversation
Starts a separate email conversation with someone else, like a supplier or a carrier, and links it to the current conversation. You need an email inbox to switch this on. If the customer wrote in on chat, SMS or another non-email channel, the email goes out from the backup email inbox you pick on the action. The agent only does this when your guidance or the action's conditions tell it to.

Subscription actions (must be enabled)#

The AI agent can manage subscriptions for stores using Loop, Recharge, Skio, Appstle, Stay AI or Kaching. Each app supports different actions:

• Loop: cancel, reactivate, reschedule, skip next order, change delivery frequency

• Recharge: cancel, delay order

• Skio: cancel, pause, reschedule

• Appstle: cancel, pause, reschedule, skip next order

• Stay AI: cancel, pause, unpause, reactivate, skip next order

• Kaching: cancel, pause, resume

Switch them on in AI agent → Actions.

Cancel subscription

Cancels a customer's subscription, stopping all future recurring charges. For Loop and Kaching, you can turn on Offer discount before cancelling: up to two escalating offers (for example 15% off, then 25% off) that the AI presents one at a time before cancelling. You also set how many upcoming orders each offer covers. If the customer accepts, the discount is applied and the subscription stays active. The AI cancels only after the customer declines every offer.

When this is useful: subscription churn is expensive. Retention discounts give the AI the same save playbook a human retention specialist would use. You configure the offers, so you control the cost of retention.

Pause subscription

Pauses a subscription so recurring charges stop until it's resumed. Available for Skio, Appstle, Stay AI and Kaching.

Reactivate or resume subscription

Restarts a cancelled or paused subscription. Available for Loop, Stay AI and Kaching.

Reschedule subscription

Reschedules a subscription to a new billing date, allowing customers to change when their next charge occurs. Available for Loop, Skio and Appstle.

Delay order

Delays a subscription order to a custom date specified by the customer. Useful when customers need to postpone their upcoming delivery. Available for Recharge.

Skip next order

Skips the next upcoming order for a subscription. The order after will proceed as scheduled. For Loop, the next order moves one billing cycle later and the AI tells the customer the new date. Available for Loop, Appstle and Stay AI.

Change delivery frequency

Changes how often a subscription is delivered, for example from every month to every 2 months. The AI can only choose frequencies the subscription's plan already offers, and the next order date stays the same. Prepaid subscriptions are handed to your team. Available for Loop.

Loyalty actions (must be enabled)#

With Rivo connected, the AI can look up a customer's points, VIP tier and rewards. That part is always on. You can also switch on:

Redeem Rivo reward

Spends the customer's points on a subscription reward after they confirm.

Adjust Rivo points

Adds points when your guidance says to, for example missing order points or goodwill. You set the most points the AI can give in one conversation.

See Rivo integration.

Using actions in guidance#

Once enabled, reference actions naturally in your guidance instructions:

1. Check if the order is unfulfilled 2. If unfulfilled, apologize and cancel the order 3. Confirm the cancellation and explain refund timing

The AI recognizes action phrases and performs them automatically:

• "Cancel the order" → Executes cancel

• "Hold fulfillment" → Pauses shipping

• "Add tag: rush-delivery" → Tags the order

• "Assign to returns team" → Routes conversation

• "Escalate to human" → Hands over to agent

Enabling Shopify actions#

Navigate to AI agent → Actions to enable Shopify actions.

Each action can be individually enabled or disabled. Click "Edit" to configure conditions that must be met before the AI executes each action.

Setup requirements:

• If you installed Commslayer before August 2025, reauthorize your Shopify connection in Settings → Shops to grant order editing permissions

• Each action requires individual activation using the toggle switches

Extend with custom actions#

Need to connect your AI agent to external systems? Custom actions let you trigger HTTP webhooks to tools like Zapier, n8n, or your own APIs.

• Custom actions →

• Build a shipping issues tracker →

Approval#

A teammate can approve what the AI agent does before it happens.

Require approval before AI actions is in AI agent → Settings. Click Update settings after you change it.

You can also require approval for one action only. Open the action in AI agent → Actions and turn on Ask a human before running. The AI plans that action and waits for a teammate to approve it. Other actions keep running on their own.

With Require approval before AI actions on:

• Every reply to the customer waits for approval.

• Actions wait too: order and subscription actions, custom actions, private notes, labels, and assigning an agent or a team.

• A handover waits when it includes a message to the customer. A handover without a message, for example on email with Hand over silently on email ticked, goes through right away.

• Looking things up (orders, products, knowledge) doesn't wait. Neither does checking who the customer is, a question the AI agent asks your team, or resolving a conversation.

• The setting applies to the whole AI agent. It can't be switched on for one inbox, one channel or one topic.

Approving#

• Waiting conversations are in AI agent → Needs approval. When something is waiting, the AI needs approval button above the conversation list opens a queue of them.

• Open the conversation to see the Pending approval card. A reply has Approve, Adjust and Handover. An action has Approve and Reject. With more than one item on the card, Approve all approves everything.

• The AI agent works in steps and each step is approved separately. A private note, then a team assignment, then a handover message can be three approvals, one after the other. They can't be approved in one click.

• If you reject everything on a card, the conversation is handed over to your team.

• If the customer writes again before you decide, the card is withdrawn and the AI agent plans again with the new message.

• A card waits until someone decides. Nothing is sent or run in the meantime. Resolving the conversation removes its cards.

• Any teammate with access to the conversation's inbox can approve.

Customer verification#

Before the AI agent shares order details or changes anything, it checks that the customer owns the order. You don't need guidance for this. If it can't match the customer, it hands the conversation to your team.