Response Engine and answer styles

What the Response Engine controls

Open your chatbot and go to the Response Engine tab under Knowledge Base. This setting decides which system produces each reply: the AI model, the built-in intent (ML) model, or a mix of both. It also sets the answer style, which controls how far the AI is allowed to go beyond your trained content.

The three engine modes

• Auto (hybrid). The ML model answers greetings and thanks instantly, and the AI answers real questions. This gives fast small-talk replies without spending AI capacity on them.
• ML. The intent model answers everything using the per-intent responses you write. There is no AI cost in this mode, and replies are limited to the intents you have covered.
• LLM. The AI answers everything, including greetings.

Auto is a sensible default for most bots. Switch to ML if you want fully scripted replies, or to LLM if you want the AI to handle every message.

Strict vs flexible answer styles

The answer style applies whenever the AI is the one replying. Strict is the default: answers are grounded only in your trained content, and the bot declines questions your content does not cover.

Flexible allows small talk and general knowledge. Even in flexible mode, facts about your company still come only from your trained content. The bot never invents company facts.

Per-intent responses and exact answers

In ML mode, the intent model matches each visitor message to an intent and replies with the response you wrote for it. You control the wording of every reply.

Separately, the Custom Responses tab lets you pin exact answers to specific questions in any engine mode. A custom response matches case-insensitively and bypasses retrieval and the AI entirely. See Custom responses for how to set these up.

What happens if the AI provider is down

If the AI provider has an outage, the built-in ML model takes over and answers so chat never goes silent. Visitors keep getting replies from your per-intent responses until the AI is available again. You do not need to change any setting for this to happen.