Setting Up the AI Chat Module

Modules

The AI Chat Module gives your visitors instant responses while letting them know a real human will follow up. It’s designed to keep leads engaged without overpromising - your visitors get helpful answers immediately, and you get time to respond with the details they actually need.

This module requires a PRO plan.

How AI Chat Works

The AI Chat Module does two things:

1. Instant AI Response

When a visitor sends a message, they get an immediate reply from our AI assistant. This response is intentionally helpful but general - it answers with commonly known facts, provides useful context, and acts as a friendly assistant rather than a sales rep who overpromises.

The AI won’t confidently answer specific questions about your pricing, availability, or custom offerings. Instead, it keeps the conversation warm and acknowledges their question while setting the stage for your follow-up.

Think of it as keeping your visitor “on ice” in a good way - they feel heard and helped, not ignored.

2. “Waiting for Reply” Notification

After the AI response, visitors see a bubble indicating your team received their message with a “Waiting for reply” status. This tells them two things: they got a helpful instant response, and a more detailed reply from you is on the way.

This combination - instant AI acknowledgment plus human follow-up expectation - keeps visitors engaged without creating false expectations about what the AI can deliver.

Enabling AI Chat

Log in to your Viewers dashboard
Go to Configure
Find the Modules section
Enable AI-Powered Live Chat
Configure your settings (see below)
Go to Embed Code and copy your updated code
Replace the old embed code on your website with the new one (manual installs only - WordPress plugin users don’t need to do this)

Configuration Options

Business Context (data-phrase)

Help the AI understand your business type so its responses feel more relevant. Set a brief phrase describing what you do.

Examples:

roofing
landscaping
digital marketing agency
personal injury law
HVAC services

In the dashboard, you’ll find this under the AI Chat settings. For manual configuration:

data-phrase="roofing"

The AI uses this context to tailor its tone and general responses to your industry without making specific claims about your business.

Availability Schedule (data-availability)

Set your team’s availability hours so the widget displays accurate online/offline status. Visitors will see when you’re available to respond.

Format: Each day’s hours, followed by your timezone, optionally followed by holidays.

Example:

data-availability="Mo0900-1700,Tu0900-1700,We0900-1700,Th0900-1700,Fr0900-1700,UTC-05:00,holidays"

Breaking it down:

Mo0900-1700 - Monday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Tu0900-1700 - Tuesday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
(and so on for each day)
UTC-05:00 - Your timezone (Eastern Time in this example)
holidays - Automatically hides status on major holidays

Day codes: Mo, Tu, We, Th, Fr, Sa, Su

Configure this in the dashboard under AI Chat settings, or add the attribute directly to your embed code.

Hiding Online Status (nostatus)

If you’d rather not show the green “Online” indicator and status text, you can hide it entirely. This is useful if you don’t want to commit to specific availability hours or prefer a cleaner look.

In the dashboard, look for the option to hide online status. For manual configuration, add nostatus to your data-options:

data-options="nostatus"

Note: If you enable nostatus, the availability schedule (data-availability) has no visible effect since there’s no status indicator to display.

What the AI Does (and Doesn’t Do)

The AI will:

Respond instantly to any message
Provide helpful, general information about your industry
Acknowledge the visitor’s question
Keep a friendly, assistant-like tone
Set expectations that your team will follow up

The AI won’t:

Quote specific prices or timelines
Make commitments on your behalf
Answer detailed questions about your specific services
Overpromise or guarantee anything

This is intentional. The AI’s job is to keep leads warm and engaged, not to replace your sales process. It buys you time to respond with the real answers.

Pairing AI Chat with Automations

The AI tells visitors their message was received and you’ll be in touch soon. Automations let you decide how you actually get in touch.

When a visitor submits a message through AI Chat, that lead flows into your Viewers dashboard like any other - and it can trigger any automation you’ve set up. This means you can respond within minutes, automatically, without lifting a finger.

Example automations for AI Chat leads:

Trigger an email: Automatically send a personalized follow-up email within minutes of receiving a chat message. The visitor sees “Waiting for reply,” then gets your email in their inbox.
Send to Zapier: Route chat leads to any of 5,000+ apps. Trigger a phone call, send an SMS, create a task in your project management tool - whatever fits your workflow.
Add to your CRM: Automatically push chat leads to HubSpot, Salesforce, or Pipedrive so your sales team sees them instantly.
Send a Slack notification: Get pinged in Slack the moment someone starts a chat so you can jump in with a personal response.
Trigger a text or call: Use Zapier to connect to Twilio or another service and reach out by phone within minutes.

The AI keeps visitors warm. Automations make sure you actually follow through on that “we’ll be in touch” promise - fast, and without manual effort.

To set up automations, go to Automations in your dashboard and create a new workflow triggered by chat leads.

Best Practices

Set your business context: Even a single word like “plumbing” or “accounting” helps the AI feel more relevant. Don’t skip this.

Be realistic with availability: If you set hours, try to actually respond during those hours. The “Waiting for reply” message sets an expectation - meeting it builds trust.

Consider hiding status if you’re inconsistent: If your response times vary a lot, hiding the online indicator (nostatus) might be better than showing “Online” when you can’t respond quickly.

Check your messages: The AI keeps visitors engaged, but you still need to follow up. The lead capture happens, but the conversion depends on your response.

Manual Embed Code Example

A fully configured AI Chat setup might look like this:

<script 
  src="https://app.viewers.com/widget/widget.js" 
  data-token="your-token"
  data-phrase="landscaping"
  data-availability="Mo0800-1800,Tu0800-1800,We0800-1800,Th0800-1800,Fr0800-1800,Sa0900-1400,UTC-05:00,holidays"
  async>
</script>

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I customize the AI’s responses? Not directly. The AI uses your business context (data-phrase) to tailor its tone, but you can’t script specific responses. This keeps the AI from making promises you can’t keep.

Do AI chat messages count against my credits? Leads captured through AI Chat consume credits the same way as any other module. The AI conversation itself doesn’t use additional credits - only the lead capture does.

Can I see the AI conversation history? Yes. When you view a lead in your dashboard, you’ll see the full conversation thread including what the AI said and what the visitor asked.

What if I don’t want AI responses at all? The AI Chat module is optional. If you’d prefer a simple contact form without AI responses, use the Contact Us module instead or disable AI Chat in your module settings.

Is AI Chat available on the Free plan? No. AI Chat is a Pro-only feature, available on PRO Lite, PRO Business, and PRO Enterprise plans.

Need Help?

If you have questions about setting up AI Chat or want help configuring it for your business, contact us.

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Last updated on December 25, 2025