AI skills
House rules every AI reply follows, in bot journeys and the AI Copilot.
TL;DR
- What it is — short instruction documents, written in Markdown, that Lodgestory adds to the AI's instructions before every customer-facing reply. One is built in and on by default: Humanizer, which removes the habits that make a reply read as machine-written.
- Who it's for — Admins and Account Owners manage skills. Everyone benefits: bot journeys and the AI Copilot pick them up automatically.
- Top outcome — replies that sound like your team, without rewriting every persona and every bot step.
At a glance
| Applies to | The AI Agent step in Bot Journeys (Conversational and Knowledge modes, including its follow-up nudges) and the AI Copilot (reply suggestions, autopilot and polish this draft). |
| Who can use it | Admin and Account Owner manage skills. Any team member who opens a bot journey sees which skills apply to an AI Agent step. |
| Built in | Humanizer, on for every workspace. Based on the open-source Humanizer writing guide (MIT licence, version 3.1.0). |
| Top limits | A skill of your own up to 20,000 characters · up to 10 custom skills · everything that is on for one surface within 40,000 characters (the built-in Humanizer takes about 18,500). |
| When changes apply | Within about a minute, to replies written from then on. |
| API | No. |
How to find it
Breadcrumb: Settings → AI & Automation → AI skills.
Direct URL: https://lodgestory.com/crm/settings/ai-skills
[SCREENSHOT: AI skills page with Humanizer on and one custom skill]
What is a skill?
A persona says who the AI is. A skill says how it should write and behave, in rules that hold across every persona and every bot step. Lodgestory adds the text of each skill that is on to the AI's instructions, after your own instructions, every time it writes a reply. You never see it in the chat; you see the result: shorter sentences, fewer dashes, no "Great question!" openers, and whichever house rules you added yourself.
The problem it solves. The same writing fixes pasted into a dozen personas and thirty bot steps drift apart within a month. A skill is one place to set the house style, and one switch to take it out of a surface or a single step without touching the rest.
Customer scenarios
- Acme Hotels keeps its cancellation wording in a skill, so every autopilot reply and every bot step quotes it the same way.
- A front-desk bot journey switches skills off on its final confirmation step, because that step sends fixed text and needs no style rules.
- A team that writes in Hinglish adds a skill with its spelling conventions and the words to avoid, and the AI Copilot's drafts follow them from the next suggestion.
Core concepts
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Skill | A Markdown instruction document the AI follows in every reply. |
| Built-in skill | Comes with Lodgestory, on by default. You can read it, switch it off per surface, or make a copy to edit. Its text cannot be changed in place. |
| Custom skill | A skill you add: paste Markdown or upload a SKILL.md file. |
| Surface | Where a skill applies: Bot journeys (the AI Agent step) or AI Copilot (the inbox). A skill can apply to one or both. |
| Budget | Everything that is on for one surface must fit in 40,000 characters, so replies stay fast and affordable. The page shows how much each surface uses. |
| Apply in this step | A switch on an AI Agent step's Persona section that leaves the workspace's skills out of that one step. |
Quick start: add your first skill
- Open Settings → AI skills. Humanizer is already on.
- Click New skill.
- Give it a name and a one-line description, or click Upload .md and pick a SKILL.md file: the name and description from its header fill the fields, and the rest becomes the content.
- Write or check the content. The counter shows characters and an estimate of what the skill costs per reply.
- Tick where it applies: Bot journeys, AI Copilot or both.
- Leave On switched on and click Create skill.
- Click Preview what the agent sees to read exactly what is added on each surface.
[SCREENSHOT: the New skill editor with a SKILL.md uploaded]
How it works
Before the AI writes a reply, Lodgestory gathers every skill that is on for that surface, in order, and adds it to the AI's instructions after your persona or step instructions. Your instructions still come first; a skill adds house rules, it does not replace what you wrote. A change reaches live bot journeys and the AI Copilot within about a minute and applies to replies written from then on. Skills are not applied to automation messages or templates, which send the text you wrote, and not to Kaylee's own questions to your team.
