AI Reply & AI Agent

Two modes for the same engine: AI Reply drafts on-brand responses for you to approve, and AI Agent runs the same drafts on autopilot so you never miss a review.

Why reply to every review

Two big reasons — one old, one brand new:

• Old: Google's own algorithm rewards reply rate. Businesses that respond to reviews see 12% more reviews and a higher average rating over time. Customers see active owners as more trustworthy, and engaged profiles outrank dormant ones in local Maps results.
• New: AI search engines read your replies. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews, and Gemini all increasingly recommend local businesses based on what they see in the public review thread — including your replies. Reply content is one of several signals these engines weigh (alongside review volume, sentiment, GBP completeness, and third-party listings), but it's the signal most owners ignore. Replies with "Thanks!" give AI engines nothing to quote; replies that mention what you do, where you do it, and what made the experience good are far more likely to be surfaced.

The catch: writing thoughtful, SEO-rich replies to dozens of reviews a month is genuinely slow. That's why we built two modes.

AI Reply — the drafting mode

For every new review, AI Reply reads the star rating, the review text, the reviewer's name, your business name and industry, and any of your past replies it can see — then drafts a response in your voice. You'll see the draft sitting next to the review in Reputation → Reviews. From there you can:

• Post as-is with one click,
• Edit the text and then post,
• Regenerate the draft if you don't love it (each regeneration produces a meaningfully different version), or
• Discard and write your own from scratch.

This is the right mode if you want to read every review yourself and approve each reply manually.

AI Agent — the autopilot mode

Same drafting engine, but the Agent posts the reply automatically the moment a review lands. By the time you see the review, your reply is already public.

This is the mode that maximizes the controllable signal you can send to AI search engines. Every new review gets a thoughtful, keyword-aware reply within minutes — so when AI engines crawl your Google profile (and the third-party sites that mirror it), every thread reads like an engaged, professional business that knows what it does. Pair this with steady review volume growth and a complete, accurate GBP, and you've got the recipe most local businesses are missing.

Open Reputation → AI Agent → SEO Agent to turn it on. You can configure it three ways:

• Auto-post all reviews. Maximum speed; recommended once you've used AI Reply for a week and trust the output.
• Auto-post 4- and 5-star only. The default. Positive reviews get replied to instantly; 1–3 star reviews land in your manual queue so you can handle them with the right context.
• Auto-post 5-star only. The most conservative option — anything below 5 stars waits for you.

Teaching it your voice

From the Reputation → AI Agent → SEO Agent page you can set a few preferences:

• Tone. Friendly, professional, warm, or punchy. Most service businesses do best on Friendly or Warm.
• Sign-off. "— Anna" beats "Best regards, The Maple Dental Team" for warmth, but use whatever matches your brand.
• Length. Concise (1–2 sentences), Standard (2–4), or Detailed (4–6). Short replies feel more genuine; longer ones can be useful for negative reviews where context matters.
• House rules. Free-text instructions like "always mention we're family-owned" or "never offer discounts." These get applied to every draft.

The model adapts to your existing replies too. If you've responded to 30 reviews already, it picks up patterns like how you greet, what details you mention, and how you close — and matches them.

Handling negative reviews

For 1- and 2-star reviews, AI Reply takes a different tack:

• It acknowledges the customer's frustration without being defensive,
• It doesn't argue with specifics or post anything that could escalate publicly,
• It offers an off-platform way to make it right (your support email or phone).

You should still edit these replies before posting — only you know the actual context. But the draft gives you a calm starting point, which matters a lot when you're frustrated by an unfair review.

What it won't do

• Make claims you didn't approve. It won't promise refunds, discounts, or specific actions unless you write them in.
• Mention competitors by name. Even if a reviewer does.
• Use phrases that violate Google's review reply guidelines (no review-gating language, no asking the reviewer to remove their review, etc.).

Bulk replying

If you have a backlog, open Reputation → Reviews, tick the checkboxes on multiple reviews, and click Generate drafts. Drafts appear next to each review; you scan them, edit anything that needs editing, then bulk-post.

This is how most owners catch up on months of unanswered reviews in an afternoon.

Cost & limits

AI Reply is included in all paid plans. There's no per-draft charge. Fair-use limits apply (typically not a concern unless you're generating thousands of drafts per day).

Common questions

Can Google tell my replies were AI-drafted?

Not in any meaningful sense, especially after you edit them. Google's guidelines don't prohibit using tools to draft replies — they care about whether the reply is helpful and genuine. A draft you edited and approved is your reply.

What if it gets a detail wrong?

It will occasionally invent a detail (e.g. "thanks for trying our pasta!" when you're a roofer). Always skim before posting. The fix is usually a two-second edit, and over time the model gets better at avoiding this for your business specifically.

Can I turn it off for some reviews?

Yes — from Reputation → AI Agent → SEO Agent you can disable drafting for 1- and 2-star reviews, for reviews without text (rating-only), or turn the engine off entirely. Some owners prefer to write negative-review replies themselves.