Who this is for. AP Helpdesk Analysts and Managers.
Not every message becomes a task. Understanding which do is the difference between trusting the queue and checking the mailbox behind it.
A task is a unit of work the agent could not finish on its own. It is raised when the agent needs a person, and suppressed when it does not, and both sides of that are configurable.
When a task is raised
Table 1. What raises a task.
Situation |
Why a person is needed |
|---|---|
The agent could not classify the message |
No intent it handles was detected, so there is no outcome to carry out. |
The lookup returned nothing usable |
The intent was clear but the records did not answer it, for example an invoice number that does not exist. |
The request needs a decision |
Record updates and short pay inquiries are raised rather than answered, because they change data or dispute a figure. |
A document could not be accepted |
An attachment is missing, unreadable, or already submitted, so the transfer was not made. |
The sender type calls for it |
Your settings can raise tasks for internal cohort, external cohort, and system senders. |
A reply is waiting on review |
In collaborative mode the draft is held for a person to approve. |
When a task is not raised
Three settings suppress tasks that would otherwise appear, and each exists to stop the queue filling with work that is already covered.
Task Suppression for Threaded Messages. A new message on a thread that already has an outstanding task does not raise a second one. Without this, one conversation generates a queue of its own.
Conditional Task Dismissal. Tasks for chosen intents are raised and dismissed immediately, without assignment. They are recoverable rather than lost.
Assignee Hold for Threaded Message Tasks. Later tasks on a thread go to whoever already holds one, so a conversation stays with one person.
Where the agent completes a request end to end, no task is raised at all. That is the intended outcome, and it is why the queue is not a record of what arrived. The mailbox is. See The Mailbox.
Agent tasks and user tasks
The Tasks page separates User Tasks from AI Agent Tasks. Work the agent raised and handles itself appears under the second, and never reaches your queue.
When a task seems to be missing, check that view before treating it as an error. The two counts also appear separately on the dashboard, under AI Agent Metrics.
Why the counts differ between people
An analyst is returned only their own tasks and tasks with no assignee. A manager sees everything in scope. Two people comparing the same queue will therefore report different totals, and the lower figure from an analyst is the expected result. See Roles and Access.