AI drafts

For: Account owners, administrators and agents·Requires: Replyco AI, part of every plan; AI auto-drafts switched on for your company by Replyco; AI categories switched on; the Admin permission with Edit rights to set the draft instructions·Screenshots show sample data

Most of a support day is the same few questions: where is my parcel, when will it ship, does this hub work with my laptop. AI drafts write the first reply to those messages as they arrive, following your own rules, so an agent only has to read, adjust and send it. Nothing reaches the customer until someone on your team accepts the draft.

What it does

Answering “where is my order?” for the fortieth time takes a minute each time: open the ticket, find the order, copy the tracking number, write the same polite email. Meanwhile the ticket that needs a real decision waits in the same queue. And a reply written in a hurry forgets the greeting, the apology or the one policy detail that stops the customer from writing again.

With AI auto-drafts on, Replyco checks every new customer message and, when the message can be answered safely without a decision from you, writes a complete reply and keeps it on the ticket until someone accepts or rejects it. The draft follows the email structure your customers expect, uses placeholders for the order data Replyco fills in when it sends, and follows the instructions you give it. From there:

• Replyco decides which messages get a draft. A message must fall into an AI category other than a general or irrelevant one, and an AI check turns down anything that would commit you to a refund, a replacement or a judgement call. See which messages get a draft.
• You tell the AI how your company works. Company-wide instructions apply to every draft, and each account can add rules of its own, for example for eBay’s messaging rules. See every setting, explained.
• Your team sees drafts where it works. A sparkle marks each ticket with a draft in the ticket lists, the reply editor opens with the draft already written, and Tickets›Smart Filters counts the drafts waiting for you. See AI drafts in your tickets.
• Agents can ask for a draft on demand. The AI Draft button in the editor writes a reply from a short description of what it should say. See drafts on demand.
• Usage is counted. Every check and every draft is an AI action in your AI usage report. See AI drafts in the usage report.

A draft is never sent on its own. Replyco keeps each draft together with the customer message that triggered it, and records whether it was accepted or rejected, with the reason and feedback the agent gave.

Before you start

Requirement	Details
Replyco AI	AI drafts are part of Replyco AI, which every plan includes, and every feature is on during a trial. Without it, AI Settings does not appear under Tools. See What each plan includes.
Auto-drafts switched on for your company	Replyco switches auto-drafts on for a company; there is no switch for it in the app. While they are on, Tools›AI Settings shows the AI Draft Settings tab. If the tab is missing, ask Replyco support to switch auto-drafts on.
AI categories	Drafts are written only for messages that AI categories has categorised, so AI Categories on the General tab of Tools›AI Settings must be on. It is on for new companies. See AI categories.
Who can configure it	Tools›AI Settings, where the draft instructions are set, is shown only to users with the Admin permission with Edit rights; for anyone else, a bookmarked link to it opens the start screen. Checking and saving instructions need the same rights. Every agent sees and handles the drafts on the tickets they can open. See User permissions and roles.
Accounts	Draft instructions for one account are offered for every account that brings in tickets. Accounts that only bring in chats, such as WhatsApp, are not listed, because chats get no drafts.
AI usage	Checking a message for a draft and writing the draft are one AI action each, listed under Admin›Billing › AI Usage. See Billing.

Good to know

AI drafts never answer a customer by themselves. Every draft waits on its ticket until an agent sends it with Accept & Send or throws it away with Reject. Customers only ever see a draft that someone on your team chose to send.

Understanding which messages get a draft

Every new message from a customer goes through the same four stages. A draft exists only when the message passes all of them:

Stage	What happens	A message that stops here
1. The message arrives	Replyco takes messages from customers on ticket channels: email, marketplaces and webstores. Replies from your team and customers on the AI Customers Blacklist are skipped.	Your own reply to the customer, or a message from a customer you added to the blacklist
2. AI categories sorts it	The message gets one or more of your AI categories. If every category it gets is the general or the irrelevant one, there is no draft.	Hi, quick question. gets only the general category
3. The check before drafting	A second AI call decides whether a reply can be written without committing you to anything.	The charging case of my earbuds arrived cracked. What will you do about it? needs your decision on a damage claim
4. The draft is written	The AI writes the reply, using your instructions and the data that exists for the ticket, and Replyco stores it on the ticket.	None: the draft waits for an agent

Here is how typical Northwind Electronics messages fare with no instructions of your own:

Customer message	AI categories	Draft?	Why
Where is my parcel? I ordered the Bluetooth Speaker Mini on Monday.	Shipping & Delivery	Yes	The answer comes from order data: the tracking number and link are placeholders Replyco fills in
Is the USB-C hub compatible with a MacBook Air?	Product	Yes	A pre-sales product question, answered from general product knowledge
Hi, quick question.	General Inquiry only	No	The general category alone never gets a draft
I received the 4-in-1 hub instead of the 7-in-1.	Order Management, Returns / Refunds / Exchanges	No, unless your instructions cover wrong items	A wrong item needs your judgement; an instruction such as “send the correct item without asking for a return” turns it into a routine case
Refund me today or I’m opening a PayPal dispute.	Returns / Refunds / Exchanges	No, unless your instructions cover disputes	A dispute and a refund both need your decision

The category names above are Replyco’s defaults; yours may differ. For German companies the general and irrelevant categories are the German ones.

