How to Set Up an AI Agent
Setting up an agent on the AI agents screen connects it to AgentDesk and switches it on. Open the menu, choose AI agents under Administration, and press Set up on the agent's line. The setup is a series of numbered steps; have the key your supplier gave you for that agent to hand before you start.
How do I set up an AI agent?
Press Set up on the agent's line on the AI agents screen, work through each step with its button and Next, and press Done on the last step, Summary.
- Open the menu and choose AI agents under Administration.
- Press Set up on the line of the agent you want. The heading says Set up and the agent's name, with the steps numbered across the top and "Step 1 of" the number of steps beside it.
- Press Check the address on the first step, API URL, and then Next.
- Press Check the widget on the Widget URL step, for the agents that have one, and then Next.
- Paste the key your supplier gave you into API key on the API Key step, press Save connection, and then Next.
- Choose, for ABM Portal Doc Agent and ABM Doc Agent only, the customer on the Customer step and the call type on the Call Type step, pressing Next after each.
- Press Register with AgentDesk on the Base Path step, for the agents that have one, and then Next.
- Choose, for Victoria and Fiona, the settings on the remaining steps, pressing Next after each.
- Press Done on the Summary step.
The screen then says, for example, "Victoria is set up and on.", and shows the agent's own page, where you choose who may use it.
Each check shows its answer under the box with a tick when it worked, or a sentence saying what went wrong. While a check is being asked, the screen says "Asking AgentDesk…" and the box cannot be changed. If you change a box after its check, the tick goes and the check must be done again. Steps already done carry a tick in the row across the top, and you can press one to go back to it, or use Back. Pressing Enter in a box does the step's button.
Which steps does each AI agent's setup have?
The setup on the AI agents screen has different steps for each kind of agent, in this order:
- ABM Portal Doc Agent and ABM Doc Agent — API URL, Widget URL, API Key, Customer, Call Type, Base Path, Summary.
- Victoria — API URL, Widget URL, API Key, Base Path, Follow-up Users, Call Status, Summary.
- Fiona — API URL, Widget URL, API Key, Base Path, Call Types, Follow-up Users, Call Status, Summary.
- Riley and ABM Service AI — API URL, API Key, Summary.
The Customer and Call Type steps decide where a documentation agent's tickets go, Call Types decides which call types Fiona may offer, and Follow-up Users and Call Status decide who may be named to follow a call up and the status a voice call starts at. Each is explained on How to Change an AI Agent's Settings, and the same boxes are on the agent's page afterwards.
Next on a settings step that needs an answer says why it will not go on, for example "Choose the ticket customer first." or "Pick at least one call type: Fiona offers the caller only these."
The Summary step lists everything: the addresses, the key's first and last characters with its name, the organisation and project, and the settings. Its last line says what is already saved; Done saves the settings chosen in the steps.
What do I type in the address and key steps of an AI agent's setup?
On the API URL step of the setup, the box AgentDesk API address is already filled in with AgentDesk's usual address. Leave it unless your supplier gave you another, and press Check the address. The Widget address box works the same way, with Check the widget.
On the API Key step, paste the key your supplier gave you for this agent into API key and press Save connection. The box hides what you type. Each agent needs its own key. Victoria's and Fiona's keys must be for a call-logging project, and ABM Service AI's for an ABM Service AI project: a key AgentDesk says is for another kind of project is refused with a sentence saying so, and nothing is saved. The setup cannot tell Victoria's key from Fiona's, and does not check the other three agents' keys this way, so make sure you paste the key your supplier gave you for this agent.
Save connection is the step that switches the agent on. It checks the key with AgentDesk and saves it at once, encrypted, rather than at the end: for the agents with a Base Path step, that step needs it. Its answer starts "The connection is saved and" followed by the agent's name, "is on", and the organisation and project the key belongs to. For the agents with a Base Path step, the answer adds that AgentDesk cannot call this server back until the address is registered, "which is the next step".
After Save connection the key box is emptied. The key is never shown back: the AI agents screen only ever shows its first eight and last four characters. Keep it somewhere safe in case you need to set the agent up again.
What address do I give on the Base Path step of an AI agent's setup?
The Base Path step of the setup, for the two documentation agents, Victoria and Fiona, asks for This server’s address for the agent: the address at which AgentDesk, on the internet, reaches your ABM Service server to ask who is calling and to log what they said. Press Register with AgentDesk to register it.
The box starts with the address of the page you are on, followed by the ending the agent needs. That is right when you are using ABM Service at the address the outside world uses for your server. When it plainly is not, the step says "AgentDesk must reach this address from the internet, and this one looks as if it cannot:" with the reason: it is plain http, it is this machine's own address, it is a private address on your network, or it is a name only your network knows. This happens when you set up in the ABM Service desktop app or at an office address. Change the start of the address to the one your server is reached by from the internet, over https, and keep the ending as it is.
Register with AgentDesk asks AgentDesk to call that address straight back, and saves it only if your server answered. The screen says "Asking AgentDesk to call this server back…" meanwhile, which can take up to fifteen seconds. When it works, the answer says AgentDesk registered the address, called it straight back, "and this server answered. Saved." If it fails, see Why Won't an AI Agent Set Up or Connect?.
What happens if I close an AI agent's setup part-way?
Close setup, at the foot of every step of the setup on the AI agents screen, leaves the setup at once, and the sentence beside it always says what is already saved:
- Before Save connection: "Nothing is saved yet: closing leaves" the agent "not set up." When you are updating an agent that is already on, it says nothing has been saved in this setup and the agent stays as it was.
- After Save connection but before the address is registered: the connection is saved and the agent is on, but AgentDesk cannot call this server back until its address is registered, "so it shows as Incomplete until you Resume."
- After both: "The connection and this server's address are saved."
Settings chosen on the later steps are saved only by Done; if you close before it, the sentence adds that they "are not saved".
To finish later, press Resume on the agent's line, or Resume setup on its page. The heading says Resume setting up and the agent's name, and the setup opens at the first step that puts right something the agent is missing; the earlier steps are already ticked.
How do I change an AI agent's connection or key later?
Open the agent from the AI agents screen and press Update configuration. The setup runs again from the first step with the saved addresses filled in. Type the key again on the API Key step, because the key is never shown back.
Nothing changes until you press Save connection; closing before that leaves the agent as it was. If the new key belongs to another organisation or project, or you changed the AgentDesk address, ABM Service forgets the registered address, and the Base Path step has to be registered again. With the same project, the Base Path step is already ticked.