Who this is for. Super Admins configuring an Agent Co-worker. No other role has access to the setup wizard. Managers still own the decisions these settings record, and are the people to ask when a setting is wrong. Requires the AP Helpdesk function enabled on the agent. See the Roles and Access.
Vendor Categories selects which vendor categories are in play, so that agent replies can be tailored per category. It appears under both autonomy models.
Navigate to Vendor Categories
On the Define capabilities step, select the AP Helpdesk tab.
In the left navigation, select Vendor Categories.
Figure 1. Vendor Categories.
The category list
The group presents the tenant’s vendor categories as a multi-select list with a Select All control and a running count, shown as (n / m Selected).
Not every row can be changed. Standard Vendor is always in play and its checkbox is disabled, as is the checkbox for any category that already has enrolled vendors. Select All toggles only the rows that are still editable; the locked rows keep the state they are in.
A typical list holds Standard Vendor, Automobiles, IT_Hardware_Components, Information_Technology, Intercompany, Merchandise, Office_Supplies, Professional_Services, Property_Managers, Services, and Utilities. The list comes from the connected system of record, so it differs between tenants.
A category has to be selected here before any category-specific behavior applies to vendors in it. A vendor in an unselected category is handled by the ordinary rules.
Under Collaborative Mode, categories drive reply templates
Where the agent uses Collaborative Mode, the categories selected here decide which per-category reply templates exist in Agent Replies. The group says so on screen:
Category changes update your reply templates. Open Agent Replies to apply them before continuing.
Changing a category is a two-part change. Enable or disable one here, then open Agent Replies and check each affected intent and language still has the template you expect. Skipping the second half leaves the configuration inconsistent, a category enabled with no wording behind it, or wording for a category no longer in play. Neither state announces itself; it surfaces later as a vendor receiving the wrong tone of reply, or none.
Select vendor categories
Select the checkbox for each category to enable. To enable everything, select Select All.
Check the count beside Select All. It shows how many categories are selected out of the total available to your tenant.
Select Next.
Where the category list comes from
The categories shown reflect your own vendor data rather than a fixed product list, so the names you see are the segments your organization already uses. Standard Vendor acts as the general case for suppliers that do not fall into a more specific segment.
Choose what to enable
Enable a category when its vendors need reply content that differs in substance rather than tone. Two segments that would receive identical replies do not need separate categories.
Start narrow. Every enabled category is a set of replies to review and maintain.
Standard Vendor is always enabled and cannot be cleared, so suppliers outside your named segments still receive configured replies.
How this differs under the two autonomy models
Under Governed Autonomy, reply content is configured per email category rather than per vendor category, so enabling a vendor category here makes category-specific replies possible without creating a set of templates to fill in.
Under Collaborative Mode the relationship is direct: reply templates exist per vendor category, so changing the selection changes which templates exist. That section carries a message directing you to open Agent Replies and apply the change before continuing. For more information, see Vendor Categories in Collaborative Mode.