How Replyco decides

• Only the categories of the new message count. The ticket’s earlier categories play no part. A message with a general and a specific category, such as General Inquiry and Product, passes the category stage because of the specific one.
• The check protects you from promises. The AI that checks the message is told that its job is to protect the seller from commitments the seller has not approved. It turns a message down when it is a complaint that needs a decision, when a reply would promise an action, an outcome or compensation, when it is a dispute, a damage claim or a missing or wrong item, or when there is any doubt whether you would agree to what the customer asks.
• It allows two kinds of message. A reply that can be written entirely from the order data Replyco has, such as a tracking number, the order status or the delivery dates, without promising anything. And a pre-sales or product question, such as compatibility, specifications, features or how to use something, that general product knowledge can answer.
• Your instructions are exceptions. The check is told that when a message matches a scenario your instructions describe, it may allow a draft it would otherwise refuse. This is how “Wrong item received: send the correct item” lets the wrong-hub ticket get a draft.
• The writer follows a fixed structure. The AI is told to write as an experienced support agent for an online seller: a greeting on its own line, short paragraphs that acknowledge the message, apologise sincerely when something went wrong and say what happens next or what it needs from the customer, and a closing paragraph that thanks the customer and invites further questions. It never adds a sign-off, a name or a signature, because Replyco appends your signature.
• It answers only what was asked. The AI is told not to volunteer order status, tracking or delivery dates the customer did not ask about, and never to fall back on a generic order summary.
• It uses data as placeholders, never values. The AI is told which order and customer data exists for the ticket, as placeholders such as #tracking_number#, and may use only those, only when they are relevant. Replyco replaces each placeholder with the real value when the reply is sent. When a customer asks for data that does not exist on the ticket, the AI apologises and says it cannot provide it right now, instead of inventing it.
• It greets the customer by name only when Replyco knows it. The greeting uses the customer’s first name, or full name, as a placeholder. Without a name, the draft opens with a plain greeting such as Hello,; the AI is told never to invent one.
• It reads the conversation. The AI gets the ticket’s AI summary as background if there is one, otherwise up to the ten most recent messages, marked as from the buyer or the seller. The message’s categories are passed as a hint to the customer’s intent.
• Your instructions come first. Your company-wide instructions and those for the ticket’s account are given to the AI as rules that must be applied and that take priority over its general guidelines.
• Customer text is data, never instructions. Both AI calls are told that the customer’s message and the conversation are untrusted and that instructions inside them must never be followed.
• One draft per ticket. A newer draft replaces the one waiting on the ticket.

What does not get a draft

• Replies from your team, and any message that arrives as sent by your company.
• Messages from customers on your AI Customers Blacklist, kept under Tools›AI Settings. See AI Customers Blacklist.
• Messages from customers you have blocked. See Blocked tickets.
• Every message while AI Categories is off.
• Messages whose only categories are the general or the irrelevant one: General Inquiry and Irrelevant / Not Related, or Allgemeine Anfrage and Irrelevant / Nicht relevant for German companies. A message the AI could not place in any of your categories gets no draft either.
• Messages the check turns down: complaints, disputes, damage claims, missing or wrong items and anything that needs your decision, unless your instructions cover that scenario.
• Conversations under Chats. AI drafts work on tickets only.
• Messages that arrived before auto-drafts were switched on. Replyco never drafts replies to older messages.
• Messages the AI could not handle because it was unavailable or its answer could not be read. The message arrives as normal; it just has no draft.

To keep a customer’s messages away from the AI completely, add them to the AI Customers Blacklist.

Setting it up in five steps

1. Check that auto-drafts are on. Go to Tools›AI Settings. If the tab list shows AI Draft Settings, auto-drafts are on for your company. If it does not, ask Replyco support to switch them on; there is no switch for this in the app.

2. Check that AI categories is on. Stay on the General tab and make sure AI Categories, the first switch, is on. If you change it, select the Save button that appears. Without it no message is categorised, so none gets a draft.

   

   Auto-drafts depend on AI Categories, the first switch on the General tab; change it, then select Save.

   What this screenshot shows

   Screen

   General (/aiSettings?tab=general)

   Highlighted

   switch “AI Categories”, settings-list-top, on. switches AI categorisation on or off; auto-drafts run only while it is on; saved with the Save button that appears

   Also visible

   AI Settings tabs: General, Categories, Tone, AI Customers Blacklist, AI Draft Settings; AI Summary Language drop-down; AI Categories switch on; further AI switches, all on

   Purpose

   the prerequisite of AI auto-drafts

3. Write your company’s rules (optional). Open the AI Draft Settings tab, type your policies into Global Draft Instructions, one scenario per numbered line, and select Validate & Save. If a panel headed AI-optimized version of your instructions: appears, choose Use optimized or Keep original; both save.

