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Voice AI agents are replacing traditional IVR systems and transforming how businesses handle calls. Unpod makes it possible to build a production-ready voice agent in under 30 minutes - no ML background required. This guide walks through every step.

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What We’re Building

A customer support agent that:
  • Answers inbound calls for a SaaS product
  • Has a defined persona and voice
  • Can look up information from uploaded docs
  • Hands off to a human when needed

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Step 1: Create Your Agent in AI Studio

Log in to unpod.ai and open AI Studio. Click New Agent.

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Identity Tab

Set the core details:
FieldExample
NameAria
Handlearia-support (URL-safe slug, used in API)
LanguageEnglish (US)
TimezoneAmerica/New_York
The handle is how you reference this agent in the API and telephony config.

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Step 2: Define the Persona

The persona determines how your agent thinks, speaks, and behaves. Open the Persona tab.

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System Prompt

Write a clear system prompt that defines:
  • Role and purpose
  • Tone and communication style
  • What the agent should and should not do
Example: 
You are Aria, a friendly and professional customer support agent for Acme SaaS. 
Your goal is to help users resolve issues with their account, billing, and product features.

Rules:
- Always greet the caller by name if available
- Be concise - callers are on the phone, not reading
- If you cannot resolve an issue, offer to connect them with a human agent
- Never make promises about refunds or SLA violations without checking policy

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Greeting Message

The first thing your agent says when the call connects: 
Hi, you've reached Acme support. I'm Aria, your AI assistant. 
How can I help you today?

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Step 3: Configure the Voice Profile

Open the Voice Profile tab. Choose:
  • TTS Provider: ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Azure, or Google
  • Voice: Pick from available voices for your chosen provider
  • Speed: 0.9–1.0 works well for support calls
  • Stability / Similarity: Higher stability = more consistent, lower = more expressive
Test voices using the built-in preview before finalizing.

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Step 4: Choose Your AI Model

Under the Advanced tab, select the LLM powering your agent:
ProviderModelBest For
OpenAIgpt-4oGeneral purpose, high accuracy
Groqllama-3.1-70bLow latency, cost-efficient
Googlegemini-1.5-flashMultimodal, long context
Azure OpenAIgpt-4oEnterprise compliance
For support bots, gpt-4o or llama-3.1-70b via Groq are solid starting points.

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Step 5: Add a Knowledge Base

Upload product documentation, FAQs, or policy docs so your agent can answer accurately. Open Knowledge Base → Upload Document. Supported formats:
  • PDF, DOCX, TXT, Markdown
  • Web URLs (Unpod crawls and indexes the content)
Unpod uses RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) - the agent searches relevant chunks before generating a response. Tips for better retrieval:
  • Break large PDFs into topic-focused sections
  • Include an FAQ document with exact question phrasing customers use
  • Add a “what not to say” policy document to constrain agent behavior

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Step 6: Set Up Telephony

Your agent needs a phone number to receive calls.

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6a: Create a Bridge

Go to Telephony → Bridges → Create Bridge. A bridge connects your agent to a voice infrastructure provider.
  • Name: support-bridge
  • Provider: LiveKit or Vapi
  • Agent: Select aria-support

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6b: Add a Phone Number

Go to Numbers → Provision Number. Select a country and area code. Unpod provisions a real phone number via your connected SIP provider. Assign the provisioned number to your bridge. Incoming calls to this number will now route to Aria.

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Step 7: Test the Agent

  1. Click Preview in AI Studio to test via the browser interface
  2. Call the provisioned phone number from your mobile
  3. Check Call Logs to review the transcript and see how the agent performed

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Monitoring & Iteration

After going live:
  • Call Logs: Review transcripts to find gaps in knowledge base coverage
  • Analytics: Track call duration, resolution rate, and sentiment over time
  • Analysis Tab: Configure post-call extraction - pull structured data (intent, outcome, customer tier) from each conversation
Iterate on the system prompt and knowledge base based on real call patterns.

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What’s Next

Voice AI Platform Docs

Full platform guide for business users.

API: Create Tasks

Trigger outbound calls to your agent via API.

Knowledge Base Setup

Detailed knowledge base configuration guide.

Telephony Configuration

Advanced telephony and provider setup.