How AIOS email works (at a high level)
Every AI One-Stop agent comes with a default email address, such as the address below. This is the unique inbox your AI uses to send and receive messages.
Most schools also want to continue using the campus inboxes students already know, like:
These inboxes can be connected so your AIOS agent can respond to student emails without changing student behavior.
What you set up in AIOS
Navigate to the AIOS dashboard (Service Center → Email), click "Setup" to begin. You will see:
1️⃣Your AI agent’s contact info
This denotes your agent’s email address. Clicking the pencil icon will give you the option to add a follow-up contact to provide additional support to students if a conversation has been escalated.
2️⃣Allowed email address
Email addresses added to this section can email your agent directly for testing. If you want to allow others to test your AI agent, you can add their email address here.
3️⃣Automatic Email Responder
The Automatic Email Responder allows schools to keep using their existing campus email addresses (like [email protected] or [email protected]) while having the AIOS respond to students.
To set this up, add the existing email addresses that typically handle student inquiries, and assign a follow-up contact for each address. The follow-up contact will receive escalations when students need additional help. For example, you might forward your general Financial Aid inbox to your agent so it can review and respond to student questions, while routing escalations to the appropriate staff member or team.
Each connected inbox requires two things:
The email address
Example: [email protected] or [email protected]
A follow-up contact
This is the person or shared inbox that receives escalations when:
A student clicks “Get more help”, or
The AI detects stress, frustration, or distress in a message
Best practice: use a shared team inbox (e.g., sbs-group@…), so escalations are visible to multiple staff members.
Once department or office email addresses with follow-up contacts are saved, work with your IT department to auto-forward those addresses to your help desk agent.
Example flow:
A student emails [email protected]
That message auto-forwards to [email protected]
The AI replies from the AIOS address and CCs the campus inbox
Your team keeps full visibility while the AI handles the response.
Optional: Some schools create a branded address like [email protected] and forward it to the AIOS. This is optional—not required.
What is the criteria for an email to be escalated from the AI One Stop agent?
4️⃣Audience
Denotes who your AI agent will reply to. Important Guardrails to Know
The AI only responds to students uploaded into AIOS
Messages from staff, vendors, or former students are not answered by the AI
If a staff member replies from a connected campus inbox, the AI recognizes a human takeover and steps out of the thread automatically
Helpful resources:
Monitoring conversations
All email activity is visible in the History tab:
Active – ongoing conversations
Transferred – escalations sent to follow-up contacts
Closed – no activity for 48 hours (reopens automatically if the student replies)
Recommended testing steps
Before going live, we recommend:
Adding a few staff emails as allowed senders so you can test responses
Upload a small test student list
Sending common questions to a connected inbox to test the knowledge your agent was trained on.
Confirm that:
The AI responds as expected
Escalations route correctly
Your team sees messages in both the campus inbox and AIOS History
When you’re “live”
Once inboxes, forwarding, and follow-up contacts are in place—and you’ve tested—you’re live on email.
From there, the focus shifts to refining content and custom instructions, not technical setup.