The question is not whether to automate, but what
When a company considers automating support, the debate is usually framed as all or nothing: either a bot answers or a person does. That boundary does not exist in practice, and framing it that way leads to the two worst outcomes: automating what needed judgement, or automating nothing out of fear of sounding cold.
The useful question is different: of everything arriving through WhatsApp, email or the site form, which part is always the same? That part, and only that part, is a candidate.
The three layers of an enquiry
The first layer is public, stable information: opening hours, location, payment methods, what a service includes. The answer never changes and requires no judgement. Automating it takes nothing away from anyone.
The second is specific but lookup-based: order status, availability, the price of a catalogue item. It needs a connection to a system, but the answer is still deterministic.
The third is where judgement lives: a non-standard quote, a complaint, an exception, a negotiation. There the value is precisely that someone on your team answers.
Where automation does damage
The damage does not appear when a bot answers a simple question badly. It appears when someone with a real problem gets stuck in a loop with no way to reach a person.
That is why handoff is not another feature: it is the requirement. Before defining what the assistant answers, define how someone gets out of it, and which signals trigger the pass to your team.
How to define the handoff point
Three rules are enough to start. If the person asks explicitly, hand off. If the same enquiry repeats twice without resolving, hand off. If words associated with complaints or urgency appear, hand off without trying to answer.
The assistant then absorbs repetitive volume and your team receives the conversations worth their time. It is not replacing people: it is no longer spending them on stating opening hours for the fifteenth time.
Do not start with the tool. Start with the friction and the outcome you want to change.