Enterprises spent billions on customer care last year, yet the toughest inquiries still fall to human agents.

Why? Because legacy chatbots can’t follow complex procedures . They rely on brittle scripts or flowcharts that break the moment your policies change.

The race is on to close that gap—and the last mile of automation depends on dynamic standard operating procedures (SOPs) execution.

That’s exactly what we set out to change with Playbooks. Playbooks enables your AI agent to follow your SOPs with precision, logic, and flexibility, handling high-stakes workflows like your best human agents would.

Here’s how it works, how teams are using it, and what makes this leap in automation possible.

making real-time SOP execution a reality

Most chatbots can handle FAQs. But when a customer inquiry requires your actual SOPs—multi-step workflows, API calls, logic branches, and policy conditions—they hit a wall.

Traditionally, companies have tried to bridge that gap with hardcoded flows or brittle robotic process automation (RPA) scripts. These are expensive to build, hard to maintain, and rarely keep up with evolving business logic. And even then, they often don’t account for what makes SOP execution work in the real world: flexibility, reasoning, and adherence.

As a result, the high‑volume, high‑stakes tickets—like processing refunds or answering questions related to claims, for example—continue to be costly and manually handled by human agents.

That’s why Playbooks matters.

Playbooks empowers your AI agent to follow your standard operating procedures, handling complex, multi-step inquiries with the same precision and flexibility as your best human agents. That means:

• Interpreting instructions in real time
• Adapting to customer inputs
• Calling APIs and applying rules and logic
• Escalating when needed

Like your SOPs, Playbooks are written in natural language with step-by-step instructions, making them easy for AI managers to review and maintain over time.

from static SOPs to scalable automation

Just like with your human agents, your AI agent needs to be onboarded. And that starts with your SOPs.

Playbooks makes it up to 10X faster than building the static, rigid scripts that traditional bots (and even some teams) still rely on. Instead of hardcoding every path, you can create Playbooks in whatever way suits your team:

• Generate from a prompt: Describe the procedure in a few sentences, and Ada will automatically generate a Playbook with structured, editable steps.
• Upload an existing SOP: Have your SOPs written out for agents? Upload them and Ada will convert them into Playbooks containing executable steps in natural language.
• Upload a flowchart: If your workflows are mapped visually, just upload the flowchart, and Ada will translate it into an actionable Playbook with clear, step-by-step instructions.
• Build from scratch: Want full control? Create a brand-new Playbook directly in the Playbooks editor.

Each path leads to the same result: a Playbook you can easily review, refine, and enhance. Add missing actions to connect to internal systems, or set up handoffs to escalate to a human agent when needed.

built-in guardrails for SOP precision

Creating Playbooks that accurately capture your SOPs is essential, but it's just as important to ensure that your AI agent follows them to the letter.

While generative AI is a powerful technology, it isn’t always predictable. On its own, it can skip critical steps, make incorrect assumptions, or stray from your defined procedures. That’s a risk you can’t afford when dealing with sensitive workflows or policy-heavy inquiries.

That’s why we’ve implemented multiple layers of guardrails to ensure the AI agent adheres to your SOPs with precision and consistency. This includes:

• Structured playbook design: A well-written playbook is key to achieving high adherence rates. When you generate a Playbook in Ada, it’s automatically structured with clear, sequential instructions. This makes it easy for the AI agent to interpret and execute accurately.
• Transparent reasoning: As the AI agent progresses through a Playbook, it shares its reasoning for executing every step. This reasoning acts like a scratchpad to show which instruction it's currently following.
• Adherence supervisor model: Behind the scenes, an adherence supervisor model evaluates every proposed next step of the AI agent. If a step doesn’t align with the Playbook, it flags the issue and prompts a correction, iteratively, until a compliant step is produced.

All of this happens in real time, with minimal latency. The result? Customers already seeing adherence rates exceeding 95%, even on their most complex workflows.

coaching tools that make your AI agent even sharper

Just like your best human agents, your AI agent should improve over time. With Playbooks, you can review every conversation and coach your AI agent to perform better on your most important workflows.

Our coaching tools now extend to Playbooks, making it easy to:

• Review conversations and pinpoint when the AI should've used a Playbook instead of another action
• Suggest alternative Playbooks when the wrong one was used
• Take a different action instead of using a Paybook

Every piece of feedback helps the AI agent learn and adjust, so future conversations reflect your ideal handling of that inquiry type.

It’s how teams move beyond static automation toward a continuous loop of improvement. And it’s how Playbooks helps you unlock higher resolution rates, better customer outcomes, and long-term cost efficiency.

Playbooks turn your “cost to serve” line into a controllable variable while protecting compliance. Here’s what this can look like in different industries.

travel and hospitality

financial services

insurance

ecommerce

start driving real results with SOP automation

Playbooks isn’t just about automating tasks, it’s about activating the full value of your SOPs.

When your AI agent can follow complex procedures with precision, you reduce repetitive work, accelerate resolution times, and free up your team to focus on higher-impact conversations.

Faster service improves retention. AI customer service frees up capacity for upsell and white-glove support. And detailed interaction data feeds product, CX, and operations teams with insights to improve the business.

Getting started is simpler than you think:

1. Create a Playbook using a prompt, uploading existing SOPs, flowcharts, or building from scratch in the Playbook editor.
2. Review and refine the steps: Add any missing logic, integrate with internal systems, or configure human handoffs.
3. Test the playbook And observe the AI agent reasoning through each step.
4. Deploy across channels: Launch it for messaging and email, with voice on the way.

The most efficient way to bring your SOPs to life is by transforming static documents into scalable, AI workflows. This way your AI agent is ready to handle your most complex customer service inquiries with accuracy and control.

All that’s left is to put your Playbooks in motion.