Set AI Agent Active Hours
Control when your AI Agent may process and reply to new inbound messages, while keeping after-hours ownership and customer expectations clear.
Set the timezone before the schedule
Choose continuous availability or a weekly schedule, confirm the account timezone, define what should happen outside active hours, and test immediately before, during and after each boundary.
Choose the right availability model
Use continuous availability when the agent should be permitted to handle new inbound messages at any time. Use a weekly schedule when people, services or escalation paths are available only during defined operating windows.
Always available
The agent may process new inbound messages throughout the week, subject to the rest of its configuration.
- Useful for continuously supported conversations
- Still requires tested human escalation
- Review during holidays or service interruptions
Weekly active hours
The agent may process new inbound messages only inside the windows you define for each day.
- Useful when coverage depends on operating hours
- Supports one daily window or separate windows when available
- Requires a clear after-hours path
Confirm the account timezone
The same clock time represents a different moment in every timezone. Confirm the account setting before entering hours, especially when the operating team and customers are in different locations.
Use the timezone that should govern the business schedule—not the temporary location of the person editing it.
Read every start and end time in the confirmed account timezone.
Verify one test before opening and another just after closing.
Build the weekly schedule
Start with the normal week. Add one continuous window for a day, or separate windows when the account supports them and the business deliberately closes between periods.
Normal operating coverage
Earlier closing boundary
Split window, when supported
Use the approved after-hours path
- Match the windows to real operating coverage.
- Check opening and closing times for every day.
- Review split windows and overnight coverage carefully.
- Record who owns holidays and temporary closures.
Define what happens outside active hours
When a new message arrives outside the schedule, the message is saved and the AI Agent remains quiet. Depending on the configured process, a person may handle it or it may be processed when the agent becomes active.
The inbound conversation is received and saved.
The message is outside the permitted active window.
A designated team member follows the operating process.
The configured workflow continues when the agent becomes active.
Use an approved availability notice when needed
If the channel or workflow supports it, state that the message was received and give a realistic next step. Do not promise a response time the team cannot consistently meet.
Name the person or queue responsible
Document who reviews after-hours conversations, which cases require urgent attention and what happens when the next active window begins.
Active hours are not quiet hours
These controls protect different parts of the messaging workflow. Configure and test both when you need to restrict inbound AI replies and outbound or scheduled activity.
Controls when an AI Agent may process and reply to new inbound messages.
Controls defined outbound or scheduled messaging activity.
May the agent respond now?
May this outbound activity run now?
Align inbound automation with coverage.
Restrict proactive or scheduled sends.
Yes—check opening and closing boundaries.
Yes—check the protected sending window.
Assign coverage and exception ownership
A schedule is reliable only when the surrounding operating process is clear. Record the normal owner, backup owner and change process before relying on the active-hours boundary.
Who monitors conversations?
Name the queue or person responsible during and after the active window.
What requires human review?
Define urgent, sensitive or ambiguous cases that should not wait for normal processing.
Who changes the schedule?
Assign ownership for holidays, closures, staffing changes and location changes.
What happens at opening?
Confirm whether waiting conversations enter the agent workflow or remain with the human queue.
Test every schedule boundary
Use a controlled contact and record the account timezone, test time and result. A single test in the middle of the day cannot confirm that the opening and closing boundaries work.
- Confirm the account timezone displayed in settings.
- Test immediately before the opening boundary.
- Test during the active window.
- Test immediately after the closing boundary.
- Test overnight behavior or every split window used.
- Confirm both the human queue and delayed-processing path.
Boundary approval gate
Approve the schedule only after the expected result is observed before, during and after the active window in the correct timezone.
Recheck the schedule when time or coverage changes
Daylight-saving changes
Retest the actual local opening and closing times after a clock change.
Holidays and closures
Apply the approved exception process and verify the customer-facing expectation.
Staffing or location updates
Update the timezone, windows and ownership together, then rerun the boundary tests.
When active hours do not behave as expected
The agent responds earlier or later than expected
Confirm the account timezone first, then compare the saved daily window with the local test time. If the difference is consistent, correct the timezone or schedule and repeat the boundary tests.
The agent stays quiet during an active window
Confirm the correct agent and day are enabled, the current time is inside the saved window and no other conversation, assignment or workflow rule is preventing normal processing. Test with a controlled new inbound message.
The agent replies after the closing time
Check the exact closing boundary, timezone and whether the conversation began before closing. Reproduce the issue with a new controlled message sent just after the boundary and record the observed time.
A split or overnight schedule behaves incorrectly
Review each window independently and confirm that its start and end belong to the intended day. Test every gap and overnight boundary rather than assuming one successful daytime test covers the full schedule.
The schedule changed after a holiday or clock change
Verify the current account timezone, restore the normal schedule if a temporary exception was used and rerun the before, during and after tests.
Waiting conversations do not follow the expected path
Confirm who owns the after-hours queue and what the configured workflow should do at the next active window. Test the human and delayed-processing paths separately.
Send the timezone, schedule and test time
Include the account, agent, configured timezone, affected day and window, exact local test time, expected result and observed result. Do not include credentials or private customer information.