The Hand over to AI Agent action lets a scenario pass a conversation to your AI Agent and then keep going once the agent is done. It does this with two branches: one for when the agent finishes its task, and one for when the handover runs out of time. This article explains how those branches fire and how to use them.
You'll find the action in the AI group of the scenario step picker. For a tour of all the AI actions, see AI Smart Actions in Scenarios.
⚠️ Despite how it sounds, this hands the conversation to the AI Agent, not to a teammate. To route a contact to a person, use Human Intervention: Handing Off to a Human.
What the handover does
When the step runs, it marks the conversation as agent-handled. From that point the AI Agent fields every incoming message itself, like a live chat, using your global personality, goals, and knowledge. The scenario pauses here and waits.
The handover ends one of three ways: the agent's task is judged complete, the expiration timer runs out, or you take the conversation back by hand. Which branch the flow follows depends on which of those happened.
Set a task (this drives the completed branch)
The action has an optional instructions field where you give the agent a task, like "Help them choose a plan and confirm which one they want." The task supports variables, so you can fold in contact or flow data.
The task matters for more than steering the agent. After each message the agent sends, Inrō checks whether that task is now fully complete. That check is what fires the Task completed branch.
⚠️ If you leave the task empty, there's nothing to mark complete, so the Task completed branch never fires on its own. The handover then ends only when it expires or you remove the agent by hand. Set a task whenever you want the flow to continue after a successful outcome.
The Task completed branch
This branch fires when the agent's task is judged done. After each agent reply, Inrō asks the model whether the task has been fully completed. On a "yes", it ends the handover, marks the step complete, and sends the flow down Task completed.
Use this branch for what happens after success:
Tag the contact or add them to a "Qualified" folder.
Send a confirmation message.
Start the next scenario in your funnel.
The Handover expired branch
This branch fires when the handover ends without the task completing. That happens when:
The expiration timer runs out. You set this on the action, and it defaults to 24 hours.
The conversation goes quiet. The agent's hold lapses on its own after about 24 hours with no activity.
You remove the agent from the conversation by hand in the inbox.
Use this branch to catch conversations that stalled: send a follow-up, drop the contact into a "Didn't convert" folder, or notify your team.
Follow-ups during the handover
You can switch on a follow-up so the agent nudges a contact who's gone quiet. Set a delay (a duration and unit), and if the contact hasn't replied by then, the agent sends one follow-up message. This is separate from the expiration branch: it keeps the conversation alive rather than ending it.
When the handover stops early
A few things end a handover before its timer:
Excluded folders and filters. If the contact lands in a folder your scenario excludes, or matches your automation-exclusion filters, the handover interrupts so the agent stops messaging them.
Manual takeover. Removing the agent from the conversation in the inbox ends the handover and sends the flow down Handover expired.
⚠️ The handover won't run at all if your activation rules are set to Disable all replies. The step is skipped and the flow carries on.
🐾 Netsuke's Tips
Always write a task if you want the flow to continue after the agent succeeds. A handover with no task can only end by expiry or manual takeover, so it'll always take the Handover expired path.
Keep tasks narrow and checkable. "Confirm which plan they want" has a clear finish line the completion check can detect. "Have a good chat" does not.
Build both branches, not only one. The Handover expired path is your safety net for conversations that stall, so use it to follow up instead of letting them go cold.
Set the expiration timer to match the conversation. A quick booking question doesn't need 24 hours; a considered purchase might.
What's next?
For the rest of the AI toolbox inside scenarios, see AI Smart Actions in Scenarios. To route conversations to a real person instead of the agent, see Human Intervention: Handing Off to a Human.