AI Agent
Set up your AI Agent
The Tanvik AI Agent replies to incoming messages for you, using the persona and instructions you give it. On WhatsApp it answers customers within your business hours, sends instant keyword replies, and steps back so your team can take over when a customer asks for a person. A second tab does the same for Instagram and Facebook messages.
What the AI Agent does
What it can do
Reply to customers who message you, in the tone and persona you set. Send fixed replies instantly when a message matches a keyword rule. Hand the chat to your team when a customer uses a handoff word like "agent" or "call me". With the optional agent tools switched on, it can also recommend products from your catalog and look up orders or abandoned carts from a connected Shopify store.
What it cannot do
Start a conversation. It only replies when a customer messages you first, inside WhatsApp's 24-hour reply window. It also will not reply while the bot is paused, outside your business hours, or in a chat your team has paused. To reach people first, use a campaign or an automation with an approved template.
The AI Agent page at a glance
Open Automate → AI Agent in the sidebar. If your workspace has both the AI Agent and Social, the page has two tabs at the top: WhatsApp and Instagram & Facebook (see below). The WhatsApp tab has five tabs of its own:
| Tab | What you do there |
|---|---|
| Overview | See whether the bot is Active or Paused, how many AI replies you have used this month against your allowance, tokens used, and how many keyword auto-replies were sent. It also explains the order in which replies are decided. |
| AI Brain | Choose the AI provider, set the agent's name, tone, persona and (optionally) a system prompt, switch agent tools on or off, connect your own AI key, and send a test message. |
| Keyword Rules | Create fixed auto-replies that fire when a message contains a word, such as "price" or "location". |
| Canned Responses | Save ready-made replies your team can insert in the Inbox with a shortcut like /greeting. |
| Behavior | Turn the bot on or off, manage handoff keywords, and set business hours for each day of the week. |
Set up the AI Agent
01
Open Automate → AI Agent
Click Automate in the sidebar, then AI Agent. The AI Agent is included on the Pro and Custom plans. If it is not part of your plan, you will see a message instead of the page. See Billing & plans to upgrade.
02
Pick your AI provider on the AI Brain tab
Under AI provider, choose Tanvik AI (the default). This uses your own persona, system prompt and keyword rules, and each reply counts toward your monthly allowance. The other option, Meta Business Agent (Beta), is Meta's own WhatsApp AI and is set up in Meta Business Manager. While it is selected, your Tanvik persona and system prompt are not used for AI replies, but keyword rules and canned responses still work.
03
Describe your business in the persona
This is the most important step. Give the agent a name (for example "Priya") and pick a tone: Friendly (warm and casual, emojis welcome), Professional (clear, no slang, minimal emojis) or Formal (full sentences, no contractions, no emojis). Then write the Persona: what you sell, your prices, your locations and hours, and how the agent should behave. The System prompt field is optional and meant for advanced users. Leave it blank to rely on the persona. Click Save at the top of the panel.
You are a helpful sales assistant for Sharma Real Estate, based in Hyderabad. We sell residential plots in Shadnagar, Maheshwaram, and Yadagirigutta. Plots range from 150 to 500 sq yards, priced ₹15,000–₹40,000 per sq yard. Our team works 9am–7pm Mon–Sat. Always collect the customer's name, budget, and preferred location before suggesting plots. Reply in the same language the customer writes in.
04
Switch on agent tools (optional)
Under Agent tools on the same tab you will find two switches. Catalog search lets the AI look up your live, in-stock catalog (Shopify or Meta catalog) and recommend real products with prices, images and links. Order & cart actions lets it look up order status and abandoned carts, and create a Shopify order with a payment link. This one needs a connected Shopify store (Commerce → Connectors). Without one, the AI tells the customer your team will follow up. The AI decides when to use these tools; it does not use them on every message. Click Save after changing them.
05
Check the AI connection
The AI connection (API key) panel on the right of the AI Brain tab shows which key your agent uses. You can add your own key and choose another provider: see Use your own AI key with the AI Agent. With no Anthropic key saved, the panel says replies use Tanvik's shared key.
06
Turn the bot on and set business hours
Go to the Behavior tab. Switch on AI bot active and click Save bot & handoff. Then, under Business hours, switch each day on or off, set the from and to times, and click Save business hours. By default every day is on from 09:00 to 18:00. The bot only replies automatically inside these hours. Outside them, chats go to your team's queue.
07
Send a test
Back on the AI Brain tab, go to Test the bot. Enter your own WhatsApp number with the country code (for example 919876543210), type a message the way a customer would, and click Send test. The bot's reply arrives as a real WhatsApp message on that number.
Message your business number first. WhatsApp only allows free-text replies to someone who messaged you in the last 24 hours. If the test says "Not sent", send any message from your phone to your business WhatsApp number, then try again.
Test with real questions. Try the questions your customers ask most, like pricing, availability and how to book. If the AI gets something wrong, make the persona clearer or add a keyword rule for that question.
Keyword rules & canned responses
Keyword rules send a fixed reply instantly when a customer's message matches. Use them for questions that must always get exactly the same answer, like your address, timings or a price list. Keyword replies do not count toward your AI reply allowance.
01
Create a rule
On the Keyword Rules tab, fill in Trigger keyword and Reply message (up to 1,024 characters). Then choose a Match type: Contains (the keyword appears anywhere in the message), Exact match only, or Regex (an advanced pattern). Leave Active on and click Add rule.
