# How to Route Intercom Chats with AI in Albato — Albato Help Center Source: https://albato.com/wiki/articles/how-to-route-intercom-chats-with-ai-in-albato Welcome to Albato Help Search articles # How to Route Intercom Chats with AI in Albato Last update: 10/8/2026 · 7 min read * * * IN THIS ARTICLE Some Intercom conversations need a first reply before they are passed to another team. For example, a support chat may need to be routed to marketing, finance, or another department that does not work inside Intercom. In this guide, we will create an Albato automation that receives a new Intercom conversation, generates a first response with AI, sends the reply back to the customer, closes the chat, and notifies the responsible team in Slack. ## Connect the Apps Before creating the automation, connect the apps you will use. - **Intercom** - **Albato AI** or another AI app - **Slack**, Telegram, email, or another notification app In this example, we will use Slack. > Attention: If **Albato AI** is not available in your plan, you can use another AI app connected to Albato, such as OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity. If you do not want to use AI, you can skip the AI step and send a fixed response instead. Go to the **Apps** section and click **Add a connection**. Screenshot 01 Search for each app and follow the connection instructions until the connection is created. ## Create the Automation Go to the **Automations** section and click **Create New Automation**. Screenshot 02 Click **Add trigger**. Screenshot 03 Select the **Intercom** trigger **New conversation**. Screenshot 04 Click **Add action** to add the next step. Screenshot 05 Select **Albato AI**. Screenshot 06 > Attention: If you use another AI app instead of Albato AI, select that app here. The logic is the same: pass the Intercom message to the AI step and use the generated answer in the next action. In the **Albato AI** step, fill in only the fields needed to generate the response. - **Role**: **user** - **Message**: a prompt that uses the Intercom message from the trigger Example prompt. > Analyze the message received here: add the **Body Source** parameter from the trigger. Consider this to be the first message from a customer who contacted us through the support channel. Generate a response using a neutral and friendly tone, without technical terms. Confirm that the request was received, thank the customer, and explain that the message belongs to another responsible department, so it will be forwarded to the appropriate team. If the customer mentioned their name or company name, use this information in the response. The response should contain a maximum of two paragraphs and be ready to send to the customer. Screenshot 07 > Attention: This is only an example prompt. The required part is the **Body Source** parameter from the Intercom trigger. It gives the AI step the message text that should be analyzed. Next, click **Add action**. Screenshot 08 Select the Intercom action **Custom API request**. Screenshot 09 Use this action to send the AI-generated reply to the customer. Set the request fields as follows. - **URL**: [https://api.intercom.io/conversations/{add](https://api.intercom.io/conversations/%7Badd) the Item ID here}/reply - **Request Method**: **POST** - **Format Method**: **JSON** In **Request Parameters**, add these fields. - **body** in **String** format: use the value returned by the previous AI step - **type** in **String** format: **admin** - **admin\_id** in **String** format: use the trigger value **Admin Assignee ID** - **message\_type** in **String** format: **comment** The setup should look like this. Screenshot 10 Fill in the values exactly as shown, using lowercase letters and no extra spaces. > Attention: If you are not using AI, enter a fixed response template in the **body** field. In this case, Albato will send the same response for every matching Intercom conversation. Now add another Intercom **Custom API request** action to close the conversation. Configure the request as follows. - **URL**: [https://api.intercom.io/conversations/\[Item](https://api.intercom.io/conversations/%5BItem) ID collected from the trigger step\]/parts - **Method**: **POST** - **Request Format**: **JSON** In **Request Parameters**, add these fields. - **type** in **String** format: **admin** - **admin\_id** in **String** format: use the trigger value **Admin Assignee ID** - **message\_type** in **String** format: **close** The setup should look like this. Screenshot 11 > Attention: If Intercom requires a custom attribute before closing the conversation, add one more **Custom API request** step before the closing step. To update a custom attribute, configure the request as follows. - **URL**: [https://api.intercom.io/conversations/\[Item](https://api.intercom.io/conversations/%5BItem) ID collected from the trigger step\] - **Method**: **PUT** - **Request Format**: **JSON** In **Request Parameters**, add the attribute name on the left side in this format. custom\_attributes.AttributeName For example, if the attribute is called **Result**, use this field name. custom\_attributes.Result Set the format to **String**. On the right side, enter the value that should be saved. In this example, the value is **marketing**. Screenshot 12 > If you do not have mandatory custom attributes, you can skip this step. The previous step that closes the conversation is enough. ## Notify the Responsible Team Now notify the team that should handle the request. You can use Slack, Telegram, email, or another app connected to Albato. In this example, we will send a message to a Slack channel. Click **Add action** and select the Slack action **Send message to a public channel**. Screenshot 13 Select the channel and configure the message text. Example message. > New message received. Please review: add the trigger parameter **Body Source**. You can also include the sender's name and email address. The setup should look like this. Screenshot 14 ## Add Routing Filters Before activating the automation, add a filter to route only the conversations that match your scenario. Click the trigger step and add a filter. Screenshot 15 Set a condition where **Body Source** contains a specific keyword. Repeat this condition for each keyword you want to use. For example, if this automation routes requests to the marketing team, you can add keywords such as **proposal**, **guest post**, **collaboration**, or **partnership**. The filter should look similar to this. Screenshot 16 If you need the same logic for another team, duplicate the automation. Screenshot 17 Then update the filter keywords and the team or channel used in the notification step. Activate the automation when the setup is ready. From this point, matching Intercom conversations will receive the configured first response and be routed to the responsible team automatically. ## Related articles - [Open AI: Common Questions & Answers](https://albato.com/en/wiki/articles/openai) - [How to Сreate Your First Automation](https://albato.com/en/wiki/articles/how-to-create-your-first-automation) - [Automations section](https://albato.com/en/wiki/articles/automations-section) Did this answer your question?