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Shortlist by customer problem

What is the best AI customer service agent for handing customers over to a person?

No agent is the best AI customer service agent for handing customers over to a person, because nobody has tested them against each other. The best-evidenced are Talkdesk, Forethought and NiCE CXone: an external source, not the vendor, reports each of them handling handing customers over to a person. 21 of the 22 agents reviewed have any published evidence for handing customers over to a person; for the rest it is unknown, which means nobody has published it, not that the product cannot do it. Nothing here has been tested by this portal, so treat every name below as a shortlist to validate, not a winner.

All shortlists · Markdown record · How this is grouped

An outside source reports it serving this segment

External report11 of 22

A customer, analyst or journalist with no stake in the sale describes the product working here. This is the strongest evidence the portal holds, and it is still somebody else's deployment, not yours.

Ordered by customer workflows with evidence: externally reported first, then vendor-documented, A–Z on a tie. Both counts are shown with every agent. A higher place means more has been established, not that the agent performs better.

The vendor documents this segment, and nobody else has written about it

Vendor-documented9 of 22

The vendor says it serves this segment. That is a reasonable place to start a shortlist and it is not confirmation, because no independent source has reported on it either way.

Ordered by customer workflows with evidence: externally reported first, then vendor-documented, A–Z on a tie. Both counts are shown with every agent. A higher place means more has been established, not that the agent performs better.

A limitation is documented for this segment

Caveat documented1 of 22

A cited source describes a limit or a bad experience here. It sits below vendor documentation because it is not evidence of fit, and above the agents nobody has written about because somebody at least looked. Read the condition: it may not apply to you at all.

Nothing published for this segment

Not established1 of 22

No reviewed source places these agents here, by the vendor's own documentation or otherwise. That is a gap in the public record, not a finding against the products, and several of them may suit you.

Every claim behind these groups

Each agent above with evidence for handing customers over to a person, and the claims that placed it, with the source type and the date it was checked.

  • Talkdesk

    External report

  • Forethought

    External report

    All three fit verdicts in this record rest on the same single independent article about the acquisition, so they stand or fall together rather than representing independent corroboration.

    • The vendor states Solve hands conversations off to human agents when the AI cannot resolve an issue or the customer asks for a person, with the Triage agent classifying and routing the ticket to the appropriate agent with full context.Vendor-reported
      Source
      Forethought Solve
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID forethought-handoff-vendor
    • SiliconANGLE reports that the system determines whether an issue can be resolved automatically or requires escalation to a human agent.Independent report
      Source
      Zendesk announces deal to acquire customer support AI startup Forethought
      Published
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID forethought-handoff-independent

  • NiCE CXone

    External report

    The independent article describes the architecture rather than verifying handoff quality in production, and separately questions how much work still reaches human queues.

  • Crescendo

    External report

    Handoff here is not only a software escalation: the humans on the receiving end can be supplied by Crescendo itself (via the acquired PartnerHero workforce) or by partner BPOs, so a buyer may be purchasing the escalation tier as well as the AI. The independent article's description of the handoff is sourced to partner and vendor executives quoted by the reporter.

    • Crescendo states that when Concierge escalates it "passes along the entire conversation — customer history, issue context, recommended next action" so the specialist "starts at the answer".Vendor-reported
      Source
      Crescendo — Concierge Agent
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID crescendo-fit-handoff-vendor
    • CX Today reported on the Alorica–Crescendo partnership that AI "handles the heavy lifting upfront" and that "when escalation is needed, that full context is passed seamlessly to a human agent", with Alorica's 100,000+ employees across 16 countries available to augment Crescendo deployments.Independent report
      Source
      Alorica and Crescendo Partner to Bring AI into Live Enterprise Service Channels
      Published
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID crescendo-fit-handoff-ind-alorica

  • Lyro

    External report
    • Tidio states users can set flexible handoff and escalation rules and that Lyro creates a ticket in the connected support solution so a human agent can answer.Vendor-reported
      Source
      Lyro AI Agent (Tidio)
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID lyro-fit-handoff-vendor
    • A Shopify merchant described the agent as able to answer repetitive questions automatically and escalate questions when needed.Independent report
      Source
      Tidio Live Chat and AI Chatbots reviews (Shopify App Store)
      Published
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID lyro-fit-handoff-ind-1