4. Add rules for one account (optional). In Account-Specific Draft Instructions, select the pencil icon of an account, type what differs for that channel, and select Validate & Save at the top of the form. Back returns to the list.

5. Work through the drafts. Open Tickets›Smart Filters and select a card under Tickets with AI Draft Available, or select the sparkle next to a ticket in any ticket list. Read each draft, change what does not fit, then send it with Accept & Send or turn it down with Reject.

Suggested rollout

Do steps 1, 2 and 5 first and leave the instructions empty for a week. Without instructions the check only lets through tracking, order-status, delivery and product questions, which are the safest drafts to learn from. Reject what does not fit with a reason, then write one instruction for the scenario you corrected most often, and watch the drafts for that scenario before adding the next.

Every setting, explained

AI drafts have one master switch that Replyco sets, one prerequisite on the General tab, and everything else on the AI Draft Settings tab of Tools›AI Settings, in the order below.

Auto-drafts, the master switch

Where

Not in the app. Replyco switches auto-drafts on or off for your company. You can tell they are on when Tools›AI Settings shows the AI Draft Settings tab.

What

On: every new customer message goes through the four stages, and drafts appear in the ticket lists, the reply editor and Tickets›Smart Filters. Off: nothing new is drafted, and the AI Draft Settings tab, the sparkle column, the draft in the editor and the Tickets with AI Draft Available cards are hidden. Drafts already waiting and your instructions are kept, and come back when auto-drafts are switched on again. Companies that register in Replyco’s UK region start with auto-drafts on; companies in the German region start with them off.

Why

Auto-drafts change how your whole team answers tickets and add AI actions to many incoming messages. With the switch outside the app, nobody turns drafting on or off for everyone by accident.

AI Categories, the prerequisite

Where

Tools›AI Settings › General, the first switch on the tab. Change it, then select Save; the button only appears once something has changed.

What

Drafting is part of categorising a message: Replyco first categorises it, then checks whether it can draft a reply. With the switch off, no new message is categorised and none gets a draft. The categories themselves are managed on the Categories tab. See AI categories.

Why

The category is what tells Replyco whether a message is a routine question at all. A message that fits none of your categories is too vague to answer safely.

Global Draft Instructions, your company’s rules

Where

Tools›AI Settings › AI Draft Settings, the text box at the top. Validate & Save appears under the box once you change the text.

What

Your policies, in your own words, up to 1,000 characters; the counter under the box shows how many you have used. The box starts empty, and its grey placeholder shows one of ten example instructions, chosen at random each time the tab opens. Your rules reach the AI in two places: the check before drafting treats them as exceptions it may allow, and the writer applies them with priority over its general guidelines. They also apply to drafts from the AI Draft button and to rewrites with Refine with AI and Improve draft.

Validate & Save first sends your text to an AI check:

• Rejected: text that tries to take over the AI (phrases such as “ignore previous instructions”, “you are now”, “forget everything”, “system:” or “override”), tries to reveal the AI’s instructions or internal data, tells the AI to deceive, harm or treat customers unethically, or has nothing to do with customer support policy. Nothing is saved, and the reason appears in red under the box.
• Valid but vague: a panel headed AI-optimized version of your instructions: offers a version that is specific about when each rule applies, what to do step by step, numbered by scenario and without vague words. Use optimized saves that version; Keep original saves yours unchanged.
• Valid: your text is saved, and Success confirms it.

An empty box is saved straight away, without a check, and means “no company rules”. Spaces at the start and end are removed. Each check is one AI action. If the check cannot run, nothing is saved, and you can select Validate & Save again.

Why

Out of the box, the check refuses anything that needs your decision, because the AI cannot know your refund or replacement policy. Writing the policy down turns those cases into routine ones for you, with the answer you would have given.

Do	Don’t
Describe a policy that holds for every order: “Wrong item received: apologise and send the correct item; do not ask for a return first.”	Depend on a value the AI cannot see: “If order #12345 is late, offer a refund” or “if the order total is over £50”
Name the scenario, then the steps: “Damaged on arrival: ask for a photo of the damage and the parcel label, then offer a replacement or a refund.”	Stay vague: “Be helpful with refunds and try to offer alternatives.”
Give each scenario its own numbered line	Mix several scenarios in one sentence
Say what to offer and what not to ask for	Leave the AI to guess what you would agree to
Keep to support policy, tone and length: “Keep replies to three short paragraphs.”	Add a sign-off such as “End every draft with Kind regards, the team”: Replyco appends your signature, so the draft would carry two
Write rules that are safe to apply without a person checking them first	Tell the AI to promise anything you would not stand behind if an agent sent it without reading

Global Draft Instructions apply to every draft; the accounts below can each add rules of their own.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

AI Draft Settings (/aiSettings?tab=aiDraftSettings)

Highlighted

textbox “Global Draft Instructions”, tab-top, filled, 546 of 1000 characters. holds the company-wide rules every AI draft follows; saved with Validate & Save

