AI Agent Personality and Instruction Examples

Overview

UltraCart AI Agents are designed to provide intelligent, automated support across multiple communication channels. To ensure your agent represents your brand accurately and handles customer inquiries effectively, you can provide specific instruction sets tailored to different interaction contexts.

This guide provides an overview of the five instruction categories available for AI Agents and how they influence agent behavior.

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How AI Instructions Work

Instructions are layered. Every agent begins with a foundation of platform-level knowledge and access to specific tools (like order lookups or tracking info). Your custom instructions are then applied on top of that foundation to refine the agent's tone, goals, and specific procedural knowledge.

Instruction Categories

Agent Personality

The Agent Personality is the foundational layer. It is universally applied across every communication channel, regardless of whether the agent is chatting, texting, or speaking on the phone. Use this section to define the "vibe" of your agent.

• Where it’s used: Webchat, SMS, Tickets, and Voice.

• Best for: Defining tone (e.g., "Professional yet friendly"), setting brand boundaries, and establishing a consistent demeanor.

Chat Instructions

These instructions are triggered specifically when a customer initiates a Webchat conversation on your StoreFront.

• Where it’s used: Live web-based chat widgets.

• Best for: Specifying how to handle real-time product questions, navigating customers through the checkout process, or providing links to specific site pages.

SMS Instructions

SMS Instructions guide the agent when interacting with customers via text message. Because SMS is a shorter, more direct medium, these instructions help the agent remain concise.

• Where it’s used: Inbound SMS/MMS queries.

• Best for: Handling quick order status updates, responding to "STOP" or "HELP" keywords, and managing brief service inquiries.

Ticket Instructions

UltraCart AI Agents can assist with your help desk workflow by drafting responses to support tickets. Currently, this system integrates directly with Zoho Desk.

• Where it’s used: Support ticket drafts within the help desk interface.

• Best for: Defining refund policies, outlining return procedures, and ensuring the agent drafts responses that a human agent can quickly review and send.

Voice Instructions

When assigned to phone system queues, AI Agents can answer inbound calls. Voice Instructions focus on how the agent should sound and behave in a verbal environment.

• Where it’s used: Inbound phone calls/IVR queues.

• Best for: Selecting the specific AI voice (e.g., "Rex"), instructing the agent on how to handle interruptions, and managing verbal verification of customer identities.

Summary of Usage