AI-to-human escalation: how to design the handover the law requires
Content
The two most expensive words in Spain’s Ley 10/2025 are “exclusive means”. The law does not ban chatbots or AI agents: it bans them from being the only way into your customer service. And it requires you to guarantee direct human interaction whenever the person on the other end asks for it.
Put like that, it sounds like a box to tick. In practice, it is the hardest requirement the law introduces, because you cannot solve it by buying something: you solve it by designing one specific moment well, the handover. If you want the full map of obligations and deadlines, it is in what Ley 10/2025 requires. This article focuses on that one moment.
Table of contents
- What exactly the law requires
- Why your current escalation probably does not comply
- Anatomy of a compliant handover
- The three handover triggers
- What you need to log to prove it
- How Spoki handles it
- Design checklist
- Frequently asked questions
What exactly the law requires
Four obligations, and they are worth reading together because they reinforce each other.
- Automated systems cannot be the only means of customer service. The ban is explicit and refers to automated answering systems “or other similar means”, a category that covers text bots and IVRs.
- The customer can ask for human support, and you have to provide it. It is not an optional courtesy or a premium channel: it is a right exercised on request.
- If they are not satisfied, they can ask for a supervisor, and that step must happen within the same conversation or, at the latest, on the same working day.
- Every query needs a reference code and a specific, reasoned answer. A handover that gets lost along the way is not just bad service: it is an unresolved case file.
The details on deadlines, scope and penalties are in the main article.
Why your current escalation probably does not comply
Almost every implementation already has something resembling a handover. These are the five failure modes we have seen again and again, ordered from most to least obvious to an inspector.
1. The way out exists but cannot be seen. The bot offers “talk to an agent” four menu levels deep, or only if the user types an exact phrase. It is the easiest failure to spot from the outside: just type “I want to talk to a person” and see what happens. If the bot replies with another question, you do not comply.
2. The way out exists but leads to nobody. The button opens a form, or a promise that “we’ll get back to you”. That is not direct human interaction: it is a postponement. It may be acceptable as an out-of-hours response if it is logged and answered within the deadline, but not as a substitute for the handover.
3. The handover loses the context. The agent joins by asking “how can I help you?” after the customer has explained their problem to the bot three times. Legally it meets the requirement; in practice it is what triggers the next complaint, and the law no longer lets you close that one by staying silent.
4. The handover switches channel. The WhatsApp bot redirects to a phone number, or the web chat asks for an email. Every channel jump is a point where the case can get lost, and if the contractual relationship started on that channel, the law requires you to provide support there.
5. There is no trace of the handover. It happened, it was resolved, nobody logged it. In December 2027, when the accredited auditor asks how many requests for human support there were and how long they took to be answered, there will be nothing to show.
All five share the same root cause: the handover was treated as a button, not as a process with a state.
Anatomy of a compliant handover
Five moments. Each one has something that must happen and something that must be recorded.
| Moment | What must happen | What gets logged |
|---|---|---|
| Request | The customer asks for a person, or the system detects that one is needed | Timestamp and trigger reason |
| Acknowledgement | The customer is told they will speak to someone, with a realistic wait estimate | Confirmation sent, on the same channel |
| Handover | A person takes over the conversation in the same thread, with the history in front of them | Takeover time, assigned agent |
| Resolution | A specific, reasoned answer, not a generic closure | Outcome and case reference code |
| Escalation to a supervisor | Available if the customer asks, within the same conversation or on the same working day | Time and person who handled it |
The key part of the table is not the middle column: it is the right-hand one. The middle column is good service, and you were probably already trying to deliver it. The right-hand column is what turns good service into demonstrable compliance, and it is the one almost nobody has in place.
The three handover triggers
A handover that only kicks in when the customer asks for it comes too late in half of cases. Three triggers, in order of priority:
Explicit request. Any way of asking for a person must work, not just the button: “agent”, “a person”, “you don’t understand me”, “I want to complain”. It is a legal requirement and also the cheapest one to implement well.
Intent and sentiment. An AI agent that detects frustration, a formal complaint or a sensitive matter should hand over before being asked. Here automation works in favour of compliance: it shortens the time to a person in the cases that need it most.
Attempt limit. If the AI has not resolved the issue in two or three turns, it hands over. No exceptions and no negotiating with the customer. It is the rule that prevents the loop everyone recognises and nobody puts up with.
