Before you put AI on your WhatsApp, decide what it must never answer
An AI assistant on your WhatsApp can answer the same questions all day. The harder decision is what it must hand to a person. A short guide for schools, clinics and businesses in Zambia.
By Francis Miyoba, Founder, Zambrite · · 4 min read
If you put an AI assistant on your WhatsApp, the first decision is not which AI to use. It is what the assistant must never answer. Write that list before you write a single instruction.
An assistant that answers entry requirements, opening hours or delivery areas from your own documents saves your team hours. The same assistant guessing at a fee balance, a diagnosis or an admission decision can do real harm. The difference is design, not the model.
What should always go to a person
- Anything about a person's wellbeing. Counselling, health and safety. The assistant can book an appointment and share emergency contacts. It should never advise.
- Money that belongs to one person. Balances, refunds, disputed payments and proof of payment. The assistant can say who will check it and when.
- Decisions. Admission, credit, hiring. The assistant can collect documents. A person decides.
- Complaints. An upset customer wants a human reply, and your team needs to see it.
- Anything not in your documents. If the answer is not in what you uploaded, the assistant should say so and pass the chat on, not improvise.
What an assistant does well
- Answering from your prospectus, price list, catalogue or policies, word for word where it matters.
- Asking the questions your staff would ask: which programme, which intake, which area.
- Collecting documents as photos and passing a complete enquiry to the right team.
- Replying at 9pm, when your office is closed.
Four rules for the setup
- Answers come only from documents you upload. Keep them current: an out-of-date fee sheet produces out-of-date answers.
- Hand-over words trigger a person immediately. For example "urgent", "refund", "complaint", or the name of a medical condition. Test them before you go live.
- Your team can read every conversation. A shared inbox, not one person's phone.
- People know they are talking to an assistant. Say so in the first reply, and tell them how to reach a person.
Start with the one question your customers ask most often. Answer it well, watch the conversations for two weeks, and only then widen what the assistant covers.