Chatting with an agent

Chat is for quick questions: where a request of yours has got to, who looks after expenses, what a folio shared with you says. The agent answers from what it can look up for you. It can't change anything from a chat, so when you need real work done, the chat becomes a task, and you follow that task like any other request.

In a chat, the agent sees only what the Portal shows you: the requests you made and the tasks you were given, the folios you can open, the people directory, and the files in the chat and on your requests and the tasks you were given, as the Portal shows them to you. It doesn't search your company's knowledge base or the web, and it can't read anyone else's requests, its own notes, the apps it's connected to or anything else it uses in its work. For something only those can answer, ask for a task.

Starting a chat

1. Select Chat.
2. Under Who do you want to chat with?, choose an agent. The list has the agents that take requests in the Portal. A line under the list says what the agent does.
3. Write your question in Your message, then select Send.

The agent's answer appears under your message after a few seconds, while the page says the agent is writing. You can write your next message once it has answered. If you leave the page meanwhile, the answer shows in your updates, and on your phone or computer if you turned on notifications on this device. Your chats are listed under Your chats, newest first; select one to open it again.

Sending files

A screenshot often says more than a description. To send one, copy it and paste it into the message box, or select Attach files under the box, or drop the file on it. Each file uploads as soon as you add it, and shows under the box; Remove takes one off before you send. A message can be just files.

• Up to 10 files in a message, each up to 25 MB.
• Images (PNG, JPEG, GIF and WebP), PDFs, Word, Excel and PowerPoint files (.docx, .xlsx and .pptx), and CSV, text, Markdown and JSON files. If a file can't be sent, a line under its name says why.

Your files show in the conversation, images as small pictures. Like the chat, they're only yours: they aren't on your company's Files page. Select Remove next to one of your files to delete it, and Remove file to confirm. Your message stays without it. You can't undo this; Everdeck's storage keeps an earlier copy for up to 30 days, which only Everdeck can restore, then it's gone. When the chat becomes a task, its files go with it, and everyone who can see the task can open them; they can't be removed from the chat any more.

Your chats' files and the files you've uploaded but not sent count toward your company's storage, up to 250 MB for each person. If an upload is refused because you've reached it, remove some files from your chats. Your company's account owners and admins can see how much space your files take, but not their names, and can remove them to free storage.

Turning a chat into a task

When a question needs someone to do something, like ordering equipment or booking travel, there are two ways to make it a task:

• The agent suggests one. A Suggested task card appears under its answer, with a title and the details it took from the chat. Select Create the task to send it as your request, or Not now to leave it.
• You make one yourself. Select Make this a task, check the Task title and Details, choose What kind of request is it? if the list shows it, and select Create the task.

Either way, the files you sent in the chat go with the task: they're listed under Files on its page.

If the agent read content from outside your company during the chat, such as a task synced from another app your company uses, the card and the Make this a task form say so. Check the title and details before you create the task: outside content can be wrong or misleading. The task is marked the same way, so whoever does it checks too.

The task is yours: it is listed under What you asked for on My day, and you review the result when it's done. The chat links to it: select Open the task to follow it. A chat that became a task takes no more messages, so start a new chat for your next question.

Closing a chat

Select Close chat when you're done, and Close chat again to confirm. A chat nobody writes in for 30 days closes by itself. A closed chat stays in your list to read, but takes no more messages, can't be made a task and can't be opened again: start a new chat to keep talking.

What to know

• Only you see your chats. The people who run the agent can see when it answered, which tools it used, whether each worked and what that cost, but not the conversation: not what you or the agent wrote, what the agent searched for, or what it found.
• Each chat counts as one of your company's agent sessions on each day (UTC) that the agent answers in it, however many messages you send that day.
• An agent answers one message at a time, and only a limited number an hour, so very long conversations may have to wait. If an answer doesn't come, send your message again, or use Ask for something.
• If the agent is paused, or its AI budget for the month is used up, it says so instead of answering. Your company admin can sort that out.
• The agent reads the files you send. It sees up to 5 pictures, and small PDFs, from the message it's answering when its AI model can see them and they fit in what one answer may cost; otherwise it reads their text where they have any. It reads your files and the files on your own requests, never anyone else's.
• The agent can make mistakes. For anything important, ask for a task so a person reviews the result.