AI Studio Chat Widgets: Native Live Chat and Analytics

TL;DR

HighLevel's AI Studio now allows native chat widgets to be built directly into apps. This adds live chat or email chat functionality with full styling and analytics for AI Studio projects.

Who this affects

This directly impacts agency owners and SaaS entrepreneurs using AI Studio. The functionality is supported in TanStack Start and React projects. Anyone looking to add integrated live chat to their AI Studio applications will find this relevant. HighLevel has not confirmed who else this affects, nor if there are any specific plan requirements or limitations.

What changed

Native chat widgets can now be added to AI Studio apps. AI Studio builds and styles these chat widgets to match the site's design. Users can prompt AI Studio to 'add a live chat,' which then creates a HighLevel chat widget using existing HighLevel chat functionality. AI Studio can create either Live Chat or Email Chat widgets.

When creating a new chat widget, AI Studio prompts for greeting, placement, and tone. The widgets built by AI Studio inherit the app's colors, fonts, and layout. A single AI Studio project can support multiple chat widgets.

Security and functionality points for these widgets include:

• Visitor sessions utilize secure tokens.
• A captcha automatically appears if a bot is suspected.
• Existing rate limits and widget spam settings apply to messages.
• Visitors can share files within supported types and size limits.
• Returning visitors can resume their conversation history.
• Messages display sending, sent, or failed statuses, with retry options for failed messages.
• Business rules like hours, out-of-hours messages, inactivity timeouts, chat ratings, and chat-ended messages follow existing widget settings.
• Every message originating from AI Studio chat widgets lands in HighLevel Conversations.
• AI Studio can set welcome messages and feedback lines for these widgets.

Voice chat, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram chat widgets are not yet supported in AI Studio. HighLevel has not confirmed rollout status, any feature replacements, or any limitations or plan gating beyond the support for TanStack Start and React projects.

Where to find it

Chat widget analytics are available within HighLevel under More → Analytics → Chat Widgets. Widget settings are accessible inside AI Studio under More → Chat Widgets. HighLevel has not published additional locations yet.

How agencies will use this

An agency building a client portal or a specific SaaS tool for a niche, such as a local restaurant's online ordering system or a real estate agent's property search app, can now integrate live chat directly. Using AI Studio, the agency would simply prompt it to 'add a live chat widget.' AI Studio would then generate the widget, automatically styling it to match the existing branding of the client portal or app. The agency can then go into More → Chat Widgets within AI Studio to fine-tune settings like business hours, specific greetings, and compliance notices. For example, they can set business hours for live chat to align with the client's operational times, ensuring agents are only available when staff are on duty. All incoming messages from the live chat will feed directly into the client's HighLevel Conversations tab, allowing the client's team to respond alongside other communication channels, maintaining a unified inbox. The agency can then monitor chat loads, visitor feedback, and satisfaction directly from the More → Analytics → Chat Widgets section to optimize the client's customer service.

Our take

This is a major update for anyone leveraging AI Studio. Integrating native chat widgets directly into AI Studio apps, with automatic styling and full analytics, streamlines the development process for interactive applications. The ability to manage these widgets directly within AI Studio and have all communication flow into HighLevel Conversations is a significant step towards a more unified platform. It reduces the need for external chat solutions or complex integrations for basic live chat needs within AI Studio projects.