Human-AI Collaboration

Escalation Pathways

Design structured escalation triggers and handoff mechanisms so agents can pause and ask for human guidance when they encounter ambiguity, conflicts, or decisions beyond their authorization - without breaking workflow or losing context.

What is Escalation Pathways?

Agents will encounter situations they can't handle - ambiguous instructions, conflicting information, high-stakes decisions they're not authorized to make, or tasks that exceed their capabilities. The agent needs a structured way to escalate to the human without breaking the workflow, losing context, or creating anxiety. This is different from simple error recovery because the agent hasn't failed - it's recognized its own limitations. The pattern defines four escalation types: confidence-based (uncertainty threshold), permission-based (authorization limits), conflict-based (contradictory information), and capability-based (task exceeds abilities). Each escalation preserves full context, includes a recommended action with confidence level, and allows the agent to continue from where it paused after the user responds.

Example: Intercom Fin - AI-to-Human Customer Service Handoff

Intercom Fin showing AI-to-human handoff with conversation context summary and attempted resolution log

When the AI agent can't confidently resolve a customer issue, it seamlessly transfers to a human agent with full conversation context and a summary of what it already tried, preserving continuity.

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