Live agent handoff

Live agent handoff is the transfer of a customer conversation from an automated agent, such as a chatbot, voice bot or AI service agent, to a human support agent.

Signal and transfer. Platforms split a handoff into two parts. In Google Dialogflow CX, a live agent handoff response only tells the calling system that a person should take over. Dialogflow uses the signal to measure handoffs, does not change the session state, and leaves the actual transfer to your integration. It imposes no structure on the metadata sent with the signal, so you define what travels with it. Microsoft Copilot Studio hands off to a connected engagement hub and can share the full conversation history plus context variables, such as the last topic and the user’s recent phrases, so the human agent can continue where the bot stopped.

Warm and cold transfers. Between people, a warm transfer puts the customer on hold while the first agent introduces the case to the next one. A cold transfer connects the customer directly, with no introduction. Amazon Connect Customer documents both. Genesys Cloud calls them consult transfer and blind transfer.

What the receiving person needs. The transcript, what the automated agent already verified, what it tried, and why it stopped. Without that context, the customer repeats details they have already given.

When the other side is also an agent. A2A tasks are stateful and can run for a long time, so a business can route a task to a person and return the decision on the same task, instead of ending the exchange and asking the customer’s agent to start again. Emissar’s Handoff module, which would pass such tasks into a business’s existing help desk with the full exchange attached, is Planned.

Neighbouring terms. Escalation is the broader act of moving an issue to a higher tier or a specialist. Containment rate counts the conversations an automated agent finishes without a handoff.