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Service Replies for Service Assistant
Service Replies gives service reps AI-suggested replies directly in the Service Assistant component during a messaging session.
Required Editions
| View supported editions. | |
 This article applies to: |
Service Assistant for Messaging |
 This article doesn't apply to: |
Service Assistant for Case |
Service Replies is a capability of Service Assistant for Messaging that gives service reps AI-generated suggested chat replies during active messaging sessions. Service Replies show as cards in the Service Assistant component alongside the service plan.
In Service Assistant, Service Replies works the same way as the general Service Replies feature. Proposed replies are generated automatically as the conversation progresses, each reply contains a source citation, and buttons let you post or edit the reply before sending it. Service reps don't need to take any action in the Service Assistant component to have Service Replies show.
Service Replies works as a standalone capability within Service Assistant. You don't need to complete the general Service Assistant setup, including creating an agent. For the requirements and more details, see Activation and Setup.
How Service Replies and Service Plans Work Together
Service Replies show as cards in the Service Assistant component alongside the plan steps. Service Replies start with the customer's first message, before any plan steps show, because service plans require at least five messages in the chat before plan generation begins. Proposing replies as the messaging session initiates lets service reps start helping the customer right away.
Both the plan steps and Service Replies are actively proposed as the conversation progresses, and each reply is stored in the component feed. If new information enters the transcript that changes a reply, a new reply is shown alongside the previous one.
Although both are proposed in parallel, Service Replies and service plans operate independently, and neither has direct context of the other.
- Service Replies draw context from one of two grounding paths that you select in Service Replies Setup. Choose either the live messaging conversation, via prompts that you configure, or a knowledge article from a configured data library. Only one grounding path can be active at a time.
- Service Replies don't receive context from any plan steps or the chat feed between the service rep and Service Assistant.
- Service Assistant doesn't receive context from the replies proposed in the component. However, when a service rep posts a service reply to the customer, that message becomes part of the conversation transcript. Service Assistant grounds on that information and uses it as context for creating the next plan step.
Activation and Setup
Service Replies works as a standalone capability within Service Assistant. You don't need to complete the general Service Assistant setup, including creating an agent. The requirements for activating the capability are that:
- Service Assistant for Messaging is turned on from the Messaging tab of the Service Assistant Setup page.
- The Service Assistant Lightning web component is added to the record page.
- The general Service Replies Setup is complete.
When the requirements are met, turn on Service Replies for Service Assistant in the Service Replies Setup page. See Set Up Service Replies for Service Assistant.
Settings such as configuring the Service Replies prompt templates, adding a data library, and configuring pause behavior are inherited into Service Assistant. There are no prompt templates created specifically for Service Assistant.
Service Replies are translated. The Service Assistant component, plan steps, chat feed, and agent actions surfaced in the component aren't translated.
Permissions and Licensing
Service Replies in Service Assistant is only available with Agentforce for Service or Agentforce 1 licenses. If you have an Einstein for Service license and want to use the capability, contact your Salesforce account executive. In addition, access to the feature is only available with the Service Planner and Adaptive Experience add-ons.
The capability requires these permissions, which are in addition to the mandatory Service Assistant permissions.
| User | User License | Required Permissions |
| Service Assistant Admin | Salesforce |
* Only required if you ground Service Replies with a data library. |
| Service Rep | Salesforce |
|
| ServicePlanner User (the agent user) | Einstein Agent |
|
Billing and Consumption
Service Replies doesn't draw down flex credits when you choose to generate service replies using the Service Replies prompt templates. In addition, posting or editing a service reply from Service Assistant doesn't draw down flex credits.
However, if you ground Service Replies with a data library, each suggested reply that surfaces in the component searches the data library and retrieves matching content. This search draws down your Data 360 credits. Flex credits aren't drawn down.
Considerations for Service Replies in Service Assistant
- Service Replies are proposed only during active messaging sessions. When the messaging session and service plans end, Service Replies also stop, and the Service Assistant component is disabled. The reply cards remain saved in the component feed as a historical record.
- Service replies in the component don't auto-collapse. When a new reply is generated, the previous reply doesn't collapse. Service reps must collapse each reply manually.
- Service Replies settings, including prompts, grounding configuration, and pause behavior, are configured in the standard Service Replies Setup page and are inherited by Service Assistant. No configuration is required in Service Assistant other than turning the feature on and assigning the required permissions.
- Service Replies are translated. The Service Assistant component, plan steps, chat feed, and agent actions surfaced in the component aren't translated.
- If you have multiple Service Assistant agents configured for messaging, the Service Replies configuration applies to all agents.
- Service Replies and the Service Assistant agent each use their own data library. You configure the Service Replies data library in Service Replies Setup, and it generates suggested replies. You assign the Service Assistant agent's data library to the agent, and it creates plan steps. You can use the same data library for both features or use a different one for each.
- Service Replies prompt templates are configured in Service Replies Setup and apply only when generating suggested replies. The templates can reference the messaging conversation and knowledge articles, but they don't have access to plan steps or Service Assistant agent instructions.
