Automating enquiry handling

Break enquiry handling into stages and automate only decisions that are repeatable, measurable, and safe. Receiving a case, enriching its data, or preparing a draft can be good candidates; the safe level of classification and sending depends on data quality and the cost of an error.

Six stages of enquiry handling

Stage	What happens	Typical owner
1. Intake	a case arrives from email, form, chat, or phone	automation
2. Classification	type, urgency, and right team are identified	automation with AI layer
3. Enrichment	customer, history, or order data is added	automation
4. Draft response	a draft is prepared from a knowledge base	AI layer
5. Resolution	a non-standard decision is made	human
6. Closure and measurement	the case closes and becomes learning data	automation

Start with classification and data, not a robot reply

Classification is a good first step when it is frequent, has a clear correctness criterion, mistakes are reversible, and historical cases form a representative test set. A low-confidence result, missing data, or a high-risk category should route to a person.

For response drafting, the company knowledge must be controlled and current. Otherwise the system can produce a polite but false answer. Start with a suggestion that a person approves; move to automated sending only in narrow, tested categories with a complete log.

Keep a human boundary

Escalate cases involving legal or costly consequences, empathy or de-escalation, low confidence, absent source evidence, or an explicit request for a person. The customer should have a simple route to human contact. Any AI interaction disclosure required by the applicable rules should be assessed for the actual interface and use case.

Measure quality as well as speed

Compare time to first response, time to resolution, share of cases handled without a person, classification accuracy, and the rate of cases that return. A faster response is not an improvement if it creates more repeat work.

Indicative August 2026 ranges: 2,000–8,000 PLN net for a focused intake/classification/enrichment automation; 8,000–25,000 PLN net for a fuller AI-assisted flow; and 8,000–30,000 PLN net for an end-to-end case agent. Start with the First Automated Process.