Manage AI Agents¶

To manage a new generation of AI Agents, Cognigy.AI introduces the AI Agent Management interface, where you can create, edit, and delete AI Agents.

Create an AI Agent¶

You can create an AI Agent from scratch or hire an AI Agent from the Job Market, designed for your industry, such as airlines, food services, or sales, and customize it to fit your business needs.

To create an AI Agent, select one of the following options:

Create from scratch
Hire from the Job Market

Create from Scratch¶

GUIAPI

In the left-side menu of the Project page, select Build > AI Agents.
Click Create AI Agent if you are creating an AI Agent for the first time, or click + New AI Agent on the AI Agents page if you have created at least one AI Agent before. Configure the following settings:

1. General Settings

In the General Settings step, fill in the following fields:
- Name — enter a name for your AI Agent. This name will be visible to end users when the AI Agent greets them in the chat or when one AI Agent transfers the conversation to another AI Agent. For example, Hello, my name is Sara. How can I help you? or Our support specialist Alex will help with this question, transferring the conversation now.
- Description — enter a description of the AI Agent that shapes its behavior and enhances its ability to understand the desired communication style. For example, describe the AI Agent as follows: Anna works at ACME and is highly skilled at making customers feel comfortable.
In the Avatar section, select avatar of your choice or upload your custom one by clicking + next to avatars. You can use any image as an avatar for your AI Agent, or create a Cognigy-style avatar using the Cognigy.AI PSD template. To open and customize the template, you will need Adobe Photoshop or Paint.net with the PSD plugin installed. The requirements for the avatar are as follows:
- Use an alpha channel for a transparent background.
- Set the recommended width to 136px.
- Set the recommended height to 184px.
- Save the file as .png.
- Include _optimized in the file name.

2. Speaking Style

In the Speaking Style step, configure the following settings:
- Set up Style — configure how the AI Agent's choice of wording is influenced by the selected speaking style, which can affect the tone and clarity of its responses:
  - Concise/Comprehensive — adjust the slider to the left for brief responses and to the right for detailed responses.
  - Formal/Informal — adjust the slider to the left for more casual and conversational responses, and to the right for professional and structured responses.
- Voice Configuration — assign a specific voice to your AI Agent if you want to use your AI Agent as a voice-based assistant. To configure this setting, ensure you have installed Voice Gateway and set up the Voice Preview provider. Then, fill in the fields following the same process you used for Set Session Config Node:
  - TTS Vendor — select the text-to-speech provider for your AI Agent. This setting determines which service will convert the AI Agent's text responses into speech.
  - TTS Language — select the language that your AI Agent will use for speech output. Ensure this language aligns with the preferred language of the end user.
  - TTS Voice — select the voice from the selected TTS vendor. This setting allows you to customize the tone, gender, and style of your AI Agent's voice.
  - TTS Label — select the alternative name of the TTS vendor, as specified in the Voice Gateway Self-Service Portal. If you have multiple speech services from the same vendor, use the label to specify which service to use.
  - Disable TTS Audio Caching — by default, this setting is deactivated. With caching enabled, previously requested TTS audio is stored in the AI Agent cache, and repeated requests for the same audio text will use the cached result instead of sending another request. With caching disabled, the AI Agent stores the TTS audio but doesn't use it; each request is sent directly to the speech provider. Note that disabling caching can increase TTS costs. For detailed information, contact your speech provider.

3. Knowledge & Instructions

In the Knowledge & Instructions step, configure the following fields:
- Instructions — provide special instructions to your AI Agent in bullet-point form. For example:
```
 - Greet users warmly and professionally.
 - Keep responses concise; expand only if requested.
 - Start with a formal tone; adjust as needed.
 - Share troubleshooting links for technical issues.
 - Apologize if errors occur, then correct promptly.
```
- Knowledge Store — select the Knowledge Store that the AI Agent will use to access information from the documents you provide. By accessing and understanding knowledge bases, these AI Agents can provide more accurate, context-aware, and helpful responses to user queries. Note that you need to configure the embedding model to use Knowledge AI.

