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AI Connect

AI Connect lets you plug your own AI agent (a chatbot) into the Communication Hub so it can answer guests automatically on WhatsApp and SMS and on the Booking.com guest messages that reach your inbox. The AI answers frequently asked questions, takes requests and handles booking enquiries in the guest's own language, and hands the conversation to a human whenever it should, with the full thread of context.

This article is written for the administrator or manager who wants to understand what AI Connect does and what it takes to connect a partner. It is a concept overview, not a developer reference: the technical integration steps live in the external AI Bot Integration guide, which this page links out to rather than repeats.

1. What AI Connect Is​

AI Connect is the part of the Communication Hub that connects an AI partner (the AI agent your property chooses) to your guest conversations. Rather than shipping one fixed bot, LIKE MAGIC lets you bring the AI you prefer; the platform handles the plumbing so that agent can read incoming guest messages and reply on your behalf.

Once connected, the AI:

  • answers common guest questions and takes requests around the clock, so fewer messages and calls reach the front desk,
  • takes guest messages from WhatsApp, SMS and Booking.com, with no app for the guest to install,
  • replies in the guest's language and under your brand's voice,
  • and escalates to a human when a request is complex, carrying the whole conversation with it so nobody has to ask the guest to repeat themselves.

Those three are the sources of guest messages the AI is handed. Booking.com is not a channel of its own. A Booking.com guest message reaches LIKE MAGIC over the email relay, from Booking.com's own guest-chat addresses, and the AI's reply goes back to the guest as an email on that thread. Ordinary email (anything that is not a Booking.com thread), phone calls and website chat are not forwarded to the AI. When a message arrives on one of those while the AI holds the conversation, the AI is switched off for that conversation and it goes back to your team.

AI Connect builds on the same messaging capability that powers the Messages screen. It is the same conversation, now with an AI able to take the first turn. For the channels themselves, see Messaging Channels.

2. AI Partners Integrated Today​

Two AI partners are integrated with AI Connect today:

  • D3x
  • Onsai

The list is not a restriction. Each connection is configured from the partner's own endpoint, per property or once for the account, so any AI partner whose engineering team works through the integration guide can be connected. If you are not sure which partner is connected for your property, ask via a Support Ticket.

3. Who Can Use This​

Connecting an AI partner is done by LIKE MAGIC. You request it via a Support Ticket. Beyond that, what you need is the same as for the rest of messaging:

  • Messages. AI Connect works on top of the Messages screen, which is available on every pricing tier, Core included. A property without messaging has nothing for an AI to answer.
  • Platform pricing for the credentials. The service account the AI partner authenticates with is created on the Service Accounts page, which requires Platform pricing. On Core that page is shown locked. See Pricing Tiers.
  • The connection for your property. The AI partner connection is made per property (or once for the account) by LIKE MAGIC. Until it is in place, conversations behave exactly as they do without an AI.
  • Who sets it up. The AI endpoint itself is wired by LIKE MAGIC and has no screen in the Operations Platform. The API credentials your partner needs are yours to create, though: an Account Admin adds a service account under Settings → Account → Service Accounts. Staff working in Messages simply see the AI participate in conversations.

4. How a Conversation Flows​

With an AI partner connected, an incoming guest message can be answered by the AI before it ever needs a human:

  1. A guest sends a message over WhatsApp or SMS, or writes through Booking.com.
  2. LIKE MAGIC identifies the guest and their reservation and passes that context to the AI partner.
  3. The AI partner processes the message and returns a reply, which LIKE MAGIC delivers back to the guest in the same conversation.
  4. When a request needs a person, the conversation is handed over to a human. It moves from the AI to your team in Messages, with the full history attached. Your team can also hand a conversation back to the AI once they are done.

In Messages, this handover shows up as a change of who "owns" the conversation (the AI or a member of your team), so it is always clear whether a guest is currently talking to the bot or to a person. The AI can also flag when human help is needed rather than answering itself.

ℹ️ Note: AI Connect never removes the human from the loop. Every conversation the AI touches stays visible in Messages. While the AI holds a conversation the message input is locked, so switch the Chatbot: ON control to Chatbot: OFF to take over, and back again to hand it over.

5. How a Partner Integrates​

At a high level, an AI partner integrates with LIKE MAGIC over webhooks:

  • LIKE MAGIC sends each relevant guest message (text, images with captions, files, and certain trigger-based notifications) to the partner's webhook, together with the conversation and reservation context.
  • The partner sends its reply back through the LIKE MAGIC messaging API, which delivers it by WhatsApp, SMS or email (a Booking.com thread is answered by email), and signals "human help needed" to a LIKE MAGIC callback endpoint when a person should take over.
  • Both directions are secured with a shared webhook secret, and the partner is certified against a test environment before going live.

That is deliberately as far as this operator-facing page goes. The complete, authoritative integration reference (endpoints, message formats, authentication, the handover events and the test-environment onboarding) lives in the external AI Bot Integration guide. Share that guide with your chosen AI partner's engineering team; do not treat this page as the specification.

To start an integration, your AI partner requests test-environment credentials from the LIKE MAGIC technical team (api-support@likemagic.tech) as described in that guide.

6. What You Configure vs. What LIKE MAGIC Wires​

Setting up AI Connect is a shared effort, much like connecting a messaging channel:

PartWho handles it
Choosing your AI partner / agentYou (admin / manager)
The partner's own bot logic, content and languagesYour AI partner
The API credentials the partner authenticates withYou: an Account Admin creates a service account
Connecting the AI partner to your propertyThe LIKE MAGIC team, requested via a Support Ticket
The webhook secret and access to the test environmentThe LIKE MAGIC team
Working the conversations the AI hands overYour front-desk / host staff, in Messages

The service account is the part you own. Create it under Settings → Account → Service Accounts, pick the client ID and secret yourself, and grant only the scopes the partner needs. For an AI agent that reads context and answers guests, that is reservation.read, property.read, unit.read and service.read for the context, guest_conversation.write and guest_message_attachment.read for the conversations, magic_id.read for guest links, order_item.write if it sells upsells, task.read and task.write if it raises service requests, and webhook_subscription.write for the event subscriptions.

The webhook endpoint and its shared secret stay with LIKE MAGIC, and so does access to the test environment. Request both, and the integration review before you go live, via a Support Ticket.

7. Conclusion​

AI Connect brings your own AI agent into the Communication Hub so it can answer guest messages from WhatsApp, SMS and Booking.com (around the clock, in the guest's language, and under your brand) while keeping a human one tap away through the same Messages screen. As an administrator you choose the AI partner and request the connection for your property via a Support Ticket; the webhook wiring is handled for you.

When you are ready to connect a partner, share the external AI Bot Integration guide with their engineering team. It is the authoritative reference for the integration. For the channels AI Connect runs on, see Messaging Channels; for the conversation surface itself, see Communication Hub (The Inbox).

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