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Create and publish an AI agent

An AI agent answers leads on WhatsApp in your words, at the hours you choose, until it hands the conversation to you. It lives on the AI Agents tab of Inbox, and one number is answered by one agent.

Create one from a template

Section titled “Create one from a template”

To start:

  1. Open Inbox, then AI Agents.
  2. Press Create AI agent.
  3. Press Use template on Receptionist, Sales agent or Support agent.
  4. Read what it does and its setup tips, then press Use template again.

Start from scratch, on the last card in the gallery, opens an empty agent instead. Either way, nothing is saved until you publish or save a draft.

Write what it should do

Section titled “Write what it should do”

The editor opens on Configure, and the section inside it is Configuration. Give the agent a Name, then write its Instructions.

Write instructions the way you’d brief a new hire: short headed sections, one instruction per line. Learn how to write this under the box opens How to write instructions, and Add prompt templates adds a ready-written section to the end of what’s there. Optimize rewrites what you have more clearly without changing what it says, and the message that follows offers an Undo.

The @ button names the advisor or the business, and the {} button inserts the customer’s first name.

Choose what it may do

Section titled “Choose what it may do”

Under Actions, each switch lets the agent do one thing beyond replying: Close conversations, Assign to you or your team, Update lifecycle stages, Update contact fields, Update tags and Add comments. Three more, Trigger workflows, Handle calls and Make HTTP requests, are drawn with Not available yet beside them and can’t be switched on.

Turn one on and a box appears asking when and how the action should be performed. Write that in plain sentences.

Follow up on inactive conversations is the tenth switch, and it takes two numbers as well: how many minutes of silence to wait, and how many times to check in before it stops. It starts at 5 minutes and 2 times, and the count starts over whenever the lead writes.

Give it something to read

Section titled “Give it something to read”

Add knowledge source under Knowledge sources takes three kinds of source. Upload file takes PDF or text, up to 5 files at a time. Add website follows the site’s sitemap and its links up to 3 levels deep, reading up to 8 pages, and Set resync schedule offers Never, Daily or Weekly, with Never as the default. There’s more on sources in Train an agent. WhatsApp chats writes up the past conversations in this inbox, which takes a few minutes and leaves out customer names and phone numbers.

The footer counts what the agent reads before every reply. The budget is 24,000 characters, and anything past it is cut.

Put it on a number

Section titled “Put it on a number”

WhatsApp numbers lists the numbers you may assign, one agent per number. Tick the one this agent should answer. A number another agent answers today says Answered by that agent, and ticking it moves that number here when you publish. A shared company line is greyed out and reads Shared line. Your district admin decides what answers it. See Connect or reconnect a WhatsApp number.

Test it before anybody else does

Section titled “Test it before anybody else does”

The pane beside the form runs against the draft, so nothing you try there reaches a customer. Type as a customer would and read what comes back, and Reset chat starts over.

Review reads the instructions over and looks for placeholders, missing escalation, empty guidelines and contradictions. Press Review now, then apply or dismiss each fix on its own.

Publish

Section titled “Publish”

Press Publish. An agent needs a name and instructions before the button will do anything, and the reason sits under it until both are there. The message that follows says how many numbers it’s answering.

After that, Save draft is gone: a published agent has one save and it’s live, so the button reads Publish changes. Unpublish stops it answering straight away and keeps its numbers pointed at it, so publishing again puts it back where it was.

FAQ

Section titled “FAQ”

Can two agents share one number?

No. One number is answered by one agent, and ticking a number that another agent holds moves it across when you publish.

Will it write at 3am?

Only if you let it. Quiet from and Quiet until in the settings beside the title hold it back, and Stop after this many replies ends a runaway conversation at 12 replies unless you change it.

Does testing it send a real WhatsApp?

No. The test pane talks to the draft and sends nothing to anybody.

I closed the tab halfway through. Is my work gone?

No. Unsaved changes are kept in your browser for that agent for a day, and the editor offers them back when you reopen it, with Discard them beside the offer.