If your account has AI Agents turned on, some of your messages get a first response from an agent before a human ever sees them. This article covers how that changes your daily routine. If you're not using AI Agents, read the standard Getting Started with the Aptly Inbox article instead.
What's different
You'll notice a new section in your sidebar called Agent Activities, sitting right above Mine. This is where you keep an eye on what your AI Agents are doing. It has three parts:
- Needs Action: the agent tried to help but got stuck. It needs a real person now. In Table view, this same status shows up as Human requested.
- Agent Working: the agent currently has the conversation and is still replying. You don't need to do anything yet, just keep an eye on it. Table view calls this Agent working.
- Agent Handled: the agent took care of the whole thing on its own. Table view calls this Agent handled.
If you switch your inbox to Table view, you'll see an "Agent Activity" column with these same statuses, so you can scan a whole list of conversations at once instead of clicking into each folder.
One thing to know going in: whether an agent drafts a reply for a person to approve, or sends its reply right away, is a setting your team configures ahead of time (in the AI config screens), not something that changes message by message. Either way, you can always see what an agent is working on and its current status in Table view.
The one rule that matters most
Every message needs an owner, whether that's you, a teammate, or an agent.
The difference now is that "an agent has it" only counts as ownership while things are going well. The moment a message lands in Needs Action, it's yours again, the same as anything unassigned.
Your daily routine
1. Start with Needs Action. This is now your top priority, even before Unassigned. It means your agent already tried and couldn't finish, so this is the most urgent pile in your inbox. Claim these the way you'd claim anything unassigned.
2. Glance at Agent Working. These are moving along fine on their own. You don't need to jump in, just skim in case something looks off.
3. Spot-check Agent Handled. Every so often (daily if you get a lot of messages, weekly if you don't), open a few of these and read through them. Make sure the agent's answers were actually correct and on-brand. Think of it like reviewing a new hire's work until you trust it.
4. If you catch a mistake, pause the agent or adjust it. Open the conversation. If the agent is still actively working it, you'll see a banner that says "AI is handling this conversation." From there you have two options, and they do different things:
- Pause AI stops the agent on that one conversation so you can jump in and take over yourself, right now.
- Adjust agent based on this conversation is for fixing the agent's behavior going forward, not just this one message. It opens a short form asking what it should have done differently, with quick options to choose from (gave the wrong information, wrong tone, should have escalated, missed an action, or shouldn't have replied at all, like when it responds to something off-topic) plus a box to add your own note. It compares what you said against the conversation, the agent's instructions, and what it's able to do, then suggests a small, targeted change rather than rewriting everything.
Use Pause AI when you just need to take over. Use Adjust Agent when you want the agent to actually do better next time.
5. Check Unassigned. These are messages that never went through an agent at all, maybe from a channel that doesn't have AI turned on. You'll find it as its own folder under the inbox in your sidebar, or by clicking Assignee at the top of the inbox and selecting Unassigned. Handle these the same way you always have.
6. Assign, reply, follow up, and close, same as before. If you're taking over something the agent started, leave a quick comment on what the agent already tried so you're not repeating yourself.
Should I assign it or close it?
Assign it if:
- Someone still needs to act, whether that's you or a teammate
- It showed up in Needs Action and you're taking it over
Close it if:
- The question's answered and it's done
- The agent handled it well and you've confirmed that
A few things to watch for
- Don't let Needs Action pile up just because "the agent's on it." If it's in Needs Action, the agent already couldn't finish it. That's exactly why it needs you.
- Don't skip spot-checking Agent Handled. Even a good agent should be double-checked now and then, especially early on.
- If an agent got something wrong, don't just quietly fix it and move on. Use Adjust agent based on this conversation so the same mistake doesn't keep happening. A quick internal comment is fine for one-off context, but the Adjust Agent form is what actually changes the agent's behavior.