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. Pause Before Speaking sets how long the agent waits before it starts speaking. The default is 0.0 seconds. | The agent waits for the contact to speak before responding. If AI starts speaking after silence is on, the agent starts speaking after the contact is silent for the set duration. It is off by default, so if no one speaks, the agent waits in silence until the call times out. |
Welcome message | Dynamic (AI generated) (default) or Static (custom message). | Dynamic (AI generated) or Static (custom message). |
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 | Available. | Available. |
You can replace either default goodbye message with your own wording. For details, see Writing instructions and setting conversation behavior. To assign phone lines to an agent, see 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.
The AloAi Agents page with the New Agent button.
Select Voice in the Choose your AloAi Agent type window.
Choose the call direction: inbound to receive calls, or outbound to place them.
The Direction options in the Create agent window: Inbound or Outbound.
Choose how to start the agent:
Blank Agent lets you configure everything yourself.
The Blank agent option in the Create agent window.
Create using AI builds the configuration from a plain-language description of your business and what the agent should accomplish.
The Create your agent using AI option in the Create agent window.
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.
The template category tabs in the Create agent window.
Click Create agent.
The template details panel with the Create agent button.
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 Creating an AloAi Voice Agent.
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 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. | |
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. | |
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. | |
Functions | Actions the agent runs during a call, such as transferring a call, sending an SMS, updating a contact field, or managing an appointment. | |
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. | |
MCPs | Connections to MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers so the agent can call outside tools during a call. | |
Calendar Integration | Appointment booking through Cal.com, Calendly, or Boulevard. | |
Knowledge Base | The documents, webpages, and free text entries the agent answers from. Each agent uses one Knowledge Base. | |
Speech Settings | How the agent sounds and handles pauses and interruptions, including the pronunciation dictionary. | |
Realtime Transcription Settings | How the agent converts the caller's speech to text: noise filtering, transcription mode, and boosted keywords. | |
Call Settings | Voice AI best practices, ending a call on silence, and max call duration. | |
Advanced Call Handling (outbound only) | Voicemail detection and drop, iOS call screening, and IVR detection and navigation. | |
Post-Call Data Extraction | Structured fields the agent fills in from each call after it ends. | |
Security & Fallback Settings | Safety guardrails, the fallback voice, and how long call data is kept. | |
Dynamic Variables | Custom variables the agent can use in its instructions and messages. |
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. | |
Post-Call actions tab | Post-call email notifications and who receives them. | |
Test your Agent | Test calls and chats, testing as a contact, saved test runs, and version history. |
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.
The Help menu lists the guided tours for the screen.
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 Voice filter in the Enroll in an AloAi agent window.
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:
An outbound voice agent on the AloAi Agents card.
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.
Click Duplicate in the agent’s row actions.
Review the name. It defaults to the original name followed by “(Copy)” and must be unique within your company.
The copy appears in the list with (Copy) after the original name.
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 Start test call 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 Testing and reviewing your agent.
Improving your agent
Once the agent is live, use Improve to review and refine it. Improve checks the agent’s instructions for clarity, proposes fixes based on recent test calls, and reorganizes the instructions into standard sections. Suggestions apply only when you accept them. See Writing instructions and setting conversation behavior.