What Changes for Office Staff and Customers When an AI Agent Is On?
An agent set up on the AI agents screen (menu, then AI agents under Administration) changes nothing until it is On, and then only for the people switched on in its Who may use list. This page says, agent by agent, what your office staff and your customers then see, and what they see when something is missing.
What does Fiona add for office staff?
When Fiona is On on the AI agents screen, the customer screen in ABM Service gains a Log by voice button, so a member of staff can log a call for the customer on screen by talking to Fiona. Its menu, headed Log a call by voice, offers Talk here (in the browser or the desktop app, using the microphone), Call me back (Fiona rings their paired phone) and Pair a phone.
What Fiona does with a call:
- She logs it for the customer that was on screen, under the member of staff's own ABM user number.
- She offers only the call types ticked under Call types Fiona may use, and starts the call at the Default call status unless the caller asks for another.
- She names somebody to follow the call up only from your Follow-up users.
- She never schedules an engineer: the call arrives on the Calls list unscheduled.
Who sees what:
- A member of staff switched on in Fiona's list uses her straight away.
- A member of staff not on her list can still press Log by voice, but AgentDesk's window then opens on a screen telling them to ask their administrator. Switch them on under Who may use.
- A member of staff whose ABM user has no e-mail address sees every way in the menu blocked, with "has no email address in ABM, so the calls agent cannot identify you. Contact your administrator." The e-mail is added in ABM itself, by whoever looks after ABM.
- When ABM Service is opened at a plain http address, Talk here and Call me back are blocked, because browsers allow the microphone only on a secure page; Pair a phone still works.
The Log by voice button is not shown at all while Fiona is Not set up, Incomplete or Off.
What does Victoria add on the Customer portal?
When Victoria is On on the AI agents screen, the Customer portal gains a Log by voice button beside Log a call on its Home, Calls and Account pages, so a customer can log a call for the account in view by talking to Victoria. The button is shown only to customers whose sign-in has Log a call ticked on the Customer sign-ins screen.
What Victoria does with a call:
- She logs it on the account the customer had in view, with the customer as the contact, and files it as user 1, the way a call logged on the Customer portal is filed.
- She offers only the call types that customer's portal sign-in may use.
- Every call starts at the one status chosen under Status of every call she logs, Open unless you chose another, whatever she was asked.
- She names a follow-up user only from your Follow-up users, and never schedules an engineer.
A customer who is not switched on in Victoria's list can press Log by voice, but AgentDesk's window then opens on a screen telling them to ask their administrator. The call arrives on your Calls list in ABM Service like any other new call; ABM Service itself sends no e-mail about it.
See How to Set What a Customer May Do on the Customer Portal for the Log a call box.
What does ABM Service AI add on the call screen?
When ABM Service AI is On on the AI agents screen, two buttons on the call screen in ABM Service start working for the office staff switched on in its list:
- Fill in with AI, in the heading of the Details on a new call — it reads the details the operator typed or pasted and proposes the comment, the call type, the fields chosen on the Call fields tab of the AI context screen (see Using the AI Context Screen), and a tidy layout of the details. Nothing changes on the call until the operator applies the proposals.
- Voice note — the operator says what they want to note, presses Done, and it is typed in as a note.
Both buttons are shown even when they cannot be used. Pressing one then explains what it is and why it is not on yet. In these messages "the AI assistant" means ABM Service AI, not a ChatGPT or Claude connected through the AI assistants screen:
- ABM Service AI is not set up, or is off: it says the AI assistant "is not switched on here yet" and that it can be set up under Administration → AI agents.
- The person is not on its list: "Your company has the AI assistant, but you are not on its list of people yet." Switch them on under Who may use.
- Their ABM user has no e-mail address: "The AI assistant knows people by their e-mail address, and your ABM user has none."
- ABM Service AI is set up but its connection is not working, for example its key is no longer accepted: "The AI assistant is set up here, but its connection is not working." Run Update configuration on its page.
- The feature is not switched on for your company: the message says your software supplier, DP Systems, can turn it on. That switch is your supplier's, not on this screen.
When you, as user 1, see the message about ABM Service AI not being switched on, not being on its list, or its connection, it has a button, Open AI agents, that brings you to the AI agents screen.
What do the documentation agents and Riley change?
The two documentation agents and Riley, on the AI agents screen, are not used on ABM Service's own screens:
- ABM Doc Agent answers office staff's questions about ABM inside AgentDesk for Windows.
- ABM Portal Doc Agent answers customers' questions about the Customer portal.
- Riley lets engineers log what they did, and their times, by voice on the engineers' mobile app.
What you see of the documentation agents in ABM Service is their tickets. When either cannot answer a question, it raises a ticket: a new call on the Ticket customer, of the Ticket call type, status Open, logged as user 1. With your own account as the ticket customer, the tickets land in your own calls list. See How to Change an AI Agent's Settings.
For any agent, the people who may use it are only those switched on under Who may use on its page: see How to Choose Who May Use an AI Agent.