Also visible

How it works and How to set up buttons; four numbered company rules; Account-Specific Draft Instructions list: five ticket accounts with pencil icons

Purpose

the AI Draft Settings tab fully configured

When your instructions are safe but vague, Validate & Save offers a sharper version; Use optimized saves it.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

AI Draft Settings (/aiSettings?tab=aiDraftSettings)

Highlighted

button “Use optimized”, optimization-panel, enabled. saves the AI-optimized instructions in place of the typed ones

Also visible

vague instructions in the text box; AI-optimized version with two numbered scenarios; Keep original button; Validate & Save button

Purpose

how Validate & Save checks and improves draft instructions

The AI never sees the values

The AI is told which order, product and customer data exists for a ticket, never what it is. It cannot compare an order total, recognise a customer or check a SKU, so a rule that depends on a value can never be applied reliably. Describe what to do in a situation instead.

Account-Specific Draft Instructions, rules for one account

Where

Tools›AI Settings › AI Draft Settings, the list under Global Draft Instructions. Selecting a row shows the account’s saved instructions; the pencil icon opens the form Account-Specific Draft Instructions for that account, with Validate & Save at the top right and Back to return.

What

One text box per account, up to 1,000 characters, checked and saved exactly like Global Draft Instructions, including the optimized version. The list shows every account that brings in tickets; chat-only accounts such as WhatsApp are not listed. For a ticket from this account, the AI gets your company-wide instructions first and this account’s instructions after them. Replyco does not remove a company rule that an account rule contradicts: both reach the AI. Emptying the box and saving removes the account’s rules.

Why

Channels have rules of their own. eBay does not allow you to take a buyer off eBay, Amazon has its own return process, and your webshop can offer what a marketplace cannot. Account rules keep those differences out of your company-wide text.

The pencil icon on an account opens its own instructions, which the AI reads after the global ones.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

AI Draft Settings (/aiSettings?tab=aiDraftSettings)

Highlighted

textbox “Account-Specific Draft Instructions”, account-form, filled, 187 of 1000 characters. holds the extra rules for drafts on tickets from this account; saved with Validate & Save in the form header

Also visible

Back link; heading: northwind-electronics - Account-Specific Draft Instructions; Validate & Save button; the eBay rule in the text box

Purpose

instructions for one account

How it works and How to set up

Where

Tools›AI Settings › AI Draft Settings, the two buttons at the top right.

What

How it works opens Replyco’s help article on AI auto-drafts in a new browser tab. How to set up opens the window How to set up custom AI instructions: what instructions are for, examples of what you can configure, how account instructions differ, and the warning Important — how AI sees your data with a wrong and a right example. Close closes it. Neither button changes a setting.

Why

The warning is the one thing most people get wrong on their first try: writing rules about specific orders or customers that the AI cannot see.

The AI knows which order and customer data exists, never its values, so write rules that work without them.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

How to set up custom AI instructions (/aiSettings?tab=aiDraftSettings)

Highlighted

heading “Important — how AI sees your data”, dialog-body, visible. explains that the AI sees which data exists but not its values

Also visible

what you can configure: three bullet points; integration-specific instructions paragraph; wrong example with an order number, correct example with a policy; Close button

Purpose

guidance for writing draft instructions

How the settings combine

For each ticket, the account the ticket came from decides which account instructions apply:

Global Draft Instructions	Instructions for the ticket’s account	What the AI follows	Which messages the check lets through
empty	empty	Replyco’s own rules only	Tracking, order-status and delivery questions answerable from order data, and product questions
filled	empty	Your company rules, before its general guidelines	The above, plus the scenarios your company rules describe
empty	filled	That account’s rules, for that account’s tickets	The above, plus the scenarios the account rules describe
filled	filled	Company rules, then the account’s rules; both apply	The above, plus the scenarios either describes

In every row, drafts need auto-drafts on and AI Categories on, and the message must pass the category stage.

Which should I choose?

Put policies that hold everywhere into Global Draft Instructions and only what differs into an account’s instructions. Because both reach the AI, an account rule that replaces a company rule should say so, for example “On eBay, instead of offering a refund by message, point the customer to eBay’s return process.”

AI drafts in your tickets

Once drafts are being written, your team meets them in four places. They all show the draft that is waiting on the ticket, which answers the customer message that triggered it.

Indicator	Meaning	Where
Sparkle on a coloured tile	The ticket has a draft waiting	Second column of every ticket list
Generated response	The draft, ready to edit	The AI Draft Response window
AI Suggested Response with a coloured border	The reply editor holds the AI’s draft	The ticket, after Respond
Cards under Tickets with AI Draft Available	How many tickets have a draft waiting	Tickets›Smart Filters

Ticket list, the sparkle

Every ticket list shows a column without a heading, always second, with a sparkle for each ticket that has a draft waiting. The column appears only while auto-drafts are on, and it is not offered in the column picker because it cannot be switched off. Selecting the sparkle opens the AI Draft Response window for that ticket without leaving the list. For every other column and filter, see Ticket lists.

