AloAi Agents are AI-driven virtual assistants that handle customer interactions over voice calls and text messages. They answer frequently asked questions (FAQs), send follow-ups, and escalate complex issues to live agents when needed.
This article explains how voice agents work, how to create your first one, and where to find the detailed guide for each part of the setup.
AloAi agent types: Voice and text
AloAi Agents come in two types, each built for a different channel:
Voice agents handle phone calls. They make outbound calls, answer inbound calls, route calls, and perform follow-ups.
Text agents handle SMS. They send messages, respond to replies, deliver reminders, and update customers over SMS.
Inbound and outbound voice agents
When you create a voice agent, you choose its call direction. The direction sets how the agent opens and closes a call and which settings appear in the agent editor.
| Inbound agents | Outbound agents |
Who speaks first | The agent greets the caller when the call connects. | The agent waits for the contact to speak before responding. |
Welcome message | Generated from the agent’s configuration. | Generated from the agent’s configuration. |
Default goodbye message | “Thank you for calling. Have a wonderful day. Goodbye.” | “Thank you and have a wonderful day.” |
Advanced call handling (voicemail, iOS call screening, IVR detection) | Not shown. These settings stay off. | Available. |
Leave voicemail function | Not in the Add functions list. | Available. |
You can replace either default goodbye message with your own wording. For details, see [link: Writing instructions and setting conversation behavior]. To assign phone lines to an agent, see [link: Lines and scheduling].
Creating your first voice agent
Guided Agent Setup walks you through the essential configuration before the agent is published. It covers five areas: starting the agent, audience and timing, knowledge, voice and greeting, and review.
Open the AloAi Agents menu in your Aloware admin account.
Click +New Agent and select Voice Agent.
Choose the call direction: inbound to receive calls, or outbound to place them.
Choose how to start the agent:
Blank Agent lets you configure everything yourself.
Create using AI builds the configuration from a plain-language description of your business and what the agent should accomplish.
A template gives you a starting prompt, default model tier, and configuration options. The templates shown depend on the direction you chose. Use the category tabs, such as Booking, Candidate Screening, Lead Qualification, and Outbound Sales, to narrow the list.
Click Create agent.
Complete the remaining steps: purpose and audience, line and operating hours, knowledge sources, voice, greeting, and tone.
Review the summary and publish the agent.
An agent without an assigned line cannot take live calls. Place a test call before using the agent with real callers.
For the full walkthrough, including how the Knowledge Base Builder turns your documents into a facts-only knowledge base, see [link: Creating an AloAi Voice Agent with Guided Agent Setup].
Configuring your agent
After the agent is published, it opens in the full configuration screen, where you can edit any setting. The screen has three tabs: Configure, Lines & Scheduling, and Post-Call Actions. When you click Save, a single notification confirms the result.
The Configure tab holds the agent's model, voice, and instructions on the left, and a list of settings panels on the right. The table follows the order of the screen.
Setting | What it controls | Article |
Model, voice, transcriber, and language | The AI model and tier, temperature, voice, speech-to-text model, and language. Changing the model keeps the voice you selected. | [link: Model, voice, speech, and transcription settings] |
Instructions | The agent's internal guide for tone, business logic, and escalation. The toolbar above the box includes Improve, Agent Handbook, Insert variable, and Expand. | [link: Writing instructions and setting conversation behavior] |
AI starts speaking after silence, greeting, and goodbye | Who speaks first, how long an outbound agent waits before speaking, and the welcome and goodbye messages. | [link: Writing instructions and setting conversation behavior] |
Functions | Actions the agent runs during a call, such as transferring a call, sending an SMS, updating a contact field, or managing an appointment. | [link: Functions and MCPs] |
Context | Which information the agent can use about the contact during a call: Contact Information, Communications, HubSpot Deal Information, and Guesty Reservation Information. Each one is a separate toggle. | [link: Knowledge Base and context] |
MCPs | Connections to MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers so the agent can call outside tools during a call. | [link: Functions and MCPs] |
Calendar Integration | Appointment booking through Cal.com, Calendly, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft 365, or Boulevard. | [link: Calendar integrations] |
Knowledge Base | The documents, webpages, and free text entries the agent answers from. Each agent uses one Knowledge Base. | [link: Knowledge Base and context] |
Speech Settings | How the agent sounds and handles pauses and interruptions, including the pronunciation dictionary. | [link: Model, voice, speech, and transcription settings] |