And one cross-cutting rule: for older people, people with disabilities or people in vulnerable situations, the law calls for enhanced protection. In design terms, that means a shorter path to a person, not the same one.
What you need to log to prove it
The annual evaluation with objective indicators and the external audit accredited by ENAC (Spain’s national accreditation body) are what turn everything above into an obligation with consequences. For the handover, the data you need is:
- case reference code and entry channel
- time of the request or detection, and time a person took over the conversation
- who handled it, and whether it went to a supervisor
- outcome, with the associated reasoned answer
- escalation rate and average time to a person, as aggregate indicators
Kept for five years. If that data lives today in your team’s memory or in a shared inbox, there is no audit to pass, however well you are actually serving customers. It is the same argument we make in how to turn compliance into a competitive advantage: the traceability the law forces you to build is reusable infrastructure.
How Spoki handles it
In Spoki, the handover is not an integration between two tools: AI and people work on the same conversation, so there is nothing to hand over except responsibility.
- A single thread. AI agents for customer service reply within the conversation, and a human agent joins that same conversation with orders, previous messages and CRM data in front of them. The customer does not repeat anything and does not change channel.
- Configurable triggers. Intent detection and sentiment analysis trigger the handover before the customer asks, and explicit requests work in natural language, not just through a button.
- Supervisor in the same thread. The inbox is multi-agent, so escalation to a manager happens within the same conversation, which is what the law requires.
- Per-conversation logging. Identifier, timestamp, channel, agent and status for every case, exportable with WhatsApp CRM and native integrations to your system of record. EU data residency for the five-year retention period.
- On voice too. Spoki Voice applies the same pattern on the phone channel: the AI-powered IVR qualifies the call and transfers it to a person without sending the customer back to the queue.
And what we do not do, as in the other articles in this series: Spoki does not give you the postal channel, does not put people on your payroll and does not carry out your audit. Designing the process and staffing it is still up to you. See customer care solutions.
Design checklist
- [ ] Type “I want to talk to a person” in every automated flow and note what happens. That is your real starting point.
- [ ] Make sure the way out to a person is visible at the first level, not buried in a menu.
- [ ] Set the AI’s attempt limit and enforce it without exceptions.
- [ ] Guarantee that the human joins the same thread, with no change of channel.
- [ ] Document the escalation path to a supervisor within the same working day.
- [ ] Instrument the five data points from “What you need to log” from day one, not when the auditor arrives.
- [ ] Define a shorter path for vulnerable customers.
Frequently asked questions
Does Ley 10/2025 ban chatbots?
No. The law prohibits using automated answering systems or similar means as the exclusive channel of customer service. Automation is legal; what is not legal is automation being the only door. The company must guarantee the possibility of direct human interaction when the customer asks for it.
How quickly must a customer be passed to a person?
Personal support must be provided as soon as possible, using as a reference the three minutes the law sets for phone support. If the customer is not satisfied, they can ask for a supervisor, and that step must happen within the same conversation or, at the latest, on the same working day.
Is a “talk to an agent” button available only during office hours enough?
For most services, the support channel follows the company’s business hours, so a handover limited to those hours is acceptable if the hours are published and the request is not lost. What does not comply is leaving the request unlogged and unanswered: the query needs a reference code, a receipt and a specific, reasoned answer within the applicable deadline. In addition, for basic services provided on a continuous basis, the channel for continuity incidents must be available 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
What should be logged for a handover to a person?
At a minimum: the case reference code, the time the need for a person was requested or detected, the time a person took over the conversation, who handled it, whether it was escalated to a supervisor and the outcome. This is the data that lets you prove compliance in the annual evaluation and to the ENAC-accredited auditor, and it must be kept for five years.
The handover is the test
Of everything Ley 10/2025 requires, the handover to a person is the only thing a customer can check in thirty seconds, without anyone’s permission. Type the sentence, count the time, see whether someone answers. That is the test, and you pass or fail it in public.
The phone-channel equivalent (95% of calls answered in under three minutes) is the same problem with more budget at stake. If you want to hear what an AI voice agent handing over to a person without sending the customer back to the queue sounds like, download the Spoki Voice playbook below and request a demo call: the agent calls you.
Sources
- Ley 10/2025, de 26 de diciembre, por la que se regulan los servicios de atención a la clientela, consolidated text: BOE-A-2025-26698
- Ministerio de Derechos Sociales, Consumo y Agenda 2030 (Spanish Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda): objectives and measures of the Customer Service Law
This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Last updated: 29 September 2026.