Why: the sparkle turns the list into a queue of replies that only need a check, so the routine answers of the day can go out in one pass.

A sparkle in the second column marks a ticket with an AI draft waiting; select it to review the draft.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

Not Resolved (/tickets/notresolved)

Highlighted

button “Review AI draft suggestion”, table-second-column, visible. opens the AI Draft Response window for this ticket

Also visible

3 of 10 tickets with a sparkle; no column heading above the sparkles; other rows with an empty cell

Purpose

find tickets with an AI draft in the list

The review window

The AI Draft Response window shows the ticket’s number, subject and account at the top, with Previous ticket and Next ticket arrows to the other tickets with a draft on the same page. On the left: how many earlier messages the ticket has, such as 3 previous messages, the customer’s latest message, and the Generated response in an editor, with the signatures for the ticket’s account added at the end. On the right: the AI Summary when AI summaries are on, the order and the products.

• Change the text directly, or describe a change in the field next to Refine with AI, for example make it shorter or add that we ship from Bristol, and select Refine with AI. The rewrite follows your draft instructions, as the draft itself does.
• Preview shows the reply with every placeholder filled in, as the customer will receive it.
• Tick Resolve after Reply or Archive after Reply to close the ticket with the reply; they start as set in your own settings.
• Accept & Send sends the reply through the ticket’s channel. When a ticket further down the page has a draft, the button reads Accept, Send & Next and the window moves on to it.
• Reject, or Reject & Next, asks Why are you rejecting this draft? with seven reasons: Inaccurate, Wrong tone, Missing information, Not relevant, Too long, Too short and Other. The reason and the feedback are both optional. Confirm Rejection removes the draft; Cancel keeps it.

Why: everything needed to judge the draft is on one screen: what the customer asked, what the AI wants to say, and the order it is about.

Rejecting a draft asks for a reason and optional feedback; Confirm Rejection removes the draft from the ticket.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

AI Draft Response (/tickets/notresolved)

Highlighted

button “Confirm Rejection”, dialog-left, enabled. records the rejection with its reason and feedback and removes the draft; the window moves to the next draft

Also visible

latest customer message; Generated response with greeting tag, body, closing and signature; Refine with AI field; seven rejection reasons, Missing information selected; feedback field, Cancel; AI Summary, Order Details, Product Details

Purpose

reject a draft and say why

Inside the ticket, the reply editor

When a ticket has a draft waiting, Respond opens the reply editor with the draft already in it, followed by the account’s signatures. The label AI Suggested Response and a coloured border mark it, and a field headed Improve draft takes an instruction to rewrite it: type what to change and press Enter. The rewrite follows your draft instructions, as the draft itself does. At the bottom, Accept & Send and Reject take the place of the usual send button. Accept & Send sends whatever the editor holds, including your changes, and applies Resolve after Reply and Archive after Reply as ticked. Reject shows the same seven reasons and an optional feedback field; after Confirm Rejection, the editor starts again with just your signature and the usual send button. While a draft is shown, Replyco does not suggest a template for the ticket.

If someone saved a reply on the ticket earlier, that saved reply opens instead of the AI draft, with the usual send button, and the draft stays on the ticket. For everything else in the editor, see Answer a ticket and The ticket screen.

Why: agents who work ticket by ticket get the same head start as those working from the list, and nothing is sent without a deliberate click.

With a draft waiting, Respond opens the editor with the AI's reply; edit it, then Accept & Send or Reject.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

Respond (/ticket/:threadId)

Highlighted

button “Accept & Send”, editor-bottom-right, enabled. marks the draft accepted and sends the editor's text through the ticket's channel

Also visible

label AI Suggested Response; Improve draft field; draft with greeting tag, three paragraphs and the account signature; Tags, Translate, Preview, Add Attachment; Resolve after Reply, Archive after Reply; Reject button

Purpose

send or reject a draft inside the ticket

Smart Filters, Tickets with AI Draft Available

Tickets›Smart Filters ends with the section Tickets with AI Draft Available while auto-drafts are on. Its three cards count tickets with a draft waiting:

Card	Counts	Includes resolved or archived tickets
My	Tickets assigned to you	No
Not Resolved	All tickets that are not resolved	No
All	Every ticket with a draft waiting	Yes

Selecting a card opens the AI Draft Response window on the ticket with the most recent last message in that set, and the arrows move through the rest. A card showing 0 opens nothing. The counts refresh when you close the window. For the other cards on this page, see Smart Filters.

Why: it is the one place to see how many drafts are waiting across every list, and to clear them in order without hunting through the lists.

Tickets with AI Draft Available counts the drafts waiting for you, for your open tickets and in total.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

Smart Filters (/ticket-smart-filters)

Highlighted

button “Not Resolved”, ai-drafts-section, count 3. opens the AI Draft Response window on the unresolved tickets with a draft

Also visible

Smart Filters cards; AI Categories cards; Tickets with AI Draft Available: My 0, Not Resolved 3, All 3

Purpose

work through every waiting draft from one place

Drafts on demand in the editor

Where

In any ticket, select Respond; AI Draft is the second button in the editor’s toolbar, next to Assistant. It is there for every company with Replyco AI, whether or not auto-drafts are on.

