Agents


Audience	Marketers, business users
Prerequisites	Configuration → Prepare data for AID → At least one connected destination (SFMC, Braze, Iterable)

Agents are the foundation of AI Decisioning. Each agent defines your audience, messages, and goals, and automatically optimizes campaign performance over time.

Learning objectives

After reading this article, you’ll know how to:

Create a new agent
Configure your agent
Add and manage messages
Monitor and manage active agents

Overview

An Agent in AI Decisioning combines your audience, messages, and goals into a single adaptive campaign.

Agents use reinforcement learning to decide which message, timing, and channel will drive the best outcome for each user. They operate continuously, learning from real user outcomes such as clicks, purchases, or sign-ups.

Each new message helps the model understand which creative and timing combinations perform best for different audiences.

Agents don’t replace your content or rules--they learn within the goals, audiences, and guardrails you define.

Create a new agent

Go to AI Decisioning → Agents.
Click + Add agent.
Enter a name that reflects your campaign’s purpose, such as Win-back customers or Subscription renewals.
Choose a target audience from Customer Studio → Audiences.
(Optional) Add a Holdout group to measure incremental lift (for example, 20%).
Click Add agent.

Add a new agent window showing audience selection

If you don’t see available audiences, create one in Customer Studio → Audiences before proceeding.

Configure your agent

After creation, click your agent to open the Configuration tab.

Here you can set your audience eligibility, messages, goals, Smart Suppression, and scheduling preferences.

Step 1: Set audience eligibility

This section shows the audience your agent targets and any experimental setup, such as a holdout group.

Setting	Description
Target audience	The audience defined in Customer Studio.
Holdout group	The control group used to measure true lift (for example, 20%).

Holdouts allow you to track the real impact of AI Decisioning by comparing users who receive messages to those who don’t.

Step 2: Add and manage goals

Goals define what your agent optimizes toward.

Each goal represents a measurable event (like a purchase or click) and includes a priority level—helping AID decide which outcomes matter most.

To add a goal:

In your agent’s Configuration tab, under Goals, click + Add goal.

Configure the goal.
- Select an event model (for example, Purchase event, Viewed Product, or Redeemed offer).
- (Optional) Add a filter to refine the event, such as Performed → Where property is campaign = Summer Sale.
- (Optional) Select any related collections (for example, Live Offers, In-stock Products) to attribute conversions to catalog items.
Click Continue to move to the Impact step.
- Choose whether to include this goal in decisioning or track it for measurement only.
- Select a classification:
  - Best – Primary success metric
  - Very good / Good – Positive supporting outcomes
  - Bad / Very bad / Worst – Negative outcomes such as Unsubscribe
- (Optional) Add a weight column to scale results by value (for example, Price or Order Value).
Click Continue to Finalize.
- Enter a clear, descriptive goal name (for example, Redeemed offer).
- Click Add goal to save.

Goals replace the older “Outcomes” field from earlier versions of AI Decisioning. Each agent learns continuously based on these metrics.

Start with one clear “Best” goal (for example, purchase) before adding supporting or negative signals.

Step 3 (optional): Configure scheduling

Use the Scheduling panel to control how often and when your agent sends messages.

Setting	Description
Send frequency	Limits how often a user can receive messages (for example, 3x per week).
Quiet hours	Prevents sends during off-hours (for example, weekends or late nights).
Blackout dates	Pauses messaging during specific holidays or events.

Scheduling configuration with quiet hours and blackout days

Use scheduling rules to maintain consistency across agents. Combine with Smart Suppression to control both when and whether messages are sent.

Step 4 (optional): Enable Smart Suppression

Smart Suppression automatically limits low-impact sends using your agent’s learning data.

It predicts which messages are most likely to drive incremental conversions and suppresses the rest.

In Configuration, scroll to Smart suppression (optional).
Toggle On.
Adjust the Only send top [%] slider to choose how many messages to deliver.
- Lower percentages = stricter suppression
- Higher percentages = broader reach
Choose a Goal metric to optimize for.
Review the performance curve once enough data is collected (typically after 2 weeks).

Smart Suppression chart showing predicted performance curve

For detailed guidance, see Smart Suppression → Enable Smart Suppression.

Step 5 (optional): Advanced settings

Use Advanced settings to connect your agent with your organization’s downstream campaign tracking.

Setting	Description
Customer managed campaign attribution	Enter one or more campaign IDs from your ESP or internal tracking system to tie AID results to your own reporting.

Advanced settings panel showing Campaign ID field

Campaign IDs help maintain consistent reporting between Hightouch and your connected destinations. For example, you can enter Braze, Iterable, or SFMC campaign identifiers to align AID outcomes with your existing analytics.

Add and manage messages

Each message represents a creative variation AID can choose to send.

Messages connect directly to your ESP (such as Braze, Iterable, or SFMC) and can include multiple variants for testing.

To add a message

Go to the Messages tab.
Click Add message.
In the Add messages window:
1. Select a channel and platform — Choose where your message lives (for example, Email via Iterable or Salesforce Marketing Cloud).
2. Select or create an automation identifier — Choose an existing automation or create a new one to reference this message in your connected ESP.
3. Enter a message name — Give the message a descriptive name that identifies its purpose in Hightouch (for example, “Welcome offer – email” or “Reactivation push”).
Click Add messages to finish setup.

Each added message appears in your Messages list, where you can view its Status, Variants, and applied Tags.

Use clear, campaign-specific names for each message to make performance analysis easier in Insights and within your connected ESP.

Monitor and manage agents

Once your agent is running, open the Overview tab to review live performance and experiment results.

Agent Overview dashboard showing performance charts

The Overview includes several key panels:

Section	Description
Eligible users	Shows the number of users who currently qualify for your agent’s audience and can receive messages, excluding holdouts and ineligible users.
Performance overview	Shows conversion and engagement metrics for each goal, including the current winning group, holdout, and treatment performance with confidence intervals.
Sends summary	Displays total sends and messages scheduled for today and tomorrow.
Sends over time	Charts daily send volume to help you spot delivery trends and campaign pacing.
Sends breakdown by message	Compares message-level send volume and engagement across your agent.

Use this view to monitor how your messages are distributed, which goals are performing best, and how holdout results compare to treatment performance.

Performance updates automatically as your agent runs. Confidence levels appear once enough event data has been collected for statistical analysis.

Use Insights for deeper breakdowns of message performance, goal impact, and timing analysis across agents.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Likely cause	Resolution
Agent isn’t sending messages	The target audience is empty, or the destination connection is paused.	Check audience eligibility in the Configuration → Eligibility section, and confirm destination status under Integrations.
Messages not appearing in ESP	Message or automation identifier mismatch.	Verify that the correct destination and automation identifier are selected when adding messages.
No performance data visible	The agent is new, paused, or running only a holdout group.	Wait 24–48 hours after activation, or adjust your holdout percentage to include active treatments.
Smart Suppression chart missing	Suppression is turned off or not enough send data has been collected.	Ensure Smart Suppression is enabled and allow at least 2 weeks of message activity for predictions to populate.
Goals not updating or showing results	The event model or schema changed in your workspace.	Reopen the goal configuration, reselect the event model, and save the update so the agent can rebuild its data relationships.

If you recently updated goals, audiences, or connected destinations, allow time for the agent to refresh data before performance metrics stabilize.