Quick Start Guide

This guide walks you through the fastest path to a working AI agent, with clear checkpoints so you can go live with confidence.

1. Confirm your agent and channels

If you are new to Applied, your Applied Labs team will provision your workspace and your first agent. Open Agents to review:

The agent name and general instructions.
Which channels are enabled (chat, email, SMS, or phone).
The default escalation behavior.

If you support multiple channels, each agent can be configured with its own tone, workflows, and escalation settings.

2. Add knowledge the agent can trust

Open Connectors -> Knowledge and add Responses. Each Response can be:

Draft while you test.
Live once you are ready to use it in production.

Tag responses with a topic and intent so you can measure performance later. If you already have docs or help center content, connect Content Sources so those materials are available to the agent.

3. Build workflows (optional)

Use Agents -> Flows when the agent needs to take actions or collect structured details. Examples include:

Ask for an order number, then look up the order in a connector.
Verify eligibility, then send a confirmation message.
Escalate to a human if a specific condition is met.

Make a Flow Active only when you are ready for it to run in live conversations.

4. Test before you go live

Open Test Coverage to create scenarios and confirm the agent behaves as expected. You can:

Organize scenarios by topic, intent, or flow path.
Group scenarios into Benchmarks for repeatable tests.
Import scenarios from CSV for faster setup.

Use pass/fail outcomes to identify gaps before deployment.

5. Deploy safely

When you are ready, create a revision in Agents -> Deploy and choose whether to make it live immediately. Revisions let you:

Track what changed over time.
Roll back quickly if needed.
Test Draft content without affecting production.

After deployment, monitor the Inbox for live conversations and check Analytics for early quality signals.

Optional: add channels and customer surfaces

Once the core workflow is in place, connect the channels and surfaces your customers will use:

Web chat — embed the chat widget on your site.
Email — route your support inbox into Applied.
SMS or voice — connect phone-based support channels.
Slack — bring internal or shared-team workflows into Applied.

Each of these setup paths is documented in Channels & Surfaces.

Frequently asked questions

What support channels are available?

Applied supports customer conversations across chat, email, SMS, and phone. You can also capture inputs from forms or comment-based channels when those are connected.

Channel availability depends on your agent configuration. If you do not see a channel enabled, ask your Applied Labs team to help configure it.

How do responses get personalized?

Personalization comes from the context you provide:

Metadata passed from your chat widget or integrations (name, plan, region).
Contact profiles built from previous conversations and synced systems.
Connector data retrieved during a workflow (for example, order status).

Use personalization to keep responses relevant without adding sensitive data directly into a response.

Where does the agent’s knowledge come from?

Knowledge comes from:

Responses you write in Connectors -> Knowledge.
Content Sources like docs or help center pages.
Workflows that fetch data from connected systems.

If a question needs a human, configure escalation behavior in the Help Desk workflow so the conversation is handed to your team with context.

How do we improve quality over time?

Use these tools together:

Test Coverage for repeatable scenarios and regression checks.
Quality Review & Assurance to score real conversations with a rubric.
Analytics to track trends by channel, topic, or intent.

Then update Responses or Workflows and re-test before deploying changes. Many teams use a weekly cadence: review a sample, fix gaps, then re-test.

What integrations are available?

Connectors let your agent access real systems. The exact list is shown in the Connectors page, but common categories include:

Commerce: Shopify, Stripe, Loop Returns, Recharge, Stay AI.
Databases: PostgreSQL, Snowflake, Redis.
Productivity: Google Drive, Google Sheets, Airtable, Notion.
Support: Zendesk, Gladly, Gorgias, Dixa.
Messaging: Slack.
Custom HTTP: connect any REST API.

If you need another system, the Custom connector is usually the fastest path.

Need help?

Contact support@appliedlabs.ai and we can help you set up channels, integrations, and best practices.