diff --git a/apps/backend/botservice/bot.py b/apps/backend/botservice/bot.py
index 24c5ff89..557f9c1b 100644
--- a/apps/backend/botservice/bot.py
+++ b/apps/backend/botservice/bot.py
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ async def on_message_activity(self, turn_context: TurnContext):
 
         await turn_context.send_activity(Activity(type=ActivityTypes.typing))
         
-        answer = brain_agent_executor.invoke({"question": input_text}, config=config)["output"]
+        answer = (await brain_agent_executor.ainvoke({"question": input_text}, config=config))["output"]
         
         await turn_context.send_activity(answer)
 
diff --git a/apps/backend/botservice/gunicorn.conf b/apps/backend/botservice/gunicorn.conf
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b1aded06
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/backend/botservice/gunicorn.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+import multiprocessing
+
+max_requests = 1000
+max_requests_jitter = 50
+log_file = "-"
+bind = "0.0.0.0"
+
+timeout = 230
+# https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/app-service/web-apps-performance-faqs#why-does-my-request-time-out-after-230-seconds
+
+num_cpus = multiprocessing.cpu_count()
+workers = (num_cpus * 2) + 1
+worker_class = "uvicorn.workers.UvicornWorker"