  • Five9

    External report
    • Five9 states that "when escalation is needed, full conversation context transfers instantly to a live agent, so customers never start over."Vendor-reported
      Source
      Five9 AI Agents
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID five9-handoff-context
    • CX Today reported that with Five9 AI Agents, "contact centers can add guardrails to ensure these conversations still pass through to a live agent" when needed.Independent report
      Source
      Five9 Co-Innovates with ServiceNow, Unveils Its AI Agents
      Published
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID five9-handoff-guardrails

  • Decagon

    External report

    Illustrative evaluation: request a human after an unsuccessful troubleshooting step. Check queue routing, transcript transfer, repeated questions and the offline fallback.

    • Decagon documents live-chat escalation, email handoff and voice transfer to human agents.Vendor-reported
      Source
      Integrations (Decagon)
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID decagon-fit-handoff-vendor
    • Krishan Y.’s August 12, 2026 review says their team can step in when human attention is needed. This corroborates takeover in one self-reported deployment, without measuring routing accuracy or waiting time.Independent report
      Source
      Krishan Y., G2 review syndicated by AWS Marketplace
      Published
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID decagon-human-handoff-g2-krishan

  • Zendesk AI Agents

    External report

    Illustrative scenario: a customer asks for a human after troubleshooting. Verify contact capture, transcript transfer, destination queue, and the ability to reply on the intended channel. The cited community workaround shows one implementation path, not a general handoff success rate.

  • Kore.ai

    External report

    The same CX Today piece flags context preservation across agent handoffs as the thing buyers should verify; Kore.ai's own documentation lists missing conversation_history and incomplete on_human_complete handlers as implementation failure points.

    • Kore.ai documents escalation to a human agent that passes session variables and conversation history via a context_for_human block, converting routing metadata to SIP headers on voice channels and forwarding it through the provider's API on digital channels.Vendor-reported
      Source
      Escalation to human agent - Kore.ai Agent Platform documentation
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID kore-ai-fit-handoff-vendor
    • CX Today reported that Kore.ai's agent platform supports orchestration patterns including handoff and escalation across channels, and quoted the design position that handing off to a human is part of the journey rather than a failure state.Independent report
      Source
      Kore.ai Makes Its Third Wave Play, Multi-Agent Orchestration For CX
      Published
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID kore-ai-fit-handoff-cxtoday

  • NiCE Cognigy

    External report

    Cognigy's documentation states its native Cognigy Live Agent handover provider covers chat conversations, and that real-time queue notifications are available only with Cognigy Live Agent.

  • Sprinklr

    External report

    The handover figure originates from a named customer deployment reported by the publication; Sprinklr has not published a methodology for it.

  • Ada

    Vendor-documented

    Illustrative scenario, not a test: a customer requests a person after an unsuccessful answer. Verify that the receiving team gets the conversation and that, outside working hours, the customer receives a clear follow-up path.

    • Ada documents live transfers, follow-up tickets, off-hours paths and error fallbacks across its handoff setup.Vendor-reported
      Source
      Handoff management (Ada docs)
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID ada-fit-handoff-vendor

  • Agentforce

    Vendor-documented

    Illustrative scenario, not a test: a customer asks to speak to a person. Confirm the destination queue is staffed, the conversation reaches it and the customer receives an off-hours path when nobody is available.

  • Fin

    Vendor-documented

    Illustrative scenario: a customer asks for a person after an unsuccessful answer. Verify the destination inbox, transcript transfer, and after-hours response. A handoff event alone does not show how quickly a human replies.

  • Sierra

    Vendor-documented

    Illustrative evaluation: request a person during a failed account update. Check queue routing, transcript and summary delivery, plus what the customer sees when the team is offline.

    • Sierra’s SDK page documents routing an escalated conversation to a team member with a generated summary. It does not establish how quickly a human answers in a particular contact center.Vendor-reported
      Source
      Agent SDK (Sierra)
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID sierra-handoff-sdk

  • Gorgias AI Agent

    Vendor-documented

    Handover configuration differs by channel: email and SMS expose customer-notification settings, while chat adds confirmation prompts, wait-time messaging and email capture.