4. Data Privacy & Security

In the Data Privacy & Security step, configure the following fields:
- Contact Profile Information — select which information the AI Agent should use from the Cognigy Contact Profile:
  - None — no data will be used from the Contact Profile. This option is selected by default.
  - Selected Profile Fields — enter specific fields from the Contact Profile for targeted data use. Specify the field using the Profile keys format and press Enter to apply it.
  - Complete Profile — use all fields from the Contact Profile to provide comprehensive user details.
  - Profile Memories — use the Memories field from the Contact Profile.
- Safety Instructions — adjust the AI Agent's safety settings to guide content generation, interactions, and responses, ensuring compliance with ethical, legal, and operational standards. Although these settings reduce risks, occasional unexpected outputs may still occur. The selected safety instructions are included in the prompt to enhance safety, which may increase token usage. Select the safety instructions you want to apply:
  - Avoid harmful content — prevent generating content that could be harmful, offensive, or abusive to end users.
  - Avoid ungrounded content — prevent generating content that is based on speculation or unsupported claims, ensuring it is reliable and verifiable.
  - Avoid copyright infringements — prevent generating content that violates intellectual property rights or uses copyrighted material without authorization.
  - Prevent jailbreak and manipulations — prevent attempts to bypass security measures or manipulate the AI Agent into producing unauthorized or unsafe content.

5. Job Selection

In the Job Selection step, select one of the following options:
- Default — create an AI Agent with a predefined Flow, then click Create & Configure LLM to save changes and open the Flow with the created AI Agent. If you haven't added an LLM before, the system will prompt you to configure a model to ensure your AI-driven Flow works.
- Personality Only — create an AI Agent without a predefined Flow, then click Create to save changes.
- Job — select one of the available jobs you want to assign to the AI Agent, then click Create to save changes.

You can create an Agent from scratch using the Cognigy.AI API POST beta/aiagents request.

Hire from the Job Market¶

GUIAPI

In the left-side menu on the Project page, select Build > AI Agents.
On the AI Agents page, click Hire AI Agent. The Job Market page displays a list of available AI Agents to hire.
Hover your cursor over the desired AI Agent template and click Hire. This action will trigger the Hire AI Agent task in the Task Manager.
Check the status of the Hire AI Agent task by clicking in the upper-right corner.
Once the task is complete, go to Build > Flows and find the Flow with the AI Agent name from the template you installed.

You can hire an Agent from the Job Market using the Cognigy.AI API POST beta/aiagents/hire request.

Combine Custom and Hired AI Agents¶

You can reassign your custom AI Agent to take on the responsibilities of the hired AI Agent. To do this, hire an AI Agent from the Job Market and configure their interaction by defining which functions and personality traits should be combined. This approach lets you combine the strengths of both AI Agents: ready-made job functions from the hired AI Agent and your brand's AI Agent persona from your custom AI Agent.

To combine custom and hired AI Agents, follow these steps:

On the AI Agents page, select + Hire AI Agent. The Job Market page displays a list of available AI Agents to hire.
Hover your cursor over the desired AI Agent template and click > Hire & Configure.
In the Select an AI Agent to Combine window, use the search field to find an AI Agent by name, then select the AI Agent from the list.
Click Combine. This action will trigger the Hire AI Agent and Merge Package tasks in the Task Manager.
In the left-side menu of the Project page, select Build > Flows.
Select the Flow that belongs to the hired AI Agent. In the Flow, you will see an AI Agent Node with your custom AI Agent persona.

Other Operations¶

GUIAPICLI

You can view and delete AI Agents, and copy their Reference ID in Build > AI Agents.

You can create, edit, and delete AI Agents using Cognigy.AI API.

You can clone and edit AI Agents using Cognigy.AI CLI.