What

The button asks Describe what the reply should say…. Type what the reply should achieve, at least three characters, and press Enter; shorter input shows Describe what the reply should say. The AI writes the reply with the same rules as an auto-draft, your company and account instructions included, and makes your description its main goal. It reads the ticket’s AI summary and the last ten messages, and answers the customer’s latest message. There is no check before drafting, because you decided that a reply is needed. Once a draft is in the editor, the field on top takes further instructions to rewrite it. A ticket with no message from the customer cannot be drafted: Replyco answers “There is no customer message in this conversation to reply to.”

Why

Auto-drafts deliberately skip anything that needs a decision. Once you have made the decision, the AI Draft button turns it into a finished email in the customer’s language.

Three ways to use it:

• A customer asks for a refund on a kettle that stopped working: type offer a free replacement, no need to send the old one back and the draft explains the replacement.
• A marketplace buyer asks to change the delivery address after dispatch: type explain the parcel has already left and suggest contacting the carrier; when the ticket has tracking data, the draft can include the tracking placeholders.
• A German customer writes in German: type the intent in English and the draft still comes back in German, the language of the customer’s message.

Your instructions apply here too

AI Draft follows your Global Draft Instructions and the account’s instructions. If a company rule says “never offer refunds by message”, a description asking for a refund is set against that rule.

AI drafts in the usage report

Where

Admin›Billing › AI Usage. The tab is shown to companies with Replyco AI, except on user-based plans. See Billing.

What

Every call to the AI is counted as one AI action, with its type and, where there is one, the user and the ticket. For AI drafts that is: the check before drafting for each message that passes the category stage, the draft itself when the check allows one, each AI Draft and each rewrite with Improve draft or Refine with AI, and each Validate & Save. Categorising the message is counted as an AI category action whether or not a draft follows.

Why

Drafting happens in the background on many messages. The usage report is where you see how much AI your drafting uses.

Three ways to use it:

• After switching auto-drafts on, compare a week’s usage with the week before to see what drafting adds.
• If usage jumps, check whether one account brings in many messages that pass the category stage but rarely get a draft; each of them still costs a check.
• Compare usage by user to see who relies most on AI Draft and rewrites.

A check costs an action even when no draft follows

Every message that passes the category stage is checked, and the check is an AI action whether it allows a draft or not. Messages stopped at the category stage cost only the categorisation.

What you need to know

Topic	Fact
Nothing is sent automatically	A draft waits on its ticket until an agent accepts or rejects it. Customers only receive what an agent sends.
One draft per ticket	A newer draft replaces the waiting one.
Only new messages	Replyco drafts replies to messages that arrive while auto-drafts are on. Older messages are never drafted afterwards, and new instructions change only drafts written after you save them.
What the AI reads	The customer’s latest message, the ticket’s AI summary or else the last ten messages, the message’s categories, which order and customer data exists, and your instructions.
What the AI never sees	The values of order, product and customer data. It writes placeholders such as #customer_first_name# or #tracking_number#, and Replyco fills them in when the reply is sent.
Placeholders	Only data that exists on the ticket when the draft is written is offered. Preview shows the reply with the values filled in.
Signatures	The AI writes no sign-off. Replyco adds the signatures for the ticket’s account to the draft; see Account Signatures.
Product answers	Product questions are answered from general product knowledge, not from your listings. Check compatibility and specification answers before sending.
Language	The AI is told to reply in the language of the customer’s message. Rewrites keep the language of the draft.
Limits	1,000 characters each for the company instructions and for each account’s instructions.
Failures	If the AI is unavailable or its answer cannot be read, the message arrives and is processed as normal, without a draft.
Switching off	Only Replyco switches auto-drafts off. Drafts already waiting and your instructions are kept and hidden until they are switched on again.
Deleting a ticket	Deletes its drafts.
Cost	One AI action for the check and one for the draft, per message that gets that far; see AI drafts in the usage report.
Chats	Chats are never drafted; AI drafts work on ticket messages only.

Frequently asked questions

General

What are AI drafts in Replyco?

AI drafts are replies the AI writes by itself for new customer messages that can be answered without a decision from you, such as tracking and product questions. Each draft waits on its ticket, marked with a sparkle in the ticket lists, until an agent edits and sends it with Accept & Send or turns it down with Reject.

Are AI drafts sent to customers automatically?

No. A draft is only a suggestion stored on the ticket. It reaches the customer only when an agent selects Accept & Send or Accept, Send & Next, in the review window of a ticket list or in the ticket’s reply editor. Until then the customer sees nothing.

Do I need a special plan for AI drafts?

AI drafts are part of Replyco AI, which every plan includes, and every feature is on during a trial. In addition, Replyco must switch auto-drafts on for your company, and AI Categories must be on under Tools›AI Settings › General.

Do AI drafts cost anything?

