# Takeover

> Jump into a live chatbot conversation and continue it as a human. Takeover pauses the AI, creates a ticket with an AI-written summary, and lets you hand the conversation back to the bot when you're done.

Sometimes you want a person to step into a conversation the bot is handling — a frustrated customer, a high-value sale, a sensitive issue. **Takeover** lets any teammate jump in, continue the chat as a human, and hand it back to the AI when it's resolved.

> **WHERE TO TAKE OVER:** Open the Help Desk **Conversations** view. It lists live chatbot conversations that haven't become tickets yet. Each one has a **Take over** button.

## What happens when you take over

1. **A ticket is created** — Bookbag opens a `live_chat` ticket linked to the conversation, with the channel it came from.
2. **The conversation is summarized** — The transcript is summarized into a subject and a short summary — in the customer's language — so you start with context.
3. **The AI is paused** — AI replies are switched off for that conversation, so the customer hears only from you. The conversation is marked **escalated**.
4. **It's assigned to you** — The ticket lands on you in the *On you* status, ready to reply.

> **CHECK:** Takeover and the [Escalate to a human](/docs/actions/escalate-to-human) action run the same underlying flow. The difference is who starts it — a teammate (takeover) or the agent itself (escalation).

## Replying as a human

Once you've taken over, the ticket's composer works like any other: reply to the customer, add internal notes, @mention teammates, and use [AI compose](/docs/help-desk/translation) to draft or polish your message. The customer sees your replies in the same chat thread — no channel switch.

## Handing it back to the AI

When the issue is resolved, re-enable AI replies on the ticket (the **Allow AI replies** option). This resumes the agent for that conversation and closes the ticket — a system event records the resume on the timeline.

> **RESUME = CLOSE:** Allowing AI replies again both resumes the bot and marks the ticket closed in one step, so resolved live chats don't linger in your inbox.

## FAQ

**Does taking over affect other conversations?**

No. Only the conversation you take over has its AI paused. Every other conversation keeps running on the agent.

**Can two agents take over the same conversation?**

Once taken over, the conversation becomes a ticket. From there it has a single assignee, which any teammate can reassign — but it's one ticket, not two.

**What if I take over and realize the bot had it handled?**

Re-enable AI replies. The agent resumes and the ticket closes, returning the conversation to the bot.

**Where do I see conversations I can take over?**

The Conversations view in the inbox lists live conversations that aren't yet tickets. Once escalated or taken over, a conversation moves out of that list and into the ticket views.

## What's next

- [Escalate to a human](/docs/actions/escalate-to-human) — Let the agent hand off automatically.
- [Help Desk overview](/docs/help-desk/overview) — Statuses, views, and the ticket timeline.
- [Ticket assignment](/docs/help-desk/assignment) — How tickets get routed to teammates.