An AI chatbot for Instagram: what it answers, and what to hand to a manager

An AI chatbot for Instagram answers with the price list both to "how much?" under a post and to "the courier never came, give me my money back" in Direct. Strangers read the comment. One person reads the Direct.

Under an ad there can be ten "how much?" comments in an evening. The courier complaint lands in the same unread pile. A bot that does not care where it is writing gets in the way of the sale and of the complaint.

Comment and Direct

"How much" under a post is closed with one line from the price list, or with "write in Direct". Size and address are asked there. The bot does not unfold a courier complaint in the comments: the feed sees the thread, and a person deals with the delivery.

A story reply is usually short, "got it?" or a fire emoji. One question is enough: which size, or which branch. People scroll past a ten-line greeting on an emoji.

The agent replies under the Instagram post and continues the same conversation in private messages. The comment does not hang in silence, and the bargaining leaves the public feed.

A comment under a post looks like this: "black sneakers, size 42, do you have them? Pickup or delivery to Chilanzar?" Size and colour are in the price list, so the bot names them. Delivery by district is written down, so it names that too. The district is not in the materials and the amount changes every time: the bot does not invent a number and calls a manager. A guessed delivery fee comes back an hour later in Direct as a complaint.

The bot does not bargain in the comments. "It's cheaper elsewhere" under a post collects other people's replies, and the price starts living apart from the card. That message is better moved to Direct and a manager, even if the script has a ready line about price.

What it answers on its own

Only what you put in the materials yourself: price list, address, hours, delivery terms. It does not invent a price that is not on the list.

It turns a voice message from Direct into text. It checks a product photo against the catalogue. A match: it names the model and the price, and can send the picture. The frame matches no model: it says so and calls a manager. It does not send a similar ring in place of that frame. If the model is simply out of stock, it does not pull the manager in at once: it says it is not there, and shows what is.

One message often mixes Russian and Uzbek. The bot answers in the language the person wrote in.

What to hand to a manager

• "Get me a person", "operator", "call me". Asking "maybe I can handle it myself" is extra here.
• A refund, a defect, the courier did not come, anger.
• An invoice, a contract, "let's close it".
• A discount that is not on the price list.
• A question the materials do not answer.
• The bot already misunderstood twice. Then one short apology, the line "I am an AI assistant", and the handoff. No new product selection at that moment.

At night it must not promise "a manager will reply in five minutes" if the schedule says the person is asleep. The time comes from the working hours you set. Otherwise the bot lies more cheerfully than a live seller.

The manager opens the card and sees a short summary: what they asked, what was already answered, why they were called. "Hello, how can I help" after ten messages in Direct sounds like nobody read the chat.

After the handoff the bot should not stay silent forever

One message from a manager used to pause the chat, and the pause never came off. A person came back a month later with "how much is this set", and the bot stayed quiet: someone on the team had written in that chat once. We fixed that. If the manager has not replied for a long time, the pause comes off, or the manager gets a reminder that the client is waiting.

Until the manager has written themselves, the bot still closes a new question about price. A discount, an invoice, a complaint, and "call me" it leaves alone.

By morning the price comments are already closed. The manager's queue is the Directs where the bot stopped. The card shows why they were called: the size from the chat is already there, nobody has to ask for 42 again.

How this looks in Direct, in comments, and on the card is here: the AI chatbot.

The line, in one evening

Take the last twenty Directs and comments. Questions the managers answer with the same sentence, give to the bot: price, availability, address, hours. Leave to people the ones they disagree on: a discount, a deadline that is not in the table, "well, we'll see".

Stop words go in the settings: complaint, refund, a large order. On those the bot calls a manager at once. Two lines of stop words are more useful than a three-page instruction that tells the bot to hold the client to the end.

Put a price-list answer on the comment "how much?". Let it not discuss a courier complaint in the feed.