Each message that reaches the check before drafting costs one AI action, and writing the draft costs one more. They are counted under Admin›Billing › AI Usage, together with each use of AI Draft, each rewrite and each Validate & Save.

Setup

How do I switch AI drafts on?

Replyco switches auto-drafts on for your company; there is no switch in the app. Companies registered in Replyco’s UK region start with them on. When they are on, Tools›AI Settings shows the AI Draft Settings tab. If it is missing, ask Replyco support to switch auto-drafts on.

Why can’t I find the draft settings tab?

The AI Draft Settings tab under Tools›AI Settings appears only while Replyco has auto-drafts switched on for your company. The sparkle column in the ticket lists and the draft cards under Tickets›Smart Filters are hidden for the same reason. Ask Replyco support to switch auto-drafts on.

Do I need AI categories for AI drafts?

Yes. Replyco drafts a reply only after AI categories has sorted the message, and only when it gets a category other than the general or irrelevant one. Keep AI Categories on under Tools›AI Settings › General; with it off, no message gets a draft.

Who can change the draft instructions?

Users with the Admin permission with Edit rights. Tools›AI Settings appears only for them, in a company with Replyco AI, and only they can check and save draft instructions; a bookmarked link to the screen opens the start screen for anyone else. Every agent can accept or reject drafts on the tickets they can open.

Which messages get a draft

Why did this ticket not get an AI draft?

A message gets a draft only when it comes from a customer who is not on the AI Customers Blacklist, AI Categories is on, its categories include one other than the general or irrelevant one, and the AI check finds that a reply needs no decision from you. Complaints, disputes, damage claims and wrong items are turned down unless your instructions describe how to handle them.

Will the AI promise refunds or replacements to my customers?

Not on its own. The check before drafting turns down any message where a reply would promise an action, an outcome or compensation, unless your Global Draft Instructions or the account’s instructions describe that scenario. Then the draft offers what your instructions say, and an agent still has to send it.

Can my instructions let the AI draft replies to refund requests?

Yes. Describe the scenario and what to offer in Global Draft Instructions under Tools›AI Settings › AI Draft Settings, for example “Refund request for a faulty item: apologise and offer a replacement or a full refund; do not ask for the item back.” The check treats matching messages as allowed exceptions.

Does Replyco draft replies to chats or old tickets?

No. AI drafts work only on ticket messages from email, marketplaces and webstores, not on conversations under Chats. They are written only for messages that arrive while auto-drafts are on; switching them on does not draft replies to messages already in your tickets.

How do I stop drafts for one customer?

Add the customer to the AI Customers Blacklist under Tools›AI Settings. Their messages are then not categorised, scored or drafted. See AI Customers Blacklist.

Instructions

What should I write in the company-wide draft instructions?

Write your support policies as numbered scenarios, each saying when it applies and what to do, in up to 1,000 characters: “Wrong item received: apologise, ask for the model name printed on the box and send the correct item; do not ask for a return first.” Add tone and length rules too. The field is Global Draft Instructions on the AI Draft Settings tab.

Why were my draft instructions rejected?

Validate & Save on the AI Draft Settings tab rejects text that tries to take over the AI, such as “ignore previous instructions”, “you are now” or “override”, text that tries to reveal the AI’s setup, text that tells it to deceive or harm customers, and text unrelated to support policy. The reason appears in red under the box and nothing is saved.

What is the AI-optimized version of my instructions?

When your instructions are safe but vague, Validate & Save offers a clearer version under AI-optimized version of your instructions:: one numbered line per scenario, with the steps spelled out. Use optimized saves that version; Keep original saves your text unchanged.

How do account instructions work together with the global ones?

For a ticket from an account with its own instructions, the AI gets your Global Draft Instructions first and the account’s Account-Specific Draft Instructions after them. Replyco does not remove a company rule the account rule contradicts, so write explicitly what the account does instead, for example “On eBay, instead of a refund by message, point the buyer to eBay’s return process.”

Can I write a rule such as “if the order total is over £50, offer free return shipping”?

No. The AI knows that order and customer data exists but never sees the values, so it cannot compare an order total, recognise a customer or check an order number. Write rules that apply whatever the values are, as the window How to set up custom AI instructions on the AI Draft Settings tab explains.

How long can draft instructions be?

Global Draft Instructions and each account’s Account-Specific Draft Instructions take up to 1,000 characters each; the counter under each box shows how many you have used. Numbered one-line scenarios fit several policies into that space.

Do new instructions change the drafts already waiting?

No. Instructions apply to drafts written after you save them. A draft already waiting on a ticket keeps its text; reject it and the next customer message on that ticket gets a draft that follows the new instructions, or rewrite it with Refine with AI or Improve draft, which apply the instructions as they are now.

Working with drafts

What does the sparkle next to a ticket mean?

The sparkle on a coloured tile, in the unlabelled second column of every ticket list, marks a ticket with an AI draft waiting. Select it to open the AI Draft Response window, where you can edit the draft, send it with Accept & Send or reject it, without leaving the list.

