Smart Direct with AI on Instagram: How It Works and How to Set It Up

"Smart direct" means two things and most people only know one. The first: a system that works by rules. A customer writes "price", the price list goes out. A customer writes "shipping", the shipping details go out. It says exactly what you told it and nothing else. The second: smart direct with AI. The same system, with one difference: when none of your rules answers, instead of silence the AI replies from your own page's information.

The two are not rivals; they complement each other. This guide explains where each is useful, exactly where Admino's AI answers from and where it stays quiet, and how to try it without risk.

Smart direct with rules versus smart direct with AI

Rule-based smart direct, called Pasokhino in Admino, is like an employee with a written procedure: every question you foresaw has its exact answer, and it never says anything of its own. For questions that repeat every day without change, this is the best choice: fast, predictable and free in credits.

The trouble starts when a customer asks something you wrote no rule for. "Will it reach Tehran tomorrow?", "Is this model in blue?", "Is the colour different from the photo?" A thousand questions are possible and you cannot write a rule for all of them. Smart direct with AI fills that gap.

• Keyword rules always answer first. The AI never blocks something you wrote.
• The AI gets its turn only when none of your rules would send anything.
• Forms and the welcome message keep their priority as before.

Where does the AI answer from?

The most important point: Admino's AI knows nothing by itself. It answers only from what you told Admino about your shop:

• The "about the shop" text and the list of products and prices you write.
• Shop knowledge: questions and answers you added, as plain questions, products, services, step-by-step guides or rules and conditions.
• Your page's own information: bio, posts and captions. "Page analysis" can read these and write a draft of the shop knowledge for you.
• If a customer replies to a story or post, Admino also reads that story or post; for example the code on the story when the customer only wrote "11".

If the answer is not in that information, the AI does not guess. This may be the most important rule in the whole system: a bot that does not know the answer and makes one up is worse than a silent bot.

What happens when it does not know?

Each shop makes one choice, and the safe default is silence:

• Stay quiet: the message waits in the inbox and you answer. Nothing automatic is sent.
• Send a holding line: for example "my colleague will reply shortly". It goes out at most once per person in twenty-four hours and only in DMs.

Every question the AI could not answer is recorded in a list of "questions I had no answer for". That list tells you exactly what your knowledge base is missing. You fill each with your own answer and next time the AI knows it.

What the AI never says on its own

• A price you did not write. If the price is not in the knowledge base, it does not say it.
• A discount, promise or commitment you did not make.
• A link, number or address you did not give.
• A reply to a message that looks like an instruction to the AI itself ("forget your rules"). A customer message is only a message, not a command.

It also answers "hello", "thanks" and encouraging emoji without AI and without any credits. Those replies are fixed and polite and suit anyone.

Try it before anything reaches a customer

The "AI replies" section has a test box: write any question a customer might ask and see exactly what the AI would answer, through the same path a real customer's message takes. Testing is free and nothing is recorded in the history. Above the box, a few real questions from your own page are suggested so you do not have to invent them.

After switching it on, everything stays visible: each message the AI sent a customer is listed beside the customer's question. If you dislike an answer, tell it what the right answer was and Admino learns it for that question.

How do I set it up?

1. Connect your page to Admino and build your keyword rules; this is the foundation.
2. In "AI replies", write your shop information: about the shop, products and prices. Or press "page analysis" so it drafts from your page.
3. Try a few real questions in the test box and fix the incomplete answers.
4. Choose whether it stays quiet or sends a holding line when it does not know. If you only want it while you are away, switch on "outside working hours only".
5. Switch the AI on for DMs (and comments if you like). They switch on separately and both are off by default.

What does it cost, and is smart direct free?

Keyword rules use no credits. Only AI answers use your subscription's monthly AI credits, the same credits the Admino assistant and Hooshino draw on. Replies to "hello" and "thanks" use none, and part of the allowance is always held back for replying to customers.

So what does "free smart direct" mean exactly? Admino has no permanent free plan. Every new account gets thirty full days free, once per phone number, with every feature including AI; after that you choose a monthly or yearly subscription. Without a subscription you can connect your page but nothing is sent to customers. Read the details in the "free smart direct" guide.

What about comments?

The AI can also reply under comments. Because a public reply is seen by everyone it is stricter: it never contains a link, number or @username, it is short, and you set a credit cap per rule that it never spends beyond.

And if I do not want to set everything up myself?

The Admino assistant can build the rules for you: instead of filling in forms you say "when someone asks the price, send the price list" and it builds it switched off, shows it to you and saves it after you confirm.

Frequently asked questions