Subagents

Subagents let a First Level router consult focused AI specialists while it keeps responsibility for the customer conversation.

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What happens

The router first identifies the customer’s job. It can then ask one or more specialists to investigate or take a focused action. Each specialist receives the ticket context and its task, completes only its own workflow, and reports the result to the router. Specialists cannot reply to the customer or escalate to a person. They send notes and files back. The router uses those notes and files to write one customer reply, or to hand the ticket to a human when that is what the case needs. Files the specialist works with (customer photos, invoices, labels) are also available to the First Level agent, so the reply can still include the same attachments. The router waits for those reports, combines the evidence, and sends one final customer reply. For example:

1. A customer asks why an order is late and whether the delivery address can still change.
2. The router consults the delivery specialist and address-change specialist.
3. The specialists return the shipment status and whether an address update is still possible.
4. The router replies once with both answers in your brand voice.

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Consultation versus handoff

These are different outcomes:

• Consult a specialist: The router stays responsible. The specialist reports back and does not reply to the customer or escalate.
• Hand off to a human: Responsibility moves to a person, team, or human queue. The router stops.

Do not hand the conversation to another AI Agent. Consulting a specialist is not an escalation. Escalation is only for a person, team, or human queue. The recommended router-and-specialist setup uses consultation for AI specialists. This avoids customers seeing separate replies from several agents and keeps shared policy in one place.

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Design focused specialists

A specialist should contain only what it needs for one support job:

• exact scope and exclusions
• topic-specific policy
• the data and actions it must use
• the facts or action result it must report
• the blocker that requires human judgment

Do not copy generic tone, greetings, reply formatting, or fleet-wide escalation policy into every specialist. The router owns the customer-facing response. When a ticket is marked solved, credit goes to the agent that actually solved the customer’s request. Each specialist says whether they solved it or only gathered facts. Solved credit follows that call. If they only helped, credit stays with the First Level agent that wrote the reply.

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Set it up

Click Enable Subagents on AI Agents. Ask Torben audits the agents you already have. If you already have a First Level router, it reuses it and only turns on specialist consultation. If you do not, it proposes that setup first. Continue with Router and specialists or Routing and ownership.