Can I edit a draft before sending it?

Yes. In the AI Draft Response window and in the ticket’s reply editor the draft is ordinary editable text. Change it directly, or describe the change in Refine with AI or Improve draft. Accept & Send sends the edited text, not the original draft.

What happens when I reject a draft?

Replyco asks for an optional reason, such as Missing information, and optional feedback. Confirm Rejection removes the draft from the ticket and records the rejection with the reason and feedback. In the ticket, the editor then starts again with your signature and the usual send button.

Why can’t I see the usual send button in the reply editor?

While the editor shows an AI draft, marked AI Suggested Response, Accept & Send and Reject replace the send button. Accept the draft, edited or not, or reject it; after a rejection the usual send button returns.

A reply I saved earlier opens instead of the AI draft. Why?

A reply saved on the ticket always wins over an AI draft, so nobody loses work they started. The editor opens with the saved reply and the usual send button, and the AI draft stays on the ticket.

What does #customer_first_name# in a draft mean?

It is a placeholder. The AI never sees your customers’ names or order data; it writes placeholders such as #customer_first_name# or #tracking_number#, and Replyco replaces them with the real values when the reply is sent. Select Preview to see the reply as the customer will receive it.

Why doesn’t the draft end with “Kind regards”?

The AI is told never to add a sign-off, a name or a signature, because Replyco adds the signatures for the ticket’s account at the end of the draft. If your account has no signature, the draft ends with its closing paragraph. See Account Signatures.

What do the draft counts on the filters page mean?

In Tickets›Smart Filters, My counts unresolved, unarchived tickets assigned to you with a draft waiting, Not Resolved counts all unresolved, unarchived tickets with a draft, and All counts every ticket with a draft, resolved and archived included.

Data and privacy

What does the AI see about my customers and orders?

The text of the customer’s latest message, the ticket’s AI summary or else its last ten messages, the message’s categories, a list of which order and customer data exists for the ticket, and your instructions. It never sees the values of that data, such as names, addresses, order numbers or prices.

Can a customer trick the AI with instructions in their message?

The AI is told to treat the customer’s message and the conversation strictly as data and never to follow instructions in them, both when it checks the message and when it writes the draft. And whatever it writes, an agent reads the draft before anything is sent.

What language are AI drafts written in?

The AI is told to reply in the language of the customer’s message, so a German customer gets a German draft even when your instructions are in English. Rewrites with Refine with AI or Improve draft keep the language of the draft.

What does Replyco store about drafts?

For each draft: its text, the customer message that triggered it, when it was written, and whether it was accepted or rejected, with the rejection reason and feedback. Every AI call is also recorded for AI usage. Deleting a ticket deletes its drafts.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	What to check
AI Draft Settings is missing under Tools›AI Settings	Auto-drafts are not on for your company. Ask Replyco support to switch them on. If AI Settings itself is missing, the company does not have Replyco AI or your user lacks the Admin permission with Edit rights.
No ticket has a sparkle	In order: are auto-drafts on (the AI Draft Settings tab is shown)? Is AI Categories on? Have new customer messages arrived since then? Older messages are never drafted.
One ticket has no draft	In order: is the latest message from the customer rather than your team? Is the customer on the AI Customers Blacklist or blocked? Is it a chat? Did the message get only the general or irrelevant category? Is it a complaint, dispute, damage claim or wrong item that your instructions do not cover? Was the AI unavailable at the time?
Drafts are written for the wrong kind of message	Read your Global Draft Instructions and the account’s instructions: every scenario they describe becomes an exception the check may allow. Narrow the scenario or remove it.
The draft says it cannot provide the tracking number	The ticket had no tracking data when the draft was written. Check the order in the ticket; once the data is there, AI Draft writes a new reply with the placeholder.
Validate & Save shows a red message and saves nothing	The check rejected the text. Remove anything that tries to change how the AI works, reveal its setup, mislead customers, or that is not about support policy.
Validate & Save shows a red message that names no problem with your text	The check could not run. Nothing was saved; select Validate & Save again.
An account’s rules seem to be ignored	The rules apply only to tickets from that account, and the company-wide rules still reach the AI. If they contradict, say explicitly in the account’s instructions what replaces the company rule.
The editor opens with a saved reply instead of the draft	A reply saved on the ticket wins over the AI draft. To work with the draft instead, open it from the sparkle in the ticket list.
Tickets with AI Draft Available is missing from Tickets›Smart Filters	Auto-drafts are not on for your company.
The draft is in the wrong language	The AI replies in the language of the customer’s message. Check whether an instruction asks for a particular language, and whether the customer wrote in more than one.

Still stuck?

Contact Replyco support with the ticket number and roughly when the customer’s message arrived. Support can see whether a draft was written for that message and whether it was accepted or rejected.

Related

• AI Settings
• AI Draft Settings
• AI categories
• AI summaries
• AI Customers Blacklist
• Ticket lists
• The ticket screen
• Answer a ticket
• Smart Filters
• Account Signatures
• Billing
• What each plan includes