Gladly AI re-evaluates which Guide it should be using throughout a Conversation, not just at the start. This article explains how the selection process works and how to author your Guides so Gladly AI picks the right one and stays on track as the Conversation evolves.
How Gladly AI chooses which Guide to use
When a Customer reaches out, Gladly looks at the message and selects the Guide that best matches the Customer’s intent. As the Conversation progresses, Gladly continues to evaluate after each Customer message and can move to a different Guide if the Conversation has shifted to a topic that another Guide handles better.
This means Gladly AI can:
Recover gracefully when the first message is vague or misleading and the initial Guide turns out to be a poor fit.
Move with the Customer when they change topics partway through a Conversation, without getting stuck in the original Guide.
Gladly makes these decisions based on the name and description of each Guide available to the Gladly Agent – not on the contents of the Guides themselves. Because of this, the way you author your Guide names and descriptions has a direct impact on how accurately Gladly routes Conversations.
Best practices for effective Guide selection
Use the following best practices to help Gladly select the right Guide at the start of a Conversation and stay in the right Guide as the Conversation continues.
Write clear, accurate Guide descriptions
Each Guide description should clearly state what the Guide covers. Avoid vague language and be specific about the workflows, tasks, or Customer requests handled by the Guide.
For more on writing strong Guide descriptions, see Create a Guide Name and Description.
Keep Guides focused on separate use cases
Each Guide should cover a distinct use case. The more overlap there is between two Guides, the more likely it is that Gladly will have trouble deciding between them.
If two Guides cover similar territory, consider:
Combining them into a single Guide.
Tightening the descriptions so the boundary between them is clear.
Make each Guide self-contained
A Guide should include everything Gladly needs to complete the use case described in its name and description, rather than handing off to another Guide partway through.
Avoid authoring Guide A so that it handles the start of a Conversation and then redirects to Guide B. Because Gladly only sees the Guide descriptions when choosing a Guide, it will continue to see the Conversation as a match for Guide A’s description and may navigate back to Guide A instead of staying in Guide B.
Instead, include all of the instructions necessary to resolve the situation within the Guide whose description matches the use case.
When Guide A and Guide B describe legitimately different use cases, Gladly will move between them on its own. There’s no need to add manual navigation steps inside the Guides themselves.
Route using Guide descriptions, not a Fallback Guide
If no clear Guide exists to handle the Customer’s request, Gladly AI will use the selected Fallback Guide – usually the Questions & Recommendations Guide – to handle the Conversation. Avoid writing any logic into the Fallback Guide that redirects certain requests to other Guides.
This pattern works against the way Gladly AI chooses Guides automatically. Instead:
Update the descriptions of the Guides that contain the relevant instructions so they reflect the topic the Customer is reaching out about.
Let Gladly AI route directly to the correct Guide rather than passing through a default Guide.
This keeps Gladly’s decisions aligned with where your actual content lives.
Test Guide selection behavior in your Gladly Agent
Until May 21, 2026, this Guide selection behavior is opt-in. To use it, an Administrator or Team Manager can activate this feature from the Basics tile.
Navigate to the Gladly Agent you want to test this behavior on.
Select Basics.
Under the Early Access section, click the toggle for Improved Guide Switching.
Click Save.
Once this behavior is saved, test how Gladly AI handles Conversations using the best practices above. This is a good opportunity to review your Guide names and descriptions and make any adjustments before the change rolls out broadly.
Beginning May 21, 2026, this will become the default behavior across all AI setups
All Gladly Agents will utilize this behavior by default, and no manual toggle will be required.