An Instagram AI chatbot that answers the DMs your posts start
Shoppers see a post or story, then DM you about a size or a price. Risolva's Instagram AI chatbot answers those DMs and story replies, reads screenshots, transcribes voice messages, and learns each new drop from your post captions once you approve them.
- DMs and story replies, not comments
- Size, color and price questions answered from your catalog
- Learns new drops from post captions you approve
- Connects an Instagram professional account
In your Risolva inbox: Jess T.AI handlingWhat the Instagram AI chatbot handles, and what it leaves alone
The mechanics of the Instagram connection, including the parts the AI leaves to your team.
- Messages it answers
- Direct messages, including replies to your stories, which arrive as DMs. Comments on posts, reels and ads are not handled.
- Story replies and mentions
- Story replies are answered from the words the person typed, since the AI does not see the story. Story mentions are not read.
- Account type
- An Instagram professional account.
- How it connects
- Instagram's own business login, started by a Risolva admin from Integrations, with permission to read the profile and manage messages.
- Photos and voice messages
- Voice messages are transcribed and answered in text, and text in photos and screenshots is read. Video is not analyzed. Each type can be switched off for Instagram.
- Your posts
- New post captions are checked every four hours, or right away with Sync social media. Informative ones wait under Approvals on the Knowledge page until you approve them.
- Reply window
- The AI can reply for 24 hours after the person's last message, and each new message restarts that window. A teammate who has taken the chat over can reply for up to 7 days.
- Taking over
- A teammate can take over any Instagram DM from the shared inbox, on a computer or a phone, and hand it back to the AI.
Thursday's drop post, ready for Friday's DMs
Maple & Mae announces each Thursday drop in a post, with the pieces, colors, sizes and price in the caption. Risolva checks for new posts every four hours, and a caption with real details lands under Approvals on the Knowledge page as a pending Instagram post. Once someone approves it, the AI can use it to answer DMs about the drop.
- Only the caption is read, so put prices, sizes and pickup details in the text, not just the photo
- Posts with no useful facts, like a mood shot, are filtered out before review
- Sync social media pulls a post in right away instead of waiting for the next check
Instagram postNew2h agoWhen a story reply just says "medium?"
When Kelsey D. replies "medium?" to Thursday's story, Instagram delivers it as a DM, but the AI gets only her words, not the story. Instead of guessing, it can ask which piece she means, and once she says the linen midi dress, it answers from the catalog like any other DM. On a phone, the story reply shows up in the inbox list like any other Instagram DM, so whoever runs the account can follow it from there.
- The story reply and every DM after it stay in one thread
- Sizes and prices from an approved drop caption are ready once she names the piece
- Videos are not analyzed, so those are best left to your team
Fit questions to a stylist, complaints to the owner
Some DMs need someone who has handled the clothes. Handoff rules decide who gets them: a topic rule sends fit and styling questions to the stylists' group, a sentiment rule sends an angry message about a late pickup to the owner, and a channel rule can catch every other Instagram escalation for whoever runs the account.
- Rules run in priority order and the first match wins
- A group rule notifies every member, and anything no rule matches goes to everyone with the Agent role
- The thread shows which rule fired and why the AI handed off
How to set up an Instagram DM chatbot
Our team sets this up with you during onboarding. Most of the time goes into gathering what shoppers ask about, not the connection itself.
What you need
- An Instagram professional account and its login
- An admin role in Risolva (only admins can connect channels)
- Your catalog, size guide and returns policy
- A list of who handles fit, orders and complaints
Sign in with Instagram
In Risolva, open Integrations, choose Instagram and sign in with the account's login. Allow access to messages and basic profile details, and the account shows as connected.
Add the catalog and policies
Connect your website pages, product catalog, size guide and returns policy. Then click Sync social media on the Knowledge page and, under Approvals, approve the recent posts whose details are still true.
Set rules and media switches
Create handoff rules for the DMs your team wants to see first, and choose whether photos and voice messages get AI replies on Instagram.
Send it a story reply
From a personal account, reply to one of your stories, send a screenshot and ask something your catalog cannot answer. Each one lands in the shared inbox, where you can check the reply or take over.
Answering Instagram DMs by hand, next to an AI chatbot
Most boutiques answer DMs from one phone between fittings and restocks. These are the moments that slip.
| Compared on | Answering DMs by hand | Risolva |
|---|---|---|
| A story reply at 11 PM | Waits until someone opens the app, often the next morning, when the shopper has moved on. | Answered in seconds, at 11 PM or any other hour. |
| Size and stock questions | Someone checks the website or the back room, then types the same answer for the next DM. | Answered from the connected catalog, which is as current as its last recrawl or upload. |
| A new drop | Everyone has to remember the prices and colors, or scroll back to find the post. | The post caption becomes a pending update the AI uses once you approve it. |
| Screenshots and voice messages | Opened one by one on a phone and answered by hand. | Read or transcribed first, then answered in the same DM. |
| The DMs that need a person | Go to whoever checks the shared login first. | Routed by rule to the right teammate or group, with the full thread in one inbox. |
What shop owners ask about Instagram DM automation
An Instagram chatbot is software that replies to the direct messages a business receives on Instagram. Older tools send a canned reply when a DM contains a keyword. Risolva's Instagram chatbot uses AI to read the whole message, including story replies, screenshots and voice messages, and writes an answer in plain language while your team follows the same conversations in a shared inbox.
Show us the DMs your last drop brought in
Book a demo with your most recent drop post and a few of the DMs and story replies it started. We'll show the caption waiting in Approvals, how the AI would answer each DM, and which ones your rules should hand to a person.