Realtime Transcription Settings | How the agent converts the caller's speech to text: noise filtering, transcription mode, and boosted keywords. | [link: Model, voice, speech, and transcription settings] |
Call Settings | Voice AI best practices, ending a call on silence, and max call duration. | [link: Call settings and advanced call handling] |
Advanced Call Handling (outbound only) | Voicemail detection and drop, iOS call screening, and IVR detection and navigation. | [link: Call settings and advanced call handling] |
Post-Call Data Extraction | Structured fields the agent fills in from each call after it ends. | [link: Post-call data extraction and actions] |
Security & Fallback Settings | Safety guardrails, the fallback voice, and how long call data is kept. | [link: Security, fallback, and data storage] |
Dynamic Variables | Custom variables the agent can use in its instructions and messages. | [link: Writing instructions and setting conversation behavior] |
The other two tabs and the test button cover the rest of the agent's setup:
Setting | What it controls | Article |
Lines & Scheduling tab | The agent's lines, the outbound line, international calling, working hours, holidays, and the timezone the calling window follows. | [link: Lines and scheduling] |
Post-Call Actions tab | Post-call email notifications and who receives them. | [link: Post-call data extraction and actions] |
Test your Agent | Test calls and chats, testing as a contact, saved test runs, and version history. | [link: Testing and reviewing your agent] |
Configuration tours
The configuration screen includes short guided tours that explain each field and what the caller experiences when a setting changes.
Open the help control next to the Agent Handbook to see the tours available on that screen. A tour never changes your agent, and it never starts on its own.
Enrolling and managing contacts
Users enroll contacts in an agent from Aloware Talk, one at a time from the AloAi Agents card on the contact’s profile, or in bulk from the Contacts menu. To enroll a single contact, click Enroll in an agent at the bottom of the card, search by agent name or description or use the Voice filter, and click Enroll.
The AloAi Agents card lists every agent for the contact. Each agent shows its type, its direction, and a status: Active, Stopped, Ready, or Answers calls. For voice agents, the card shows these actions:
Voice agent | Actions while active | Action when stopped |
Outbound | Re-enroll places a new call. Stop prevents the agent from calling the contact. | Re-enroll |
Inbound | None. The agent shows as Answers calls and answers the contact’s calls on your line. Hover over the status to see when it last answered. | Allow calls |
Stop keeps the agent away from the contact until someone on your team restarts it. It does not mark the contact Do Not Contact, and your team can still call and text the contact as usual. A stopped agent shows why it was stopped: Stopped by <name>, The agent ended the conversation, Marked Do Not Contact, or Stopped when no reason was recorded.
Re-enroll restarts an outbound agent right away. It is unavailable while the contact is marked Do Not Contact.
Allow calls sets an inbound voice agent to Ready, so it answers the contact’s next call.
For every step, text agent actions, bulk enrollment, and audit logs, see AloAi Agents: How to enroll and manage contacts.
Duplicating an agent
To build a similar agent without starting over, copy an existing one:
Open the AloAi Agents menu.
In the agent’s row actions, click Duplicate.
Review the name. It defaults to the original name followed by “(Copy)” and must be unique within your company.
Confirm. The copy opens in its edit screen.
Edit the settings that should differ, then assign a line and enable the copy.
The copy includes the instructions, model, voice, functions, attached Knowledge Base, messages, post-call settings, webhooks, and custom variables.
The line assignment, call and test history, and live status are not copied, so the copy is created inactive and cannot take calls until you assign a line and enable it.
Testing your agent before going live
Test the agent the way a customer would reach it. Use Call test to talk to a voice agent, or Text test to chat with a text agent.
You can also test as a real or mock contact so dynamic variables resolve, review saved test runs with transcripts and audio, preview the voicemail message for outbound agents, and see which agent version each test ran against. Action functions, such as Send SMS, do not run during a test. For details, see [link: Testing an AloAi Voice Agent].
Monitoring and improving your agent
Once the agent is live, use these tools to review and refine it:
Improve reviews the agent’s instructions for clarity, proposes fixes based on recent test calls, and reorganizes instructions into standard sections. Suggestions apply only when you accept them. See
[link: Writing and improving agent instructions].Agent Activity reports how your voice agents perform, with a filter that separates calls that reached voicemail. See
[link: Reviewing AloAi Voice Agent performance].Call latency details show how long the agent took to respond on each call and which stage caused a delay. See
[link: Reviewing AloAi Voice Agent performance].