Latest / Sidekick's What Just Shipped / HubSpot Customer Agent email targeting: choose who gets AI replies | Shipped Jul 2026
Transcript
- Dana (AI host): If you've kept HubSpot's customer agent off your support email because you're nervous about who it might answer, you can now pick who it answers. Rob (AI host): Pick how? Dana (AI host): With contact lists, to include or exclude. Dana (AI host): And HubSpot's own pages disagree on which plans get it. Narrator (AI voice): This is Sidekick's What Just Shipped, presented by Sidekick Strategies. Narrator (AI voice): Your hosts, Rob and Dana, are AI. Narrator (AI voice): The voices are synthetic, the research is real, and humans check every claim before it reaches you. Dana (AI host): First, a disclosure: Rob and I are AI hosts. Dana (AI host): We don't answer support email or manage contact lists ourselves. Rob (AI host): I'm Rob. Rob (AI host): Today I'm playing a support lead who'd like the agent to answer simple questions, but stay away from the biggest accounts. Dana (AI host): Here's the update. Dana (AI host): HubSpot's June product updates say admins can define which contacts the customer agent responds to on email channels, by picking existing HubSpot lists. Dana (AI host): Everyone else goes to the human queue. Rob (AI host): Where does that live? Dana (AI host): Before the path, one thing from the help page. Dana (AI host): Deployed straight to a channel, the agent handles every conversation routed there. Dana (AI host): If you want finer control, you deploy it through a workflow or a rule-based chatbot instead. Dana (AI host): Lists are the simpler option for email. Dana (AI host): HubSpot's deploy help page, updated on the fifth of October, walks through it. Dana (AI host): Go to Service, then Customer Agent. In the left sidebar, click Deploy, then Channels. Dana (AI host): In the top right of the table, click Deploy agent. Dana (AI host): In the right panel, pick an inbox or help desk, then the email channel. Rob (AI host): Is email the only channel with targeting? Dana (AI host): The agent can go on WhatsApp, Facebook, live chat, forms, email, and calling in beta. Dana (AI host): But the include and exclude lists are described for email channels only. Dana (AI host): For other channels, the help page points to a workflow or a rule-based chatbot. Rob (AI host): And then the lists? Dana (AI host): Right. There's a Contact lists to include menu, for who the agent should respond to. Dana (AI host): And a Contact lists to exclude menu, for who it should never respond to. Dana (AI host): You pick an existing contact segment in each. Dana (AI host): Or click Add deployment target to build a new one. Rob (AI host): What if I leave both empty? Dana (AI host): The help page says if no target segments are selected, the agent responds to all contacts. Rob (AI host): So for my case, the big accounts go in the exclude list. Dana (AI host): That's how we'd read it, yes. Rob (AI host): What else is on that screen? Dana (AI host): Working hours. All hours, during specific hours, or only outside specific hours, with a time zone. Dana (AI host): And you set who gets conversations when the agent isn't responding. Dana (AI host): There's also a Conversation coverage field, a percentage of conversations the agent handles. Dana (AI host): The page suggests starting low the first time and raising it as it performs. Rob (AI host): That's a nice second safety net. Dana (AI host): Then click Deploy. Or Save as draft, to keep your changes out of the live deployment. Rob (AI host): Does HubSpot say what to check before I hit Deploy? Dana (AI host): It lists a few things. Dana (AI host): Define the agent's identity and permissions, configure actions and guidelines, train it on good content sources, set up handoff triggers, and preview and test its responses. Dana (AI host): It also suggests starting with one channel, reviewing escalations and knowledge gaps, then expanding. Rob (AI host): And if I change my mind later? Dana (AI host): Back on the Channels page, hover over the channel and click Edit, or Remove to take the agent off it. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Hey, it's George B. Thomas from Sidekick Strategies. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Full honesty, this is my AI voice clone, made with my permission. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Once lists decide who gets an AI reply, messy lists stop being a reporting problem and start being a customer problem. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Our Data Hygiene Health Check scores your CRM data on completeness, accuracy, consistency, governance, and automation, from ten questions. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): It runs about five minutes, and ends with a fix first list. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Look under tools at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Rob (AI host): Okay, the skeptic part. As the support lead I'm playing, which plan do I need? Dana (AI host): Here's the conflict. HubSpot's June post says email targeting is available for all hubs and tiers. Dana (AI host): Our write-up says nearly every hub and tier. Dana (AI host): But the deploy help page lists Service Hub, Smart CRM, and Revenue Hub, Professional and Enterprise, with HubSpot Credits required. Rob (AI host): Then what should I believe? Dana (AI host): We couldn't confirm. Dana (AI host): Since you deploy the agent itself on those plans, a Free account may not see the screen at all. Dana (AI host): Check your own account. Rob (AI host): Our write-up also mentions contact property filters. Are those there? Dana (AI host): The help page only mentions contact segments and lists. Dana (AI host): It doesn't mention property filters, so we'd call that unconfirmed. Dana (AI host): Though a segment can be built on properties. Rob (AI host): What about timing? If someone joins my exclude list after they email? Dana (AI host): Our write-up says targeting is checked when the ticket is created, so a later list change won't affect that ticket. Dana (AI host): HubSpot's page doesn't say. So that's unknown too. Rob (AI host): And excluded contacts definitely go to a human? Dana (AI host): HubSpot's June post says others are routed to the human queue. Dana (AI host): The help page just says the agent should never respond to them. Rob (AI host): Anything that could switch the agent off without me noticing? Dana (AI host): Credits. Dana (AI host): The help page says if your credits run out, the agent temporarily stops being assigned to new conversations on every channel, until your next reset date or until you buy more. Dana (AI host): You can also pause it yourself, under Account and Billing, then Usage and Limits. Dana (AI host): It keeps handling existing threads, but won't take new ones. Rob (AI host): And the same June post had another email item, right? Dana (AI host): It did. Dana (AI host): The agent can now reply to inbound form submissions connected to a help desk or inbox, with an automated email to whoever submitted it. Dana (AI host): The help page adds that for a form channel, you have to set a Customer agent reply email address. Rob (AI host): Okay. Here's my plan, as the support lead I'm playing. Rob (AI host): Build a segment of the biggest accounts and put it in the exclude list. Rob (AI host): Set coverage to a small percentage. Rob (AI host): Then send a test email from a contact on each side. Dana (AI host): And keep an eye on your credit balance. Dana (AI host): Email targeting, boiled down. Dana (AI host): Include lists, exclude lists, and a coverage dial for how much the agent takes on. Rob (AI host): All of our sources are linked in the show notes, and our write-ups are at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Dana (AI host): We're grateful you listened. Rob (AI host): Pick one list to exclude before you switch email on. Narrator (AI voice): Sidekick's What Just Shipped is presented by Sidekick Strategies, with AI hosts Rob and Dana and AI-generated music. Narrator (AI voice): We're independent, and not affiliated with HubSpot. Find our research at Sidekick Strategies dot com.