Introduction

Assistants are the heart of Invent. Each assistant is an AI-powered agent that can answer questions, perform tasks, and interact with your customers across multiple channels, all automatically.

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What is an Assistant?

An assistant is your AI customer service agent. It can:

• Answer questions using your knowledge base
• Perform actions like booking appointments or sending emails
• Connect to channels like WhatsApp, Instagram, and your website
• Remember customers across all conversations
• Hand off to humans when needed

Think of it as a team member who works 24/7, never takes breaks, and can handle hundreds of conversations simultaneously.

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Creating an Assistant

From your dashboard, click Assistants in the sidebar, then Create Assistant. You’ll initially provide:

1. Name: The name your assistant will display (customers see this)
2. Template: A starting template to help you get started (optional)

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Assistant Configuration

Each assistant has five configuration tabs: Settings, Knowledge, Actions, Channels, and Widget. Instructions, Contact Properties, Capabilities, and AI Routing are sections inside the Settings tab.

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Settings

Configuration for your assistant: General

• Name and Avatar: Your assistant’s identity
• Model: Choose between multiple AI models. Each model shows an estimated cost per message right in the selector. Auto is the recommended default, automatically selecting the best model for each message. How pricing works →
• Timezone: Set the timezone for your assistant. Defaults to the timezone of the user who created the assistant. This makes messages date-time aware, giving your assistant better context for returning users. Expect natural responses like “Good morning! How was the game yesterday?”
• Language: Primary language for responses (Auto detects automatically)

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Instructions

Instructions define your assistant’s behavior, personality, and rules. This is where you tell the assistant how to act, not what information it knows (that goes in Knowledge). Good instructions make the difference between a helpful assistant and a frustrating one. Be specific about personality, responsibilities, and boundaries. Below the instructions field, you’ll find a template dropdown with pre-built starting points for common use cases. Conversation Flow

• Thread Mode: Determine whether new messages from users continue the existing conversation or start a completely new conversation each time
• Enable Private Conversations: Hide conversations from the inbox and auto-delete them after 24 hours of inactivity

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Capabilities

• AI Replies: The master switch for the assistant. When off, the assistant becomes human-only: incoming messages are still received and stored, but the AI never responds and new conversations are auto-assigned to an available agent so your team can answer. How routing works →
• Auto-resolve Recommended: Closes stale conversations after inactivity. Without Auto Follow-ups, conversations close silently. Conversations auto-close after 20 minutes of inactivity.
• Auto Follow-ups Recommended Uses AI credits: AI analyzes idle conversations and decides to re-engage, schedule a follow-up, or close. Replaces silent auto-resolve with smart management. Not available on Web Widget channel. Learn more
• Auto CSAT Recommended Uses AI credits: Automatically scores customer satisfaction (1-5) after conversations close. Scores appear in the Inbox alongside each conversation.
• Memories Recommended Uses AI credits: Let your assistant store user details for future conversations. Learn more
• Spam Protection: Let the assistant block contacts when detecting bad behavior or potential bad actors

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Contact Properties

Control what the assistant can do with your custom contact properties. The section contains the Update Contact Info toggle and, below it, a visibility setting for each property:

• Hidden: The assistant cannot see the property
• Visible: The assistant can see the property during conversations
• AI Controlled: The assistant can see and update the property

Set a property to AI Controlled and the assistant keeps it up to date as it learns things in conversation, like a customer’s size or their marketing preferences. Visibility is per assistant, so different assistants can have different access to the same property. Learn more about Properties →

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AI Routing

Turn on Transfer to Agent here to let the assistant decide when to hand a conversation to one of your agents, and choose which agents each assistant can route to. Learn more about AI Routing →

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Knowledge

What your assistant knows. You can:

• Upload files, text, or website URLs
• Link existing global knowledge
• Set knowledge scope (restricted to this assistant or shared)

Learn more about Knowledge →

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Actions

What your assistant can do. Add integrations like:

• Google Calendar (book appointments)
• Stripe (process payments)
• Gmail (send emails)
• And 20+ more integrations

Learn more about Actions →

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Channels

Where your assistant lives. Connect to:

• WhatsApp Business
• Instagram Direct Messages
• Facebook Messenger
• Telegram
• Web Widget
• And more

Learn more about Channels →

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Widget

Customize the chat widget for your website:

• Colors and branding
• Greeting: the greeting text shown when users start a new chat
• Suggested Messages: quick action buttons (up to 5) that users can tap to send common messages
• Position and behavior

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The Playground

Every assistant has a Playground, a testing environment where you can chat with your assistant before going live. Use it to:

• Test new knowledge
• Verify actions work correctly
• Refine instructions
• Debug issues

The Playground appears on the right side of the assistant page. Click “Create Conversation” to start testing.

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Writing Great Instructions

Instructions are the single most important factor in how well your assistant performs. For a complete guide with templates, real examples, and best practices, see the dedicated guides:

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Multiple Assistants

You can create multiple assistants for different purposes:

• Sales Assistant: Handles pre-purchase questions
• Support Assistant: Helps existing customers
• Booking Assistant: Focuses on scheduling

Each assistant can have different knowledge, actions, and channels.

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Next Steps