Live Chat Definitions

What is Live Chat?

Live Chat is an online communication tool that enables real-time conversations between businesses and their website visitors. It allows companies to instantly answer questions, resolve issues, and engage potential customers the moment they arrive on your website.

With Social Intents, your team can respond to live chat requests directly from tools they already use like Microsoft Teams, Slack, or our intuitive web dashboard. You can also enhance your chat experience with AI-powered chatbots using Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to handle common questions, qualify leads, and route complex inquiries to your team automatically.

Whether you’re managing customer support, onboarding new users, or closing sales opportunities, live chat ensures you never miss a chance to connect with your visitors in real time.

Why Live Chat is Important

Live chat has evolved into an essential part of the modern customer experience. It provides the fastest and most direct way to help customers, reducing friction and boosting satisfaction.

Unlike email or contact forms, live chat provides immediate feedback.  Customers can ask questions, share screenshots, and get answers in seconds. Businesses that use live chat typically see higher conversion rates, shorter response times, and greater loyalty.

With Social Intents, your team can manage conversations from within Slack or Microsoft Teams, centralizing customer engagement where your agents already collaborate.

And now, with AI chat assistants powered by LLMs, you can go even further:

  • Automatically respond to FAQs using natural language understanding.
  • Qualify leads before routing them to human agents.
  • Maintain 24/7 coverage with intelligent, on-brand messaging.
  • Seamlessly escalate chats from AI to human agents for complex issues.

Integrating AI into live chat transforms your website into a proactive engagement channel that works around the clock.

How Live Chat and AI Work Together

Modern live chat systems combine real-time human engagement with AI-driven automation. Here’s how this hybrid approach works within Social Intents:

  1. AI Chatbot Initialization
    When a visitor starts a chat, your AI assistant powered by ChatGPT or another LLM can greet the visitor and answer routine questions instantly.
  2. Intent Detection and Routing
    Using LLM-based intent recognition, the chatbot identifies what the customer needs and can route the chat to the correct agent or department automatically.
  3. Human Escalation
    If the AI assistant detects a complex issue, it escalates the conversation to a live agent within Teams or Slack. The transition is seamless and includes full context so the agent can pick up where the AI left off.
  4. Continuous Learning
    Over time, your chatbot can be trained on your company’s help articles, FAQs, and conversation history, improving accuracy and reducing repetitive work for your team.

Common Live Chat Terminology

Understanding common live chat terms helps you manage customer interactions efficiently. Below is a glossary of frequently used terms within Social Intents.

Live Chat Answered
A chat session successfully handled by a live agent where both the visitor and agent exchange messages in real time.

Offline Message
When a visitor sends a message outside of business hours, it’s captured and sent via email for follow-up.

Missed - Visitor Timeout
Indicates a visitor left the chat after waiting for a response beyond the set timeout period.

Missed - Abandoned
Applies when a visitor starts a chat but navigates away from the page before the timeout expires.

Missed - Visitor Closed
When a visitor manually closes the chat window before receiving a response.

In Progress
A live chat that’s actively taking place between a visitor and an agent.

Queued
A visitor’s chat request has been received but is waiting for an available agent. The visitor may see an estimated wait time.

Agent Closed
The agent has ended the chat after resolving the customer’s issue or scheduling follow-up.

Chatbot Answered
The chat was handled by an AI chatbot—powered by an LLM such as ChatGPT—before escalating to a live agent if needed.

Escalated to Agent
The AI chatbot transferred the chat to a human agent for more personalized support.

Transferred
An ongoing chat has been moved from one agent to another, often for specialized help.

Typing Indicator
Shows when the visitor or agent is typing, providing real-time feedback during conversation.

Chat Rating
Visitors can rate the chat after it ends, offering feedback on satisfaction and service quality.

Chat Transcript
A full record of the chat session sent to the agent or customer after completion.

Agent Availability
Represents whether an agent is currently online, away, or offline for chat requests.

Chat History
A searchable log of all chat sessions, stored for review, reporting, or training.

Proactive Chat
Triggers an automatic message or prompt based on visitor behavior, such as time on page or cart abandonment.

Canned Responses
Pre-written messages used by agents to respond faster to common questions.

Widget Customization
Options that allow you to brand and personalize your live chat widget to match your website’s design.

Chat Routing
Rules that determine how incoming chats are distributed among available agents or departments.

Benefits of Using Social Intents Live Chat

With Social Intents Live Chat, you can connect with website visitors instantly while keeping your team focused inside tools they already use such as like Microsoft Teams and Slack. You can also layer in AI automation to improve speed and consistency without losing the human touch.

Key Benefits:

  • Reduce Customer Wait Times: Respond instantly and prevent drop-offs by handling inquiries in real time.
  • Enhance Personalization: Combine human empathy with AI context awareness for natural, tailored interactions.
  • Boost Sales and Conversions: Engage leads as they browse, helping them make buying decisions faster.
  • Improve Team Efficiency: Use canned responses, AI routing, and chat history to streamline workflows.
  • 24/7 Availability: Use AI chatbots powered by LLMs to engage visitors even when your team is offline.
  • Cross-Platform Collaboration: Manage all website conversations directly from Slack or Microsoft Teams.

Summary

Live chat these days combines real-time human support with AI-powered automation.

With Social Intents, you can integrate live chat directly into your existing collaboration tools and connect it to ChatGPT or other models to automate responses, qualify leads, and provide instant support around the clock.

Whether you’re improving customer satisfaction, increasing sales conversions, or reducing support workloads, Social Intents gives your business everything it needs to deliver fast, personalized, and AI-enhanced customer communication.