02
Set the priority
If a message could match more than one rule, the one with the lower Priority number wins. You can also drag rules in the list to reorder them. Each rule shows how many times it has matched and when it last fired.
03
Edit or delete
Click a rule in the list to load it into the form. Change it and click Update rule, or click Delete to remove it. To pause a rule without deleting it, switch off Active.
Canned responses are not sent automatically. They are saved replies for your team. On the Canned Responses tab, add a Shortcut that starts with / (for example /greeting), an optional Title (shown as a chip in the Inbox composer), and the Message. Your agents can then type the shortcut in the Inbox to insert it.
How replies are decided & handoff to a human
When a customer messages you inside an open 24-hour session, Tanvik picks the reply in this order:
- Handoff keywords: if the message asks for a person, the bot steps back and alerts your team.
- Keyword rules: a matching rule sends its reply instantly.
- AI reply: the AI answers using your persona. This counts toward your monthly allowance.
This only happens while the bot is Active and within your business hours.
Handoff keywords are managed on the Behavior tab. A starter list is included, with words like agent, human, talk to, call me, manager and real person. Type a new word and press Enter to add it, or click the × on a chip to remove one. Then click Save bot & handoff.
Pausing one chat. To stop the bot for a single customer while your team handles the chat, pause it from that conversation in the Inbox. The AI bot active switch on the Behavior tab is the master switch: when it is off, every chat goes straight to your agents.
Usage & limits
The Overview tab shows your usage for the current month:
- AI replies this month: replies used against your monthly allowance, with a progress bar and how many free replies remain. If your workspace has an overage price, it is shown here per reply. Otherwise the card says overage is not billed.
- Tokens used this month: how much text the AI processed, with the cost.
- Keyword auto-replies: how many keyword rule replies were sent, your number of active rules, and your top rule.
Below the cards, Token usage — this month breaks usage down further and shows a monthly history for the last 3 months.
Your allowance is set for your workspace. It is shown on the Overview tab. To change it, contact our support team.
Free WhatsApp messages. Replies from your AI Agent use your 1,000 free messages each month, together with replies your team sends from the Inbox. See Free messages and how messages are billed.
Instagram & Facebook auto-replies
The Instagram & Facebook tab sets up automatic replies for Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs and Instagram comments. It needs the Social feature on your plan. Rules run automatically when someone messages your Facebook Page or Instagram DM, and are checked in priority order.
Priority works the other way round here. On this tab a higher priority number is checked first. On the WhatsApp Keyword Rules tab, a lower number wins.
01
Create a rule
Click + New Rule. Give it a Rule name and choose the Channel: All Channels, Messenger only, Instagram DMs only or Instagram comments only.
02
Choose the trigger
Keyword fires on words you list (comma separated; match type Contains, Exact match or Starts with). Greeting fires on hi, hello, hey, namaste and similar. Always fires on every inbound message. AI Fallback uses AI when no keyword matches. Buying question fires on messages like price, details or interested.
03
Write the reply
Type a Reply message. {name} becomes the person's Instagram name. Or switch on Use AI Reply and add an optional AI system prompt to guide the tone; leave the reply blank to let AI write it. To send people to WhatsApp, switch on Add a WhatsApp chat link.
04
Set comment options
For Instagram comments, choose to reply with A private DM to the commenter, A public reply under the comment or Both, and how often the same person can get a reply (15 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours or 24 hours). Rules for comments can run on Every post or Only these posts.
05
Save and switch on
Click Create Rule. Use the switch on each rule to turn it on or off, Edit to change it and the cross to delete it. The cards at the top show your rules, replies sent and AI rules.
The card Turn comments into WhatsApp chats opens a ready-made rule. See Turn Instagram comments into WhatsApp chats.
Best practices
Use keyword rules for answers that must be exact
Put your address, timings, bank details or fixed price list in keyword rules. They reply instantly, always say the same thing, and do not use your AI allowance.
Add the words your customers really use to ask for help
If your customers write "call karo" or "baat karni hai", add those as handoff keywords so they reach a person quickly.
Update the persona whenever your offers change
If you run a sale or change prices, update the persona straight away. The AI answers from what you gave it, so an out-of-date persona means wrong answers.
Do not make the persona long or vague
A short persona with clear facts and rules works better than pages of general text. Keep it specific.
Common problems
The AI is not replying to customers
Check these in order. The Overview tab should say Active (if not, turn on AI bot active on the Behavior tab). The current time should be inside your business hours for today. The chat should not be paused in the Inbox. The customer's message should not contain a handoff keyword. If Meta Business Agent is selected, replies come from Meta, not from your Tanvik persona.
The test says "Not sent"
WhatsApp only allows free-text replies within 24 hours of the customer's last message. Send any message from the test number to your business WhatsApp number, then click Send test again. If the result says "AI skipped this", the reason is shown next to it. For example, the bot may be paused or it may be outside business hours.
A keyword reply is sent instead of an AI answer
Keyword rules are checked before the AI. A Contains rule on a short word like "hi" can match far more messages than you expect. Switch it to Exact match only, make the keyword more specific, or turn the rule off.
My changes did not stick
Each panel has its own save button: Save on AI Brain, Save bot & handoff and Save business hours on Behavior, and Add rule or Update rule for keyword rules. Switching tabs does not save your changes. If you leave the persona half-written, the page offers to restore your draft next time.
"Couldn't load your AI settings"
The page did not load your saved settings, so saving is blocked to protect them. Reload the page and try again.
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