An AI agent able to refund or change a plan must prove who talks before acting. With Deep Agent Studio, that proof is SMS OTP verification: a one-time code, checked inside the conversation, before any sensitive action. Without that lock, the agent informs but never executes. Here is how to set it right.
Which actions require verification?
The rule is simple: anything moving money or rights. Refund, credit, goodwill gesture, plan change, personal-data edit, account access, reset. Simple lookup (order tracking, hours, pricing) can stay OTP-free. In the flow builder, every sensitive branch starts with the security block: send code, input, check, expiry. You never let AI decide alone to bypass it.
- Refund, credit, goodwill gesture
- Plan or subscription change
- Account access and reset
- Personal-data edits
The ideal OTP flow, step by step
The customer reports a double charge. The agent detects billing intent, announces the code (“I'm sending a 4-digit code by SMS”), sends it, waits for input in the same thread, checks it, and only then queries the invoice and acts. On failure, two tries maximum, then handoff to the advisor with intent and attempt already logged. Every step is timestamped and reviewable conversation by conversation: who asked, when the code was sent, verified or refused.
With no successful verification, no sensitive action. The agent informs, offers handoff, and stops there.
The 4 habits that protect customers
- Short one-time codes, short-lived, never reused.
- Sober messages: amount, intent, ticket — never shady links or password requests.
- Two tries then human handoff: never leave customers looping.
- Full traceability: send, verify, act, ticket — everything logged.
What to tell customers to keep trust?
Always state why you verify: “To protect your account, I'm sending a code.” Confirm success (“Identity verified at 11:48 PM”) before announcing refund and ticket. On failure, never blame: “The code didn't go through, I'm passing your verified file to the advisor — ticket RC-2048, no need to repeat yourself.” Explained security becomes a trust argument, not friction.
Monitoring security weekly
Track verification success rate, failures per intent, handoffs for unverified OTP and send-to-input delays. A rising failure rate on one intent signals a message to reword or a number to update — not a faulty customer. That monitoring keeps the agent both safe and smooth.
FAQ
Does OTP slow conversations? By seconds, versus minutes or hours with no automated verification. Net gain stays massive.
What if the customer has no SMS access? The agent offers advisor handoff with context already gathered. No dead end.
Do you store codes? No: one-time use, short life, event logged with no secret kept. Only verification proof is traced.
