# One AI agent, the same rules on every channel.

Write your knowledge, procedures and handoff rules once. Then choose, place by place, where the agent answers.

In Aide, one agent answers your website chat, support email and Zendesk, Gorgias or Front inboxes with the same knowledge, order tools, procedures and handoff rules, each place switched on separately. Your team sees a customer's conversations from every channel in one timeline.

Source: https://aide.app/guides/omnichannel-ai-agent · Updated 2026-11-03 · By Ziyad Basheer

| | |
|---|---|
| Where it answers | Aide Chat, support email, and Zendesk, Gorgias or Front inboxes. |
| Shared everywhere | Knowledge, topics, procedures, order tools and handoff rules. |
| Switched on | Per chat widget, support address or helpdesk inbox, one agent each. |
| Sent in helpdesks | Email in Zendesk and Front. Live chat and email in Gorgias. |
| Customer history | Every conversation from one email address, as one timeline. |

In many AI support setups, each channel gets its own bot, with its own knowledge, its own rules and its own idea of when to call a person. A return policy changes and someone updates it in three places. A customer who chatted on Tuesday and emails on Thursday starts over.

Aide runs one agent across every channel. You write the knowledge, procedures and handoff rules once, then decide channel by channel where the agent answers.

## Where the agent answers

The agent's page has a Where it answers tab listing your chat widgets, support addresses and helpdesk inboxes, each with its own switch. Switch a place on and the agent answers there. Switch it off and your team handles it as before.

- Each row says what Aide does in that place: sends replies, writes drafts for your team instead (and why), or only watches while the inbox is being tried out.
- Each place has one agent. If you run two agents, say one per brand, moving a place from one to the other asks you to confirm first.
- Nothing switches on by itself. Deploying an agent turns on no place and never pauses another agent. A new chat widget, or a helpdesk inbox Aide discovers, gets your most recently deployed agent, and a helpdesk inbox only watches until you take it live. A new support address starts without an agent.


## What stays the same

The point of one agent is that a rule written once holds everywhere.

- Knowledge. The same articles, website pages, help center content and Shopify products ground every answer.
- Topics. Every customer message is classified against your own topics, and the topic's AI level decides how far Aide goes, on any channel.
- Procedures. They run on chat, email and helpdesk conversations alike, so "orders older than 14 days go to the Claims team" holds wherever the customer writes, unless a procedure's Only if limits it to one channel. Hand-off rules are procedures too.
- Order tools. Aide acts on a Shopify order only for a customer who proves it is theirs. In chat, that means being logged in, or an order number plus the matching email. On email, Aide acts only on orders placed with the address the email came from; an order number typed into the message isn't enough.
- Handoff rules. The same settings apply, and a customer who asks for a person reaches your team.

## What changes by channel

The agent writes for the channel it's on, and some channels get drafts rather than sent replies.

| Where | What Aide does once live |
|---|---|
| Aide Chat | Answers in the chat, with product cards, order and tracking cards |
| Support email | Answers in full paragraphs with the agent's signature; waits 30 seconds by default so two emails in a row get one reply |
| Zendesk | Answers email tickets; drafts internal notes on messaging, chat and SMS tickets |
| Gorgias | Answers live chat and email, and contact forms by email; internal notes on SMS, messaging and social |
| Front | Answers email; drafts on chat, SMS, messaging and custom-channel inboxes |

Each place is tested before it goes live. A helpdesk inbox moves from Watch only, where Aide drafts inside Aide and writes nothing to the helpdesk, to test senders, to a share of conversations, to everyone. A support address can run in shadow first, where Aide writes each reply as a private note and sends nothing. Starting from a helpdesk? See [how to add AI to your helpdesk](https://aide.app/guides/add-ai-to-your-helpdesk).

## One customer, one timeline

When a teammate opens a conversation, the details panel lists the customer's other conversations, newest first. Conversations from the same email address appear together, whether they came in by email, Aide Chat, Zendesk, Gorgias or Front.

Each entry shows the subject, when it was last active, the channel, its status and its topic, with open conversations standing out from closed ones. Selecting one opens it without losing your place in the view you were working.

So the teammate answering an email about order #1042 sees that the same customer chatted about it on Tuesday, and that a colleague already has an open conversation with them. Analytics can be filtered by channel too, and usage lists AI replies per channel.


## People come first

On every channel, a teammate who steps in takes over. Once a teammate is assigned to an email thread or takes it over, Aide stops replying there. In Gorgias, Aide only drafts once a teammate has replied.

Work across the queue follows the same pattern. A new procedure can [run on conversations already waiting](https://aide.app/helpdesk/apply-rules-to-existing-tickets) on any channel, and handoffs, missed SLA targets and orders waiting for approval can [post to Slack](https://aide.app/integrations/slack).

## Good to know

- Aide does not handle voice or phone today.
- Public social comments and reviews get drafts in Gorgias, never public replies.
- A chat where the visitor left no email stands alone in the timeline.

## Frequently asked questions

### Can one AI agent answer chat, email and Zendesk with the same rules?

Yes. In Aide, switch the website chat, the support address and the Zendesk brand on for the same agent, and it answers all three with the same knowledge, procedures, order tools and handoff rules. In Zendesk it replies on email tickets and drafts internal notes on messaging, chat and SMS tickets.

### Do I need a separate knowledge base or bot for each channel?

No. One Aide agent uses the same knowledge, topics and procedures wherever it answers. Only the format changes, from short chat replies to emails that end with the agent's signature.

### Can I turn the AI on for chat but not for email?

Yes. Each chat widget, support address and helpdesk inbox has its own switch. Switch one off and no agent answers there; your team handles it as before.

### Does Aide answer WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger?

The connections are built, but they aren't offered to new workspaces until Meta App Review is complete. In Gorgias, Aide drafts internal notes on those messages, and a WhatsApp number brought into Front through a custom channel gets drafts for your team.

### How is an omnichannel AI agent priced in Aide?

By AI replies, not by channel. Each customer message Aide replies to or drafts for counts as one, on chat, email or a helpdesk ticket, and replies from your team are always free. Free includes 150 AI replies a month, and Starter is $39 a month for 1,000.

## Related
- [Add AI to your helpdesk](https://aide.app/guides/add-ai-to-your-helpdesk)
- [Aide Chat](https://aide.app/chat)
- [Aide Helpdesk](https://aide.app/helpdesk)

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