Build and Customize an Agent

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Build a new agent.
  
• Preview your new agent.
  
• Customize your agent’s topic instructions.
  

Trailcast

If you'd like to listen to an audio recording of this module, please use the player below. When you’re finished listening to this recording, remember to come back to each unit, check out the resources, and complete the associated assessments.

Build an Events Inquiry Agent

Now that Ryan has enabled Agentforce, he’s eager to see if building an agent is really as easy as it sounds.

1. Click to launch Agentforce Builder.
   

As he looks around the Agentforce Builder interface, he sees a panel on the left called Steps. This panel helps him know where he is in the agent-building process. The center panel is where he selects options or enters the details that define his agent. The right panel contains in-app guidance that updates as he moves through the agent-building process. There are four steps involved in building an agent, and Ryan is excited to know he’ll have a new agent so quickly.

Step 1: Select an Agent

In the first step, Ryan sees several tiles in the center column containing agent types and their descriptions. He can choose one of the preconfigured agent types, or he can create a brand-new agent from a template or Gen AI. After reading the descriptions on each tile, Ryan decides that the Agentforce Service Agent is the best agent type to gather event details from prospective clients. (Note: The preconfigured agent types you see in Step 1 depend on the Salesforce licenses your company has purchased.)

1. Click the Agentforce Service Agent tile.
   
2. Click Next.
   

Step 2: Select Your Topics

Topics are the overall categories of jobs, or actions, that an agent can perform. The topics Ryan sees in this step are determined by the agent type, Agentforce Service Agent, he just selected. If he had selected a different agent type, he'd see different topic options. He notices that several topic tiles have a link called View Included Actions.

1. On the Reservation Management topic tile, click View Included Actions. This displays a menu of actions that are preconfigured for jobs related to making and managing reservations.
   

2. Click Hide Included Actions to close the actions menu.
   
3. Click on the Reservation Management, Delivery Issues, and Order Inquiries tiles to remove them from the agent. Notice that the button changes to . If you decide you need a topic you didn’t include, you can add it later from the Agentforce Assets screen in Agent Studio.
   
4. Click Next.
   

Step 3: Customize Your Agent

The information Ryan enters in the fields in Step 3 are the details that define his agent and its behavior, so it’s important that he thinks about these carefully. However, he can edit his agent settings later if he needs to. Ryan looks at each field to see what kinds of information he needs to provide.

• Name: Choose a descriptive name that reflects the job or jobs the agent will do so it’s easy to recognize this agent’s purpose later on.
  
• Description: Describe the job or jobs your agent will do.
  
• Role: Explain the role the agent will perform, including tasks and responsibilities.
  
• Company: Describe your company and include details about what your company does, your customers, and the products or services you provide.
  
• Agent User: Select an Agent User who has the correct permissions to access the information, objects, and fields it needs to do its job. Agent User permissions can be configured in User Settings.
  
• Enrich event logs with conversation data: Capture each interaction an agent has with users, including the actions the agent took to return responses. View event log interactions in the Event Logs tab in Agentforce Builder to help test and troubleshoot an agent, or to help refine agents to give more targeted responses.
  

He fills out the fields with the following information.

• In the Name field, enter: Event Inquiries Agent. The API name field dynamically updates as you type.
  
• In the Description field, enter: Deliver personalized client interactions with an autonomous AI agent. Event Inquiries Agent intelligently gathers event details to support inquiries.
• In the Role field, enter: You are an AI event planner whose job is to help prospective clients with new event requests by gathering details.
• In the Company field enter: Opal Media Productions is a high-end interactive multimedia agency that provides state-of-the-art installations for large-scale events. Target clients are arts organizations, consumer and product lifestyle shows, sporting events, and music concerts.
• For the Agent User, choose OpalMediaProductions Inquiry.
  
• Check the checkbox next to Keep a record of conversations with Enhanced Event Logs to review agent behavior.
  
• Click Next.
  

Step 4: Select Data Sources

On the Select Data step, Ryan can upload data, like knowledge articles, FAQ’s, or other kinds of help documentation for his agent to reference to lend a personalized touch to conversations it has with clients. Data that you include with your agent requires Data Cloud to be turned on, which can incur additional costs. Many jobs agents perform don’t require data at all, so you don’t always need to include data. You can always edit your agent to add data later on. Ryan won’t select any data to use at this time.

1. Click Create.
   

Hooray! Ryan’s agent is created! The new Event Inquiries Agent opens in a new screen Agentforce Builder where he can customize his agent, and start a conversation with it to test and refine its responses.

What’s Next?

With Ryan’s new agent built, follow along with Ryan as he uses Agentforce Builder to customize the agent's topics and topic instructions and shape how it responds.

Resources

• Trailhead: Introduction to Agentforce Builder
• Trailhead: Introduction to Agentforce
• Trailhead: Agents and Agentforce Basics