Custom Functions

Custom Functions Custom functions let your AI bot connect to other systems during live conversations. Instead of saying "I'll check and get back to you," the bot can look up an order status, check inventory, or create a record in your CRM (customer relationship management system - the software you use to track leads and customers, such as HubSpot or Salesforce) - all in real time, while the customer waits. Custom Functions vs Webhooks This is the most common point of confusion, so it's worth getting clear on it before you build anything. Webhooks Custom Functions Direction One-way (fire-and-forget) Two-way (call and wait) What the bot does Sends out a notification when something happens, then keeps going. Calls out, pauses, waits for the response , and uses what comes back to continue the conversation. Visibility to the conversation The downstream result is invisible to the bot — it never sees what happened. The response is fed straight back into the AI, so the bot can quote it, reason about it, and reply to the customer with it. Best for Logging events, syncing data to a CRM, triggering external automations (Zapier, Make, n8n). Anything where the bot needs an answer before it can reply — live lookups, real-time pricing, on-the-fly content generation. When to pick which: If you just need to tell another system that something happened, use a webhook - a one-way automated message sent to another system (see Settings → Integrations → Webhooks ). If the bot needs to learn somethi