# How Onlo works

Understand where customer conversations enter, how the AI prepares a response or action, and where your team takes over.

- **Audience:** Workspace administrators orienting an Onlo support team
- **Intent:** Understand something
- **Active work:** 1 minute
- **Where this happens:** Read this before setup if Onlo is new to you. No code is required.

Canonical page: https://onlo.ai/docs/guides/get-started/platform-overview

## What happens when a customer asks for help

Onlo connects the place a customer contacts you with the knowledge, tools, and people needed to answer. You control what the AI can use and when a teammate takes over.

## The support loop

1. **Customer.** A person asks for help.
2. **Channel.** Web chat, email, messaging, a form, or another connected surface receives it.
3. **Conversation.** The message and customer context appear together in Inbox.
4. **AI.** Onlo decides how to respond within the behavior you configured.
5. **Knowledge and Actions.** Trusted content supplies answers; approved tools perform work when needed.
6. **Reply or teammate handoff.** The customer receives a reply, or a person continues the conversation.

## What your team controls

Inbox channels determine where conversations enter. Knowledge base determines the company information Onlo can use. AI settings and Playbooks shape behavior, while roles and escalation decide when people take over.

Start with one channel, one trusted source, and one teammate path. Add complexity only after that flow works.

## Related pages

- [Receive your first customer message](https://onlo.ai/docs/guides/get-started/connect-first-channel): Connect one customer channel and prove that a real message reaches Onlo Inbox.