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.
Assignee Hold controls how the agent assigns tasks raised by new emails on a thread that already has one. With it on, the follow-up stays with whoever is already working the conversation.
It is the setting to name when follow-ups reach the wrong person, because it overrides the distribution rules that would otherwise decide. It behaves identically under both autonomy models.
Navigate to Assignee Hold
On the Define capabilities step, select the AP Helpdesk tab.
In the left navigation, select Assignee Hold.
Figure 1. Assignee Hold.
Configure Assignee Hold
Select Assignee Hold for Threaded Message Tasks.
Select one option. A selection is required.
Select Next.
The Assignee Hold setting
Assignee Hold for Threaded Message Tasks: “AI Agent assigns all subsequent tasks for threaded email messages to the assignee of an existing task on the thread.”
Assignee Hold |
A reply arriving on a thread that already has a task |
|---|---|
On |
The new task goes to the assignee of an existing task on that thread. You then choose which existing task. |
Off |
The new task is assigned by the ordinary rules, which may put it with someone else. |
Turning the setting on reveals a required sub-choice, Select an option. Pick one:
Option |
Which assignee the new task goes to |
|---|---|
Hold Assignee of Initial Task |
The assignee of the thread’s first task. |
Hold Assignee of Oldest OPEN Task |
The assignee of the longest-outstanding open task on the thread. |
This is the setting behind “why did this land with me?”. A task assigned by Assignee Hold is recorded in Task Activities like any other assignment, so the thread’s history is where to confirm it.
Assignee Hold decides who a task goes to. Under Collaborative Mode, Task Suppression decides whether a task is raised at all for a threaded message. The two are related and are often set together.
Two strategies
Table 1. Assignee Hold options
Option |
Routes tasks to |
Prioritizes |
|---|---|---|
Hold Assignee of Initial Task |
The assignee of the thread’s first task. |
Consistent handling from the initial email through to resolution. |
Hold Assignee of Oldest OPEN Task |
The assignee of the longest-outstanding OPEN task on the thread. |
Progress on issues that are still live. |
How the two differ in practice
The strategies behave identically while the thread’s first task is still open. They diverge once it is DONE.
Consider a thread where one analyst handled the opening message and closed their task, and a second analyst is now working a later task that is still open. A new reply arrives.
Hold Assignee of Initial Task routes it to the first analyst, who owns the conversation from the beginning and knows its history, even though they have nothing open on it.
Hold Assignee of Oldest OPEN Task routes it to the second analyst, who has live work on the thread and is closer to the current state.
The first suits disputes and escalations where one person should own the vendor conversation throughout. The second suits teams where throughput matters more and work should reach whoever is already engaged.
Interaction with task SLA
Assignee Hold concentrates a thread’s work on one person. The thresholds run on each task’s own age, so concentration does not make a task age faster. Where a few long-running threads dominate volume, one analyst can end up carrying the At-Risk count. For more information, see Task SLA Indicators.
Task statuses, and what Assignee Hold leaves alone
Tasks carry one of four statuses: NEW, OPEN, Dismissed and Discarded. Some screens show a dismissed task as Done. Only OPEN tasks count for the oldest-open strategy.
Assignee Hold governs assignment for threaded follow-ups. It does not change how the first task on a thread is assigned. That follows your processing rules.