    • Gorgias documents built-in handover signals (customer anger, explicit requests for a human, sensitive topics such as self-harm, violence, legal threats or financial account requests), configurable handover topics, and a pre-send draft review where "If it doesn't have enough knowledge to answer reliably...it hands over rather than guessing."Vendor-reported
      Source
      Customize how AI Agent hands over to your team
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID gorgias-fit-handoff-vendor

  • Breeze Customer Agent

    Vendor-documented

    No independent evaluation of handoff quality or escalation accuracy was found.

    • HubSpot documents that the agent transfers a conversation to a human when its confidence is low, when escalation rules are met, when a visitor explicitly asks for a human, or when a configured handoff phrase is triggered.Vendor-reported
      Source
      Understand the customer agent — HubSpot Knowledge Base
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID hubspot-breeze-fit-handoff-vendor

  • Genesys Cloud CX

    Vendor-documented

    Marketing-page claim; the specific fields or transcript passed to the human agent are not documented on the sources reviewed.

    • Genesys states its Agentic Virtual Agent provides seamless, contextual handoffs with full context when humans step in.Vendor-reported
      Source
      Virtual Agents - Genesys
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID genesys-fit-handoff

  • LivePerson

    Vendor-documented

    No independent evaluation of handoff quality in production was located, so this area remains unverified.

    • LivePerson states its AI chatbots can 'seamlessly transfer complex customer queries to live agents' and describes a 'Bot Human Tango' model in which both humans and bots contribute to a conversation with handoff from one type of agent to the other.Vendor-reported
      Source
      AI Chatbots — LivePerson
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID liveperson-fit-handoff-vendor

  • Yellow.ai

    Vendor-documented

    The escalation documentation notes routing rules cannot name a tool, so escalation must be triggered from the agent's instructions rather than routing logic, and warns that malformed SIP headers can drop calls during voice transfer. Both are authoring constraints with documented workarounds rather than capability gaps.

    • Yellow.ai documents two escalation tools: Escalate to Agent, which routes chat into Inbox queues with round-robin, least-busy or specific-group assignment and passes a conversation summary to the human agent, and Transfer Call, which forwards voice calls over PSTN or SIP with custom headers for context.Vendor-reported
      Source
      Escalation (Yellow.ai docs)
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID yellow-ai-fit-handoff-vendor

  • PolyAI

    Caveat documented
    • PolyAI documents voice handoff via SIP REFER, SIP INVITE or SIP BYE with escalation context passed through custom X- SIP headers, a Handoff State API endpoint and a Conversations API transcript, plus chat handoff integrations for Salesforce, Zendesk, NICE CXone, Amazon Connect, Webex and Five9.Vendor-reported
      Source
      PolyAI Docs — Voice channel: Handoffs
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID polyai-handoff-vendor
    • PolyAI's handoff documentation states that with the default SIP REFER method "the utterance may not play before the transfer completes because the REFER fires at the same time as function execution", and that inbound SIP voicemail detection on the destination side is "not available by default" for SIP REFER, BYE or INVITE transfers.Vendor-reported
      Source
      PolyAI Docs — Voice channel: Handoffs
      Checked
      History
      First published
      Correct this
      Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID polyai-handoff-gap

How these groups are formed

  1. Agents are grouped by what the cited sources establish for this segment, not scored against each other.
  2. An outside source reporting the product in this segment comes first, then the vendor's own documentation, then a documented limitation, then silence.
  3. Within a group, the agent with more of the seven customer workflows reported by an outside source comes first, then the one with more vendor-documented workflows; only where both counts tie is the order alphabetical.
  4. No agent is dropped: the ones with nothing published are named too.

Groups and the order inside them are derived from the cited claims at build time and describe the evidence, not the products. Nothing here has been tested, so a higher group or a higher place inside one means more has been established about an agent, not that it performs better. An agent can be well suited to you and sit in the last group simply because nobody has written about it. Published review-site ratings do not order these groups either: where a record carries one it is cited on the profile, but those ratings score whole products against each other — one vendor's bundled chat widget against another's full help desk — and none of them measures the AI agent on its own.

The methodology page explains why the portal groups evidence rather than scoring products.

Other shortlists

Facts last checked . No agent on this page has been tested by this portal.