Creating Assistants in Deputise

This guide walks you through the process of creating AI assistants. Assistants help guide people through common challenges they face, and only when the assistant can't answer, the question comes to you.

For example:

• An assistant to help your family with fixing the WiFi when it goes wrong
• An assistant to help your Dad get answers about his phone
• An assistant to explain to your guest how to use the heating system

Anything you can think of, where a chat would be helpful, you can build it here!

Overview

Creating an assistant is quick and simple. You can provide as much or as little context as you like, though normally more is better.

Before we start, have a quick think about what information will help:

• What is the assistant for? E.g. 'Help Dad to use his iPhone 16' or 'Help my guest to use the heating'.
• What specifics will help, for example with a heating system: the heating system's thermostat make and model, where the boiler is, or where any overrides are.

The creation process is simple...

Step 1: Choose an Assistant Type

The first step is selecting the type of assistant you want to create. The options you'll see are clear. If you're not sure then you can just go for creating a 'General Help & Information' assistant. This leaves more up to your imagination! Otherwise the more specific types will provide more setup guidance and questions.

Step 2: Configure Your Assistant

Once you've selected an assistant type, you'll move to the configuration step where you'll:

Explain who the assistant is for

This is the first step for all assistants. You can either pick 'Use their name' if you just want it to use the person's name. This is a good default and works if you're going to share it with more than one person. Otherwise you can enter something like 'Dad', 'Bro', 'Valued Guest' or a nickname.

Answer Configuration Questions

Each assistant type has specific questions designed to customise the assistant's behaviour. These questions typically cover things like:

• What tone to use with the people we're helping
• How much experience (or not!) does the person we're helping have
• What common issues they have
• What products, devices, or systems are involved
• How the assistant should handle situations it can't resolve

Answering Configuration Questions

Be specific and detailed:

• Instead of "Not good with technology" → "Gets confused by multiple steps, prefers simple one-at-a-time instructions"
• Instead of "Phone issues" → "Often can't find apps, struggles with text size, forgets how to make calls"

Consider the user's perspective:

• What words do they use for things?
• What frustrates them most?
• What has worked well in the past?

Think about edge cases:

• What should happen when the assistant doesn't know something?
• Who should the user contact for complex issues?
• Are there any topics the assistant should avoid?

Regular Updates

As user needs change or you learn more about effective configurations, update your assistant to maintain its usefulness.

Choosing Premium or Standard AI

The 'standard' model works well in the majority of cases. We use the best providers and keep things up to date with the latest offerings. The Premium model is generally the latest generation of models with additional costs associated. History tells us that these latest models are better at most tasks, however they tend to be a bit slower, and don't guarantee better answers all the time.

If your topic is particularly complex, or needs the most up-to-date information, then choose Premium. Note that Premium does use credits faster than Standard.

Editing Your Assistant

You can always return to editing your assistant via the edit option. This will allow you to re-enter the chat mode and request changes.

You can provide details of what needs updating, such as new details that you've thought of later, or things that came up via escalations.