Features in depth
Humanizer, built in
What it changes in replies: no "not X but Y" contrasts, no one-line closers, no forced groups of three, dashes replaced by plain punctuation, plain words instead of inflated or sales language, no bold labels or headings inside a chat message, no chatbot phrases such as "Great question" or "Certainly!", and no re-explaining what the customer already said. 26 patterns in all. Open it from the list with View to read the full text, with its version and licence. Questions the AI needs the customer to answer are still asked.
Switching a skill off
Per surface: open the skill, untick Bot journeys or AI Copilot, save. Everywhere at once: the switch beside its status in the list. For one bot step: in the builder, select the AI Agent step → Persona → Apply in this step off. The step keeps your instructions; only the workspace skills are left out.
Making a copy of the built-in
Make a copy opens the editor with the full Humanizer text as a new custom skill named "Humanizer (copy)", switched off. Edit it, switch it on, then switch the built-in off for the same surface, or both will apply and count against the budget.
Your own skills
From a SKILL.md: upload the file, or paste its text; the header (name, description) is read into the fields and left out of the content. Only the SKILL.md text is used; a skill's other files (scripts, references, examples in sub-folders) are not read. Write rules, not a persona: "Quote prices with the currency and taxes", "Never promise a late check-out; offer to ask the front desk." Keep a skill about wording; leave looking things up, tools and when to ask the team to the step or persona instructions.
Preview what the agent sees
A side panel with one view per surface showing the exact block added right now, with its size. Use it after a change to check the order and the total.
Budget and size
Per surface, the page shows how much of the 40,000 characters is in use. Saving a skill that would take a surface past the budget is refused with a message; switch another skill off for that surface, shorten the skill, or save it switched off. Sizes also show an estimate in tokens, because that is what each reply costs.
Roles and permissions
| Action | Account Owner | Admin | User |
|---|---|---|---|
| Read the skills list and the preview | ✓ | ✓ | In the builder: which skills apply to a step |
| Add, edit, delete, switch skills on or off | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Switch skills off for one bot step | ✓ | ✓ | Anyone who can edit the journey |
Connections
- Bot Journeys: the AI Agent step's Persona section lists the skills that apply and has the Apply in this step switch.
- AI Copilot: every suggestion, autopilot reply and polished draft follows the skills that are on for the AI Copilot.
- Kaylee console: unchanged. Kaylee's questions to your team are not customer-facing replies and do not use skills.
Limits a user will run into
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Custom skills per workspace | 10 |
| One custom skill | 20,000 characters |
| Everything on for one surface | 40,000 characters (the built-in Humanizer takes about 18,500) |
| Name · description | 80 · 300 characters |
| Time for a change to apply | About a minute |
Errors and FAQ
- "Turning this on would take that surface over 40,000 characters." Switch another skill off for that surface, shorten this one, or save it switched off.
- "This workspace already has 10 custom skills." Delete one you no longer use.
- "A skill with this name already exists." Names are unique per workspace; rename the copy.
- The page says AI skills will be available shortly. The workspace is being updated; try again in a few minutes, or contact support if it persists.
- Does a skill override my persona or step instructions? No. Your instructions come first; a skill adds rules. If the two conflict, make the instruction explicit in the step or persona.
- Can I edit Humanizer? Not in place. Make a copy, edit the copy, and switch the built-in off for that surface.
- Do skills apply to automations, templates or Kaylee? No. Only to the AI Agent step and the AI Copilot.
- The agent answers from memory instead of checking since I added a skill. A long skill, or one that tells the agent how to answer rather than how to write, can make a smaller model skip its knowledge base or data sources. Shorten the skill, keep it to wording, and test the step in the builder after each change.
- Why does the same text count slightly differently here and in my editor? Lodgestory counts characters after removing the SKILL.md header and the title line, and after tidying blank lines.
Changelog
- Nov 2026 — Initial release: the built-in Humanizer on by default for bot journeys and the AI Copilot; custom skills from pasted Markdown or a SKILL.md file; per-surface and per-step switches; a preview of what the agent sees.
Related modules and next steps
- Bot Journeys — the AI Agent step and its Persona section.
- AI Copilot — personas, tools and autopilot.
- Knowledge Bases — what a Knowledge Agent answers from; skills shape how it writes, not what it knows.
Updated about 2 hours ago