Use current date, time and visitor time zones
Keep the visitor’s clock separate from business time and inspect the context supplied to the assistant.
Before you begin
Open AI agents and select the agent you want to edit. Check its name and workspace before saving: other agents have their own settings.
Step by step
- 1
Start with the automatic clock
All existing and new assistants receive a current server-clock snapshot for normal AI replies, refreshed for each model step. No enable switch, assistant recreation or dated prompt text is needed. A clock reference does not itself establish opening hours, holidays, stock or an available appointment.
- 2
Understand the visitor zone
The browser can report a named zone such as America/Manaus at send time. An explicit personal-zone preference in the conversation takes precedence; current reported settings take precedence over older automatic signals. Where no trustworthy signal is available, the visitor zone stays unknown. A country, language or phone prefix alone does not identify a time zone.
- 3
State a personal preference clearly
A visitor can ask to use a named zone for their own times, or clear that choice, in this conversation. Clarify ambiguous cities. A one-off question about Tokyo’s time is different from choosing Tokyo as a personal zone. The saved choice is scoped to this conversation and matching session, not a profile of the person across devices.
- 4
Set business time separately
A workspace administrator can save or reset the business zone in Features. Without an override, an active usable calendar can supply its configured zone; otherwise business time remains unknown. The calendar’s own zone stays separate: availability and booking dates use that actual calendar zone, even when the business override differs. This setting does not change calendar configuration, working hours or the staff display preference.
- 5
Compare before making a promise
Use the example visitor-zone comparison to inspect a fresh server snapshot of the saved settings without changing a real visitor. A different calendar zone appears separately. For conversions, provide a date and named zone. Time tools return both candidates for a repeated daylight-saving hour and no candidate for a skipped hour, so the intended time must be clarified rather than silently shifted.
- 6
Inspect the supplied context
In visitor Overview or Contact 360, inspect the clock context saved for the latest AI reply, its visitor-zone source, business clock, separate calendar clock when different and UTC snapshot time. The latest reported observation is shown separately. These records show what was supplied, not proof that the model used it correctly, and they do not tick as a live clock.
Good to know
The server supplies the current instant. Browser/request zones are reported settings, not proof of physical location; travel, VPNs and device preferences can differ. A geo estimate is labelled as an estimate. UTC is only a reference when the visitor zone is unknown, not an assumed local zone.
Named zones carry daylight-saving rules. A raw UTC offset or an abbreviation alone cannot reliably specify a future local appointment. Always keep the date and zone with an agreed time, and follow the calendar’s verification and confirmation flow before treating a booking as complete.
WhatsApp, Instagram and Slack commonly have no trustworthy automatic visitor-zone signal. Ask for a personal zone only when it matters. Scripted workflow replies and staff-support acknowledgements are not rewritten to add date facts, and old conversations can have no saved AI clock context.
Check the result
Save, start a fresh test conversation and compare the answer with your approved business facts. Settings do not rewrite messages already sent.
Questions & troubleshooting
The assistant uses the wrong local date
Check the saved visitor preference, current browser setting and recorded source. Correct or clear an unintended preference. A midnight boundary can put the visitor and business on different dates; a country alone does not resolve that difference.
The comparison differs from the conversation
The preview uses its example zone and saved business settings. The visitor inspector shows a prior reply’s supplied snapshot, not a continuously refreshed reading. Check both the snapshot time and zone provenance before concluding they should match.
An appointment is ambiguous
Specify the date and named source zone. Clarify a repeated or skipped hour and verify real calendar availability and the final confirmation. Clock awareness does not authorize a booking or guarantee that an AI answer followed its supplied context.
Rate this guide on this device. Ratings are not sent to Corthex.