Introduction to Assistants

Assistant is a fancy word for an AI configuration that can be used across phone calls and Vapi clients. Your voice assistant can augment your customer support and experience for call centers, business websites, mobile apps, and much more.

Core Components

There are three core components that make up an assistant:

• Transcriber: Converts spoken audio into text
• Model: The AI model that processes the text and generates responses
• Voice: The voice that speaks the AI’s responses

These components can be configured, mixed, and matched for your specific use case.

Key Features

Dynamic Variables

Personalize your assistant’s responses using variables that can be customized for each call. This allows you to:

• Insert dynamic content like dates, times, and user information
• Customize greetings and responses
• Maintain context across conversations

Call Analysis

Get detailed insights into each conversation through:

• Call summaries
• Structured data extraction
• Success evaluation metrics
• Custom analysis rubrics

Persistence Options

Choose between:

• Persistent Assistants: Reusable configurations stored via the /assistant endpoint
• Temporary Assistants: One-time configurations specified when starting a call

Prompting Best Practices

Effective prompt engineering is crucial for creating successful voice AI agents. Learn how to:

• Structure prompts for voice interactions
• Add personality and natural speech patterns
• Handle errors gracefully
• Improve response quality

Advanced Concepts