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Is About (AI) Message Rules

An Is about (AI) rule lets an inbound SMS or WhatsApp action fire on what a message means rather than the exact words in it. You write a plain-English statement, such as "The sender wants to reschedule their appointment", and Jev says how likely it is to be true of each message.

Routes, actions and the other rule types are covered in Receiving Messages.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → Communication:

  • Inbound Messaging — a route's Allow AI conditions switch, and the rules on each action
  • Received Messages — every message, with its AI Rule Scores

Architect Panel → Configuration:

  • AI Settings — Messaging rule threshold, in the TypeSafe Jev section

How a rule is decided

The rule matches when the probability that its statement is true reaches the Messaging rule threshold: 0.75 unless your installation has changed it, and never below 0.5 or above 0.99. Set to inverted, the rule holds only when Jev is confident the statement is not true: at or below 0.25 with the default threshold. A message in between matches neither way round.

All the AI rules on a route's enabled actions are asked about in one call per message, so ten rules cost barely more than one.

Setting one up

  1. Allow the route. In Inbound Messaging, click Edit on the route. Under Behaviour, tick Allow AI conditions and save. This is the decision that message text arriving on this route may be sent to TypeSafe AI, so make it with whoever answers for that number. The route list then shows that AI conditions are allowed.
  2. Open the action, or add one, and choose what it should do under Do this.
  3. Add the rule. Under Rules, set the component to Message body, the comparison to Is about (AI), and type the statement in the value box: one plain sentence, at most 500 characters. Leave it as written, or choose inverted.
  4. Set Rule matching, Stop after this action and Order as for any other action.
  5. Save. The action is refused if the route does not allow AI conditions, the rule is not on Message body, the statement is empty or too long, or the action is Add to or remove from the opt-out list.
  6. Send a test message from a real handset and look at its AI Rule Scores in Received Messages.

If Jev is not set up, the route and action editors say Is about (AI) rules will never match. Rules can still be saved, but an action that has one will not fire.

What is sent

  • Only the sender's own words: the message text, a caption on a picture, video or document, or the label of a button or suggested reply they tapped. Up to 4,000 characters, with the channel and the message type.
  • Never the sender's number or name, or the record the message matched.
  • Location shares, contact cards, stickers, voice notes and reactions are never sent, and an AI rule does not match them.

It fails closed

If Jev could not be asked or did not answer (not set up, the route not allowed, no text, a timeout, the AI budget spent) the whole action that carries the AI rule does not fire, even when the rule is inverted. If that action has Stop after this action ticked, the actions after it do not run either, so a catch-all action cannot act on a message the AI action should have taken. A low score is an answer, not a failure.

During an outage, after two failures in a row the drain stops asking Jev until its next run. AI rules never touch the opt-out: STOP, START and HELP are handled before any rule is read.

Reading AI Rule Scores

Open the message in Received Messages. AI Rule Scores holds the probability for each AI rule, keyed by the rule's ID, together with the threshold applied, the model that answered and the run ID that carries the cost. When Jev was not asked or did not answer, it holds the error instead, and it notes when an unscored stop action ended the chain. It is empty when the route has no AI rules.

Worked example

A clinic's appointment-reminder number allows AI conditions. Its first action, "Reschedule requests", has the rule Message body Is about (AI) "The sender wants to change or cancel their appointment" and routes the message to the bookings work queue, with Stop after this action ticked. A second action with no rules sends an automatic reply. When TypeSafe is unreachable one morning, messages are not auto-replied to in error; they wait, unrouted, for the bookings team's daily check of Received Messages.

Recommendations

  • Prefer routing by number where you can, and use AI rules for what is left.
  • Keep keyword rules for safeguarding. An AI rule does not fire when Jev is unavailable, so a crisis keyword rule should stand alongside it, not be replaced by it.
  • One idea per statement. Two short rules beat one long one.
  • Check AI Rule Scores weekly at first, and adjust statements that score close to the threshold.
  • Add TypeSafe to your privacy notice before allowing AI conditions on any route.