# How the AI agent works

> See how intros, the voice prompt, prompt variables, settings and follow-ups fit together, and the order to set them up in.

- Section: Using the app (manual) › AI agent
- Web page: https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/ai-overview
- Availability: The AI menu appears only on accounts with the AI agent turned on
- Video: placeholder — "The Bigly AI agent, piece by piece" (not yet recorded)

The Bigly AI agent calls your leads, answers inbound calls, qualifies people with your questions, and transfers interested callers to your team or books them a meeting. You set it all up under **AI** in the top menu.

No single screen holds the agent's whole script. It is assembled at the moment of each call from several pieces, and you edit each piece on its own tab. Once you know how they fit together, it's much easier to see which tab to open for a given change.

## Before you start

- You need the AI agent turned on for your account. If you don't see **AI** in the top menu, contact support.
- Your role needs permission to view and change AI settings. See [Team members](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/team-members.md).
- You need at least one [phone number](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/phone-numbers.md) for the agent to call from and answer on. Your Bigly account team connects it to the agent.

## How a call script is built

Every AI call uses one **intro**. When the call starts, Bigly builds the agent's instructions like this:

1. It starts with the **voice prompt**: your base rules for how the agent behaves on every call (persona, how to handle questions, when to transfer, when to hang up).
2. Where the voice prompt contains the `{intro}` placeholder, Bigly inserts the **intro** for this call. The intro holds the campaign-specific script: the opening line and the qualifying questions.
3. The intro's questions fill the `{Q1}`, `{Q2}` and following placeholders, in order.
4. Your **prompt variables** fill placeholders such as `{company_name}`.
5. The contact's details fill placeholders such as `{name}`.
6. Your working hours fill `{working_hours}`, so the agent only offers callback times when you're open.

If your voice prompt doesn't contain `{intro}`, the agent runs without your campaign script, and you won't see an error. If an intro has three questions but only `{Q1}` and `{Q2}` in its text, the third question is never asked. Always place a [test call](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/test-calls.md) after you change the prompt or an intro.

**Settings** then control everything around the conversation: the voice, the speech engine, call length, working hours and timezone. **Follow-ups** decide what happens after the first call, such as more calls, texts and picture messages.

## Where each piece lives

| Piece | What it controls | Where to change it |
|---|---|---|
| [Intros](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/intros.md) | The opening lines and qualifying questions for a campaign, and the greetings for inbound callers | **Teach Your Bot › Intros** |
| [Prompt variables](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/prompt-variables.md) | Facts about your business the agent can quote | **Teach Your Bot › Prompt Variables** |
| [Voice prompt](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/voice-prompt.md) | The base rules for every call, plus voice, speech and timing settings | **Teach Your Bot › Voice Prompt** |
| [Test calls](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/test-calls.md) | Recordings and transcripts of calls you placed to yourself | **Teach Your Bot › Test Calls** |
| [Activity log](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/activity-log.md) | Who changed what in Teach Your Bot, with a way to undo a change | **Teach Your Bot › Activity Log** |
| [AI settings](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/ai-settings.md) | Working hours, timezone, the meeting calendar and account-wide options | **Configure** |
| [First day follow-up](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/first-day-followup.md) | What happens in the hours after a new lead arrives | **First day followup config** |
| [Follow-up sequence](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/followup-sequences.md) | Ongoing daily or weekly calls and texts in the days after that | **Followup Sequence** |
| [Bot activity](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/bot-activity.md) | The agent's latest conversations and the meetings it booked | **Bot Activity** |

Other tabs cover [SMS agents](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/sms-agents.md), [email replies](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/email-prompt.md), [webhooks](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/webhooks.md), [web calling](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/web-calling.md) and [connecting your AI assistant](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/connect-your-ai.md). Some tabs, such as **Tenant Configuration**, **Qualifying Questions** and **Tools Configuration**, are visible only to the Bigly team, who set them up for you.

## Recommended setup order

Work through the tabs in this order. Each step depends on the ones before it.

1. **Set your timezone and working hours.** Open **AI › Configure**, choose your **Tenant Timezone**, then add working hours for every day you take calls. See [AI settings](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/ai-settings.md).
2. **Fill in your prompt variables.** Open **Teach Your Bot › Prompt Variables** and describe your company, the agent's name and your goal. See [Prompt variables](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/prompt-variables.md).
3. **Write your voice prompt.** Open **Teach Your Bot › Voice Prompt**, write the base rules and make sure `{intro}` is in the text. Choose the voice and save. See [Voice prompt](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/voice-prompt.md).
4. **Create your intros.** Create one intro per campaign, with both outbound and inbound wording, an inbound number and the questions to ask. Also create an **After Office Hours** intro so that callers who ring when you're closed get your own message. See [Intros](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/intros.md).
5. **Place a test call.** Call your own phone from the **Test Call** panel on the Voice Prompt tab, then review the recording and the captured answers on **Test Calls**. See [Test calls](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/test-calls.md).
6. **Set up follow-ups.** Add first-day actions, then the longer follow-up sequence. See [First day follow-up](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/first-day-followup.md) and [Follow-up sequence](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/followup-sequences.md).
7. **Start a campaign.** On the [Calls](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/calls.md) page, start an AI call campaign and choose the intro to use.

> **Checks before a campaign starts:** When you start an AI call campaign, Bigly checks your setup first. The campaign can't start if no intro is chosen, or if the chosen intro is missing its outbound or inbound text, its first sentences or its inbound number. Bigly also warns you if your working hours, after-hours intro or follow-ups are missing.

## Common questions

**Can I make these changes from Claude or ChatGPT instead?** Yes. Most AI agent settings can be changed through the Bigly MCP. See [Using Bigly with your AI assistant](https://docs.biglysales.com/mcp.md).

**I changed the prompt but calls still sound the same.** Check whether the intro used by that campaign has its own voice prompt selected. If it does, that prompt replaces the main one for calls that use the intro. See [Intros](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/intros.md).

**My changes disappeared when I switched tabs.** Teach Your Bot warns you about unsaved changes when you leave a tab. If you chose **Discard**, the changes were dropped. Save before you switch.

## Related

- [Intros](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/intros.md)
- [Voice prompt](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/voice-prompt.md)
- [AI settings](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/ai-settings.md)
- [Using Bigly with your AI assistant](https://docs.biglysales.com/mcp.md)

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All documentation pages: https://docs.biglysales.com/llms.txt