The question matters more on RCS than on any other channel, because every message an agent sends goes out under a verified brand name, logo and checkmark that Google and the carriers approved for a stated use case. An agent that answers from the open internet or from its own training will eventually invent a discount, a return window or a delivery date, and on RCS that invention carries your verification badge. So "does it have AI" is the wrong question. The right ones are what the AI is allowed to say, what it can do, and what happens when it does not know. The table below records what each platform's public documentation said in September 2026; "not documented" means the vendor did not state it, not that the capability is absent.
What "answers only from my own content" has to mean
Four properties, and a platform should be able to show you each one rather than promise it:
- A bounded knowledge base. The agent's answers come from a body of content you supplied or approved line by line, and nothing else. Retrieval from your content before generation is the minimum; a review step where you keep, edit or reject what the AI drafted is better; an AI that only chooses among replies you wrote, and never generates text, is the strictest.
- Bounded actions. The agent can trigger only the steps you built: a card, a carousel, a booking flow, a handoff. It cannot improvise a button or a link.
- Compliance above the AI. Opt-outs, HELP and consent checks run before the model sees a message, so a STOP is honoured even if the agent would have misread it.
- A defined failure mode. When the answer is not in the content you gave it, the agent does something predictable, such as falling back to your authored flow or offering a person, rather than guessing, and a customer who asks for a person can reach one with the thread attached.
The scorecard
| Platform | RCS channel | Answers only from your content | Actions limited to what you built | STOP and HELP above the AI | When it does not know | How you build it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SimplyRCS | Verified sender, automatic SMS and MMS fallback | Texts: authored replies only (AI chooses, never writes); chat agent: curated facts, unsupported numbers blocked | Texts: yes, only paths and buttons you authored | Yes, handled by the platform before the bot or AI | Texts: the bot continues its normal flow; a request for a person, a handoff step or Take over moves it to the team inbox with the thread. Chat agent: says so and offers a person | Describe it in plain English; test in a sandbox |
| Infobip Answers with AI Knowledge Agent | One of ten channels | Retrieves verified information first, then generates | Flow-based | Not documented | Live agent transfer | No-code builder, quote-priced |
| Klaviyo Customer Agent | Yes, via Klaviyo's RCS partner | Grounded in knowledge the brand supplies | Marketing actions | Not documented | Not documented | Inside Klaviyo plans |
| Sinch Chatlayer | Via the Conversation API | Integrates external knowledge bases | Flow-based | Not documented | Contact-centre handoff | No-code, 100+ languages, quote-priced |
| Bird AI Agents | Documented on the RCS channel | Not documented | Flow Builder | Not documented | Yes | Visual flow builder, quote-priced |
| Quiq | Not named on its site | Claim verification and decision logs | Guardrails | Not documented | Yes | Enterprise setup |
| Vonage AI Studio | No, RCS not a listed channel | NLU intents | Flow-based | Not documented | Yes | Low-code canvas |
| respond.io | RCS page not live when checked | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented |
| Twilio, Plivo, AWS | Channel only | Your model, your rules | Your code | Your code | Your code | You build it |
How the SimplyRCS agent is boxed in
SimplyRCS has two AI surfaces that answer customers, and they are bounded differently.
In text conversations over RCS and SMS, the AI is off unless you enable it for a bot, and even then it never writes a reply. When a customer types free text instead of tapping, the model only decides which of the replies you authored fits, that none does, or that the customer is asking for a person. The chosen reply goes out exactly as you wrote it, and the conversation can only move along the paths and buttons you built, so the AI cannot create a button, a link, an offer or a destination. It has no internet access and no tools. If the model is unsure, slow, over a rate limit, or returns anything invalid, the bot behaves exactly as it would with AI off and continues its normal flow. STOP, HELP, START and the other compliance keywords are handled by the platform before the bot or AI sees the message, so an opt-out is never a model decision. When a customer clearly asks for a person, the flow reaches a handoff step, or someone on your team clicks Take over, the conversation moves to the shared team inbox with the full thread and the bot stops replying until it is handed back.
The optional chat agent on SimplyRCS landing pages, which you can also question in the builder's test sandbox, is the one that writes its own replies. It is instructed to answer only from the facts you curated, and to say when it does not know and offer a person. A check replaces any reply that quotes a number, price or dollar amount not in those facts with a fixed offer to connect someone. That catches invented prices and figures; it cannot catch a wrong statement with no number in it, so review the facts and ask the agent the awkward questions in the sandbox before you publish. Chat pages carry a Talk to a human button, and chat transcripts are not saved to the inbox.
Those facts come from a knowledge base the AI drafts from the bot you built and any content you upload: products, prices, policies, hours and FAQs. You keep, edit or reject each item; items stay in unless you reject them, and anything the AI could not match to your source is flagged as needing your input. The knowledge base feeds the chat agent; text conversations use only the replies you authored.
The whole thing runs on your verified RCS agent with automatic SMS and MMS fallback, and the same AI builds the bot from a plain-English description and generates on-brand card art. AI usage is metered as credits priced near cost, $20 a month for roughly 400 AI conversations or $90 for roughly 1,500, on top of the published message rates of $0.0039 per RCS text segment and $0.0150 per card or media message, with no monthly platform or agent fee. The full product is on AI on SimplyRCS, and why RCS is the natural surface for AI agents covers the identity argument behind it.
Where the other platforms fit
Infobip and Sinch are the right answer for a global enterprise that wants one bot across many channels, markets and languages and has the onboarding runway; both price RCS and the AI by quote, and neither publishes a US onboarding timeline. Klaviyo is the shortest path for a store whose email, SMS and customer data already live there. Quiq's verified-intelligence layer, with every AI decision checked and logged, suits enterprise support teams that need an audit trail, though its site does not name RCS. On Twilio, Plivo and AWS you get an excellent RCS channel and bring your own model, and for a product team that wants that control it is the best option; for anyone else it is a standing engineering dependency. Best AI chatbot builders for RCS messaging works through each vendor in more depth.
What to ask every vendor
Get five answers in writing. What content can the agent draw on, and can I see and approve it? What can the agent do, and can it do anything I did not build? Where in the stack is STOP processed, before or after the model? What exactly happens when the question is not covered by my content? And what does the AI cost, separately from the messages? A vendor that answers all five specifically has an agent that answers only from your content. One that answers "it uses your knowledge base" has told you where the answers start, not where they stop.
- In SimplyRCS text conversations on verified RCS, the AI never writes a reply: it chooses among the replies you authored, sends them exactly as written, and can move only along the paths you built; when unsure it falls back to the normal flow.
- The optional SimplyRCS chat agent on landing pages writes short answers from facts you curated; a reply quoting a number or price not in those facts is replaced with an offer to connect a person.
- STOP, HELP and START on SimplyRCS are handled by the platform before the bot or AI reads a message, so an opt-out is never a model decision.
- Infobip's AI Knowledge Agent retrieves verified information first, Klaviyo's Customer Agent grounds in brand-supplied knowledge, and Sinch Chatlayer integrates external knowledge bases; all three price by quote or plan.
- Bird documents AI Agents on RCS without a content restriction; Vonage AI Studio does not list RCS; Twilio, Plivo and AWS provide the channel only.
- On RCS every agent message carries the brand's verified name and checkmark, which is why the limits on what an agent can say matter more here than on web chat.
- SimplyRCS AI is metered near cost at $20 or $90 a month, on top of $0.0039 per RCS text segment and $0.0150 per card or media message, with no monthly agent fee.