The Chat Assistant is the optional AI tier. It is one name for two things that behave very differently, and the difference matters.
Drafts, on any conversation
On any conversation, press AI draft and it writes a suggested reply from your trade, your prices and policies, the job, and that customer’s history with you. The draft goes into your message box. You read it, change what you like, and press send, or delete it. Nothing goes to the customer until a person sends it. There is no setting that changes that. AI drafts.
The booking assistant, on new enquiries only
Switch it on and it answers messages from people who are not on a job. It says in its first message that it is your assistant. It works out what they need from the list of services you gave it, asks how soon they need you, offers days and times you actually have free for a job that long, takes their details, and puts the job on your dispatch board.
Anything urgent is never booked by it: the customer is told someone will call back, and your staff are alerted straight away. Anything it is unsure about, outside your area, or not on your list is handed to a person with the details it has gathered. The moment a member of staff types in a conversation, it stops on that one. Setting it up, what your customer sees, and taking over from it.
It never touches a conversation that is already on a job. Those stay with people, with drafts if you want them.
What both know
Whatever you tell them in the Knowledge tab: your trade, your hours (read from ServiceM8), your area, and the notes about what you do, what you charge, and what you will not do. Those notes are treated as fact, and the assistant will not guess past them. Teaching it about your business.
What it costs
The Chat Assistant is switched on for the whole free trial so you can see what it does before deciding. After that it is an extra line on your subscription, added or removed from the Account tab whenever you like and charged pro rata. Each draft, and each time the booking assistant has to read a message, uses one credit from a monthly allowance. Button taps cost nothing. AI credits.
Where it is
WhatsApp Settings, the Chat Assistant tab. Two sub-tabs: Knowledge for what it knows and how it answers, Settings for the booking assistant.