While the messages your workflow sends are fixed and pre-written, the AI stays active in the background whenever the customer responds. This article explains what the AI does during a workflow and how it affects your AI usage.
Why the AI is involved
Workflows present choices, ask questions, and collect input. But customers do not always respond in the exact format you expect. Instead of failing on anything that is not a perfect match, the AI interprets what the customer meant and handles the response naturally.
What the AI does
Input normalization
When a customer replies to a choice or input step, they do not have to respond with the exact wording you defined. If your workflow presents the options "Yes" and "No", the
customer can type "yeah", "sure", "nah", or "no thanks" and the AI will interpret their intent and match it to the correct option. The same applies to numbered options. If you present three choices, the customer can reply "2" or describe what they want in their own words.
Format handling
When collecting structured input like phone numbers or emails, the AI normalizes the response into the expected format. For example, if a customer types their phone number as
"345 678 9012", the AI can convert it to "+393456789012" based on the validation format you set.
Clarification
If the customer's response is ambiguous, the AI will ask a brief clarifying question before continuing the workflow.
Invalid input
If the customer provides something that does not match what the workflow expects, the AI will politely ask them to try again and explain what is needed.
Off-topic messages
If a customer asks something unrelated to the workflow during a scripted step, the AI can choose to exit the workflow and respond freely using the assigned Knowledge Base or Tools, or gently guide the customer back to the current step. This depends on the context and what the customer asked.
AI usage
Because the AI processes every customer response during a workflow, workflows do use AI credits. The scripted messages themselves do not consume AI, but interpreting and normalizing customer replies does.