So you want to build your first agent, but are not sure where to start? This blog gives you a step by step with how to get started aswell as a walkthrough video presented by our very own Alex from the Customer Success team. No prior experience of the platform is needed.

You can have a first AethexAI voice agent answering or placing real phone calls once you have configured it, attached a few documents and passed one test call. This guide follows that path in the Enterprise Dashboard, then covers the features you will use next and the habits that save the most time.

Watch: build your first inbound agent with us in 5 minutes

Watch the video on loom by clicking the video above or using this link - Build an Inbound Agent in Five Minutes

Build your first agent in Agent Studio

Open Agent Studio from the sidebar and choose Create agent. You can let AethexAI interview you, or fill in the setup yourself.

Before you start, have these ready:

• What the agent does and who it talks to

• The goal of each call

• How the agent should open the call, its tone and its hard limits

• Key facts such as names, amounts and policies

• One or two short documents, such as a policy or a product guide

Option 1: Build with AI

Choose to create by speaking or by writing, then pick an AI interviewer, such as Femi for English or Aya for French. Describe the agent in your own words. The interview fills in the configuration, and you can edit every field afterwards. This is the fastest route if you are less technical.

Option 2: Build it myself

The guided setup asks one question per screen, with up to 20 steps depending on your choices. Completed steps are ticked, so you can go back at any time.

1. Choose how it works: pick the channel (voice, chat or both), then inbound, outbound or both. Add a call list for outbound.

2. Give it an identity: choose the language, pick a voice you can preview and name your agent.

3. Teach it: state its purpose, add your documents and answer a few questions to generate the script. We recommend "Flexible" script adherence for the most natural sound.

4. Test it: talk to the agent in your browser and revise the script with AI if anything sounds off.

5. Set up calls and go live: add a phone number, schedule, hand-off and voicemail, then run the final check and go live.

Going live is gated on a successful test. Run a test in the browser or a test phone call first. Go live unlocks as soon as a test call connects, which keeps an unproven agent away from real callers.

Key features in the platform

Agent Studio is where you build. These are the other areas of the Enterprise Dashboard you will rely on in your first weeks.

One agent can work on the phone, in chat, or both. A combined agent shares the same script and knowledge across channels, and messaging channels such as WhatsApp are linked from Integrations.

Tips and tricks

These come from watching real enterprise agents go live.

• Start with one use case.

  • A single, well-defined job, such as answering common policy questions or following up on a payment, gives you clear feedback before you expand.

• Keep documents short and focused.

  • A tightly scoped policy is easier for an agent to quote accurately than a long handbook. An agent only uses the documents attached to it, so give each agent what its calls need.

• Set the language first, then audition voices.

  • Preview two or three voices against a line your agent will actually say. Compare by listening, not by name. You can change the voice at any time - we update the voices weekly.

• Test twice.

  • Test in the browser to check the opening line and how the agent handles interruptions. Then use Have it call you to hear it over a real phone line. If your script uses variables, fill in realistic values in the test panel.

• Retest after every prompt change.

  • Once your agent is created, any edit to its prompt, voice or call handling takes effect on its next call. Test the agent again to confirm it has taken in the change before real callers reach it.

• Match your spreadsheet to your script.

  • In a call list, the phone-number column identifies the contact and the other columns become variables. A first_name column should line up with the first_name variable in the opening line.

• Teach the agent from real calls.

  • Listen to calls in Call Review, then open Agent Studio, click Edit under your agent and jump to the Test tab under Full setup. Adjust the prompt, revise it with AI and test it live to hear the difference.

• Plan for hard-to-hear details.

  • Email addresses and long numbers are difficult for any phone agent to capture. Have the agent read the value back, and offer a keypad or text-message fallback where the use case allows it.

Need more help?

Having trouble making your agent sound the way you want? Or have additional questions? Get in contact with your account manager or customer success manager or book a time: Calendly

Next steps

Once your first agent is live, here is how to go from a first build to taking real calls.

1. Test it with your team. Have your team call the agent and ask the questions your customers ask.

2. Let your customer success manager know. Our testing team can run further tests and give you additional feedback to improve your agent.

3. Publish the number. When you are happy with the agent, share the number with your business and on your website, and start taking calls.

Then connect the tools your team already uses, such as Twilio for calling, WhatsApp for messaging or Odoo for customer records. Let your forward deployed engineer (FDE) know and they will support the integration.

Watch the full walkthrough of this process here: Build an Inbound Agent in Five Minutes. To get help building your first agent, contact the AethexAI team or request a demo at aethexai.com.