Goodbye vs Escalate

(1) Share

Report

Posted on by VS-13030954-0

I have two topics in my agent. The Goodbye is designed to as -

Trigger - The agent chooses

Purpose: This topic handles users who wish to end the session, say goodbye, or indicate they have no further questions.
When to use: This tool can handle queries like these: Bye, Bye for now, Bye now, Good bye, No thank you. Goodbye, nothing else, no thanks, that's all, thanks, no

I also have Escalate topic as -

Trigger - On Talk to representative

This tool can handle queries like these: Talk to agent, Talk to a person, Talk to someone.

Now the problem is that when my user says 'Goodbye' it goes to Escalate instead of Goodbye.

Constraints - I don't want to turn off Generative AI Orchestration as my agent is designed to be conversational.

How do I fix this problem?

Note that I am using New UI and not able to create a trigger on phrases or intent.

Categories:

Topic creation & management

General topics

I have the same question (0)

All responses (3)

Answers (0)

Sort by

Suggested answer

Assisted by AI

Elliot M. 29 on at

Like (2)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

This is expected behavior with generative orchestration, it's routing based on topic descriptions, not trigger phrases.

With generative orchestration enabled, the agent no longer matches user messages to trigger phrases. Instead, it reads the description of each topic and uses semantic understanding to decide which topic best fits the user's intent. If your Goodbye and Escalate topics have similar or vague descriptions, the orchestrator can confuse them, "Goodbye" can be interpreted as "the user wants to leave" which semantically overlaps with "the user wants to talk to someone else."

The fix is to rewrite your topic descriptions to be specific and mutually exclusive:

1. Open your Goodbye topic. Click the Trigger node ("The agent chooses"). Edit the description to something like:
"This topic handles when the user wants to end the conversation, say goodbye, or indicate they have no more questions. It does NOT handle requests to speak to a live agent or representative."

2. Open your Escalate topic. Edit the description to:
"This topic handles when the user explicitly asks to speak to a live human agent, representative, or support person. It does NOT handle users ending the conversation or saying goodbye."

The key pattern from the docs: use negative descriptions to tell the orchestrator what a topic does NOT do. This eliminates ambiguity between similar topics.

After updating descriptions, test in the Test panel with a fresh conversation (the orchestrator uses conversation history, so existing sessions may behave differently).

Ref: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/advanced-generative-actions#authoring-descriptions

Let me know

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Valantis 4,803 on at

Like (2)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!
Hi @VS-13030954-0,

With generative orchestration on, the planner often chooses Escalate (via fallback or a Question node’s default “no valid entity found → Escalate”) instead of Goodbye.

Fix (keep orchestration on)

Ensure Goodbye is available

Topics → System → make sure “Goodbye” is On.

Stop auto-escalations in Question nodes

Properties → Entity recognition → No valid entity found → change Action from Escalate to “Set variable to empty” (or “Set variable to value”).

Properties → Interruptions → “Only selected topics” → allow Goodbye (don’t allow Escalate).

Optionally reduce Reprompts.

Update Fallback to catch farewells

Topics → System → Fallback: before its default redirect, add a Condition that checks UnrecognizedTriggerPhrase for “goodbye,” “bye,” “no thanks,” etc., then Redirect to Goodbye.

Make Goodbye cancel any pending plan

At the start of the Goodbye topic, add “End all topics,” then send your farewell and end the conversation.

Validate

Test “goodbye” both when idle and while a Question is waiting; confirm Goodbye triggers (not Escalate) in the activity/transcript view.

Best regards,

Valantis

✅ If this helped solve your issue, please Accept as Solution so others can find it quickly.

❤️ If it didn’t fully solve it but was still useful, please click “Yes” on “Was this reply helpful?” or leave a Like :).

🏷️ For follow-ups @Valantis.

📝 https://valantisond365.com/

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Valantis 4,803 on at

Like (1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi @VS-13030954-0,

Just wanted to check in and see if everything is working now. If you still need any help, feel free to let me know.

Also, if the issue is resolved, it would be great if you could mark the answer as solved so others with the same question can find it easily.

Thanks and have a great day!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No