Skip to main content
If new messages are landing in your Inbox but your AI is staying quiet, don’t worry — it’s almost always one of a few settings, not a broken AI. Work through the checklist below in order. It’s ordered most-likely-first, so the earlier a box catches your case, the faster you’re done.

​
Before you begin

  • Open the Inbox and the specific conversation that didn’t get a reply.
  • Have access to Integrations → Channels so you can check the channel’s settings, and to your AI Assistant settings.
Cura decides whether the AI should answer the moment a message arrives. The AI replies only when all of these are true: your org has an enabled AI Assistant, the inbox’s Master AI is on, the current time is inside the AI schedule, no image just arrived, and no human has taken the conversation over. Any one of these being off is enough to keep the AI quiet — that’s why the checklist below walks them one at a time.

​
Quick diagnostic checklist

Run down this list top to bottom and stop at the first one that matches:
  1. Is Master AI on for this channel? — the whole channel goes silent if it’s off (step 1).
  2. Does your org have an enabled AI Assistant at all? — no assistant means no replies anywhere (step 2).
  3. Is it inside your AI schedule right now? — nights and weekends are the usual gap (step 3).
  4. Did a teammate take this one conversation over? — the AI steps aside per-conversation (step 4).
  5. Did the customer just send an image? — images escalate to a human by default (step 5).
  6. Did the customer send several quick messages? — the AI waits and answers once (step 6).
  7. Is the conversation routed to a workspace? — an Unrouted conversation gets no AI (step 7).
  8. Is the response window closed / channel disconnected? — nothing can send out (step 8).
  9. Did the AI run but send nothing? — the reply was empty or superseded (step 9).

​
1. Check that Master AI is on for the channel

Your AI only replies on channels where it’s switched on. If Master AI is off for a channel — or off for your whole org — every conversation on it goes silent for the AI and is handed to a person instead.
  • Go to Integrations → Channels and open the channel in question.
  • Confirm Master AI is on for that channel.
If it was off, turn it on and send a fresh test message. For the full picture, see The Master AI switch.
If the AI now replies, you’re done. If not, keep going.

​
2. Check your account has an enabled AI Assistant

Master AI being on isn’t enough on its own — your account also needs an AI Assistant that is set up and enabled. If no assistant is enabled for your org, the AI won’t reply on any channel, no matter how the per-channel switches look.
  • Open your AI Assistant settings.
  • Confirm an assistant exists and is turned on.
See How your AI agent works.

​
3. Check your AI schedule includes right now

If you’ve set the AI to answer only during business hours, it stays silent outside that window — so an AI that replies by day but goes quiet at night or on weekends is usually a schedule, not a fault.
  • In the channel’s settings, look at the AI schedule.
  • Confirm the current day and time fall inside the schedule. (The schedule is evaluated live in the inbox’s timezone, and overnight windows that cross midnight are supported.)
If the message arrived outside the scheduled hours, that’s expected behaviour — widen the schedule, or turn the schedule off so the AI runs whenever Master AI is on. See Set an AI schedule.

​
4. Check no one has taken over the conversation

When a person opens or replies to a conversation — or it gets escalated, or picks up an escalated label — that one conversation is now handled by a human, and the AI steps aside for it until it’s handed back.
  • Open the conversation and check whether it shows as handled by a person rather than the AI.
  • To hand it back, reassign the conversation’s handler to the AI and remove any escalated label.
Taking over is per-conversation. It never disables the AI on your other conversations or channels. See Taking over from the AI.

​
5. Check whether the customer just sent an image

When a customer sends a photo or image, Cura sends a quick acknowledgement and hands the conversation to a person by default — so the AI going quiet right after an image is expected, not a fault.
  • If the last incoming message was an image, that’s why the AI didn’t reply.
  • Reply yourself. If you’d rather the AI keep handling image messages, turn off escalate on image in your AI Assistant settings (you can also set an image acknowledgement message there).

​
6. Check whether the customer sent several quick messages

If a customer fires off several messages in a row, the AI doesn’t answer each one separately. It waits briefly, then answers the combined message once — so an earlier, superseded reply is intentionally dropped.
  • If the AI answered once after a short pause, that’s the expected batching. No action needed.
  • If it truly never answered, the cause is one of the other checks — re-run this list from the top.

​
7. Check the conversation is routed to a workspace

A conversation that hasn’t been assigned to a workspace shows as Unrouted — and the AI won’t reply until it has one. On multi-branch accounts, new conversations wait unrouted until a manager assigns them.
  • Look for an Unrouted label on the conversation. (Only managers and admins can see the Unrouted filter.)
  • Assign it to the right workspace (branch), and the AI can take over from there.
👉 Full explainer: Why is a conversation marked “Unrouted”?

​
8. Confirm the channel is connected and the window is open

If the channel has disconnected, no messages flow in or out — so the AI has nothing to answer. And on WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, a reply is blocked once the customer’s messaging window has closed.
  • In Integrations → Channels, confirm the channel shows as connected. If it shows as disconnected, reconnect it — see A channel shows as disconnected.
  • If the customer messaged a long time ago, the AI’s reply may be blocked by the channel’s messaging window (WhatsApp 24 hours; Messenger and Instagram up to 7 days). See A customer didn’t receive my message for the per-channel windows.

​
9. The AI “ran” but nothing was sent

Sometimes the activity shows the AI processed the message, but no reply reached the customer. This usually means the reply was dropped after it was generated — it came out empty, or a human took over or a newer message arrived mid-run and superseded it.
  • This is usually benign: the AI decided not to send, or a human/newer message replaced its turn.
  • If replies are consistently empty, the AI has nothing to answer with — review your AI Assistant instructions and Knowledge Base so the model has content. A missing answer isn’t a routing problem.
Once your AI Assistant is enabled, Master AI is on, the schedule covers now, no human has taken over, no image just arrived, the conversation is routed, and the channel is connected and in-window, your AI will reply automatically.
If the AI replies but the answer is wrong or vague, that’s a knowledge problem, not a routing one — add an FAQ or fix a Service. See Build your Knowledge Base.
Still stuck after every check? Contact support at support@cura.so. Include the channel, the conversation link, and roughly when the message arrived so the team can trace it.