Once you know what your agent will do, the next step is to decide where it’ll live. This decision determines how customers find it, how your team manages it, and how well it integrates into your operations.
A good deployment channel feels natural. It meets your customers where they already are and requires minimal change to existing workflows.
There are three main questions to ask before choosing a channel.
First: where do conversations already happen?
If your customers already use your website, your app, or a messaging platform, that’s usually the best place to start.
Second: who controls that environment?
If your marketing team owns the website, your IT team manages internal apps, or your social team handles chat channels, you need to get their buy-in early.
Lack of access or unclear ownership is one of the most common reasons projects stall.
Third: how complex is the deployment?
Some channels are simple to set up. Others require coordination with multiple teams, security reviews, or app updates. You want a deployment that can go live quickly, without depending on a long list of approvals.
Let’s return to Terminal Roast.
Taryn has decided that her first agent will collect customer feedback about new coffee flavors and pastries. The next step is figuring out where that agent will appear.
Gideon, the café’s tech lead, manages the website, social media accounts, and mobile app. He immediately raises a concern:
launching the agent across all three channels at once will stretch his team too thin and make troubleshooting difficult. After a quick discussion, they agree to start with a simple web deployment. The agent will appear as a chat widget on the Terminal Roast website. Once it runs smoothly for a few weeks, they can extend it to social media and the mobile app.
This decision keeps the project contained, makes testing easier, and gives the team one clear place to measure success. Many teams underestimate how operational this decision is. Picking a channel isn’t a technical exercise. It is an organizational one.
If you deploy on your website, make sure your marketing or web teams can support updates.
If you deploy inside an internal app, ensure your IT and security teams have reviewed it.
If you plan to use messaging channels like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, check that your social team is ready to manage the workflow.
Even a perfect agent will fail if the team responsible for its environment is not involved. Start where you have control. Pick the channel that lets you move fastest and gather real usage data. If you can deploy on your website without depending on another department, do that. If your customers primarily use a messaging channel, choose the one that is easiest to test and maintain.
The goal is to remove friction, not to impress anyone with a multi-platform rollout.
Once the agent proves value in one channel, expansion is straightforward and low-risk. The channel determines how quickly you can get real results. When you pick one that is simple, accessible, and aligned with how your team already works, you remove many of the early barriers that cause projects to fail.
Terminal Roast will learn from its website deployment, refine the experience, and then scale with confidence.
Action: Identify the single channel where your users or customers already engage most often.
Confirm that your team has access and the authority to deploy there before choosing anything more complex.
