An AloAi Voice Agent answers callers from two kinds of information. Context is live information about the contact, such as their details, past conversations, HubSpot deal, or Guesty reservation, which the agent pulls in during the call.
The Knowledge Base is the set of documents, webpages, and text entries you add so the agent can answer questions about your business. Both are set up per agent on the Configure tab, in the Context and Knowledge Base panels.
This article explains how to turn on each type of context and how to build and manage the agent’s Knowledge Base.
To get there, open the Agents menu and click the agent’s name. The Context and Knowledge Base panels are on the right side of the Configure tab.
Open the agent from the Agents list.
The Context and Knowledge Base panels on the Configure tab.
Context across conversations
Each conversation is tied to the contact, not to a single call or a single agent. Because of this, an agent can pick up where earlier interactions left off, even when they happened on a different channel or with a different agent.
Contacts can move between voice and text agents, or between agents, without repeating who they are or what they discussed.
Turning on context for the agent
The Context panel controls which information the agent can use about the contact during a call. Each type of context is a separate toggle.
The Context panel with the four toggles.
Open the agent and go to the Configure tab.
Open the Context panel.
Turn on the types of context the agent should use.
Click Save.
Toggle | What the agent can use |
Contact Information | The contact’s name, email, phone number, and address. |
Communications | The contact’s communication history, including previous calls, messages, insights, and interactions. |
HubSpot Deal Information | Deal details such as deal stage, amount, and close date. The agent retrieves them live from HubSpot at call time for the caller’s associated contact record. |
Guesty Reservation Information | Reservation details pulled from Guesty in real time. See Guesty reservation context. |
On a new agent, Contact Information and Communications are turned on, and HubSpot Deal Information and Guesty Reservation Information are turned off.
The Communications toggle controls whether the agent can use the contact’s communication history. Turn it off if your compliance or operational needs require it.
The agent can also use appointment information for upcoming appointments, and optionally past appointments, including details and availability.
Guesty reservation context
With Guesty Reservation Information turned on, the agent looks up the caller’s reservation in Guesty during the call. When a guest asks a question such as “What’s the WiFi password?” or “What’s the lockbox code?”, the agent retrieves the answer in real time, so the guest does not wait for your team.
The Guesty integration must be enabled, and the agent must have access to the required settings. The agent can retrieve reservation details such as the lockbox code, WiFi password, property or unit name, and check-in and check-out dates. It follows these rules:
If the reservation cannot be found, the agent asks the guest to verify their reservation details before continuing.
If the guest has not checked in yet, the agent confirms the reservation but does not share sensitive details, such as lockbox or access codes, until the stay is active.
If reservation details are missing in Guesty, the agent tells the guest the information is not available instead of giving incomplete details.
Lockbox and access codes are generated per guest and require Guesty Locks Manager. For accounts that do not use Guesty Locks Manager, the agent can read the lock code from a designated property custom field in Guesty instead.
For setup steps, including the custom field option, see Setting up Guesty Reservation Context for AloAi Agents.
Building the agent’s Knowledge Base
The Knowledge Base panel holds the sources the agent answers from. You can add files, webpages, and free text entries, and combine them.
Creating or selecting a Knowledge Base
Before you add content, attach a Knowledge Base to the agent. Each agent uses one Knowledge Base, and selecting a different one replaces the current one.
The Knowledge Base panel on the Configure tab.
The Knowledge Base panel with Select Knowledge Base.
To create a new Knowledge Base:
The Create new Knowledge Base option.
In the Knowledge Base panel, click Select Knowledge Base, then click Create new Knowledge Base.
In Knowledge Base Name, enter a name. Names must be unique in your organization, and capitalization does not count, so “Sales” and “sales” are the same name. If the name is already in use, the window tells you right away.
Under Embedding Provider, select the service that prepares your content for search: AWS Bedrock (faster), which is selected when the window opens, or OpenAI (default). Then click Save.
The Add Knowledge Base window.
To use an existing Knowledge Base:
In the Knowledge Base panel, click Select Knowledge Base.
Choose a Knowledge Base. You can reuse one from another AloAi Agent, so you do not need to upload the same files again.
Confirm your selection.
When you duplicate an agent, the copy uses the same Knowledge Base as the original, not a separate copy.
To control how the agent searches its Knowledge Base, click Adjust KB Retrieval Chunks and Similarity under Advanced Settings in the Knowledge Base panel.
The KB retrieval settings.
Chunks to retrieve sets the maximum number of chunks the agent retrieves from the Knowledge Base, from 1 to 10. The default is 3.
Similarity Threshold sets how strict the matching is. A higher setting gives fewer, but more similar, matches. The default is 0.40.
Click Save to apply the settings.
Uploading files
Upload documents such as FAQs, manuals, troubleshooting guides, structured datasets, and internal documentation.
The edit icon on the attached Knowledge Base.
The Edit Knowledge Base window with Upload Files.
These limits apply to file uploads:
Accepted file types: PDF, DOC, DOCX, TXT, CSV, XLSX, XLS, HTML, MD, PPTX, PPT, RTF, XML, and JSON.
You can upload up to 10,000 files, up to 50 MB each.
Importing webpages
The Add Web Pages window.
Click Add Web Pages and enter the URL. Invalid URLs are flagged right away.
Choose how to import:
Single page imports only the page at the URL. Click Confirm.
Auto crawl finds all pages of the website. Select the pages to include, then click Confirm.
Each URL shows its processing status, and an error message if something goes wrong. Once a page imports successfully, its content becomes part of the agent’s knowledge.
Adding free text or FAQ entries
Use free text entries for information that is not in a file, such as FAQ answers or intake questions.
The Add Text window.
Click +Add Text.
Enter a file name and the text content, up to 5,000 characters.
Click Save. Processing starts automatically.
You can create multiple entries, and edit or delete them later.
Checking processing status
Each item in the Knowledge Base shows its status: Pending Processing, Processing, Success, or Failed. The agent can use an item once its status is Success. To confirm new or updated content works, ask the agent a related question in a test call.
Knowledge Base sources with their status.
Building a Knowledge Base during setup
When you create an agent with Guided Agent Setup, the Knowledge Base Builder turns your uploaded documents, crawled website, and typed FAQ text into a facts-only knowledge base, and holds back instruction-style content for you to review. See Creating an AloAi Voice Agent.