Creating a voice agent in Zoom Virtual Agent
Zoom Virtual Agent (ZVA) allows businesses to create natural and humanlike voice agents for Zoom Contact Center voice channels. These agents are configured using natural language without the need for scripting and are managed directly from AI Studio. They handle calls, route customers, and resolve issues in real time.
In addition to voice agents, Zoom Virtual Agent (ZVA) also supports chat agents, which allow businesses to automate customer conversations on digital platforms like web and mobile chat. Refer to the detailed guide on how to create a chat agent.
Requirements for creating a voice agent in Zoom Virtual Agent
- Account owner or admin privileges; or relevant role/privilege
- Basic, Pro, Business, Education, or Enterprise account
- Zoom Virtual Agent and Zoom Contact Center licenses
How to create a voice agent and add skills in Zoom Virtual Agent
- Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
- In the navigation menu, click AI Studio then Virtual Agents.
- Under the Agents tab, click Voice agent then Start from blank.
To use a template instead, select one from the list of Zoom Phone voice agent templates. - In the Create Agent window, fill in the following fields:
- Agent name: Enter a display name for your voice agent.
- Agent guidance: Provide a description that defines the agent’s role, response tone, and approach to customer interactions.
- Agent greeting: Enter the initial message the agent will say. You can insert dynamic variables by pressing the forward slash (/) key and selecting from the list.
- Default language: Select the language your agent will use.
- Click Next.
- Select a voice actor that fits your brand’s tone or click the Custom voice button to create and personalize your own voice.
- If selecting a voice actor, you can filter available voices by gender and accent, then click the Play button
next to each name to preview the voice. - If creating your custom voice, enter a name for your custom voice, then either:
- Record your voice: Click Start Recording then record a 10–30 second voice sample directly.
- Upload voice recordings: Click Choose files then upload an audio file (MP3, WAV, FLAC, M4A, or OGG, up to 10 MB).
- Click Next.
- Add knowledge sources to support accurate, AI-driven responses. You can:
- Use an existing source
- Sync a website URL
- Upload a PDF or DOCX file
- Add an integration
- Create a new article manually
- Click Next.
- (Optional) Click Add skill and complete the following fields:
- Name: Provide a display name for the skill.
- Trigger description: Describe the situation or query that should activate the skill.
- Instructions: Provide detailed directions on how the agent should handle the skill. Use the forward slash (/) key to insert variables or built-in tools such as fetch_ticket, update_ticket, or create_ticket.
- As soon as any of these tools are selected, you would be prompted to fill the details.
- Tool name: You may rename it, but it’s optional.
- Description: This field is not editable.
- Integration: Select a pre-added integration. If no integration exists, click Create a new integration and configure the details to add one.
Note: The fetch_ticket and update_ticket tools are only available for Zendesk, Salesforce and ServiceNow integrations. The create_ticket tool is available for all CRMs. - Value Source:
- Collected via LLM: Allows the LLM fetch the value.
- Mapped to variable: Use an existing variable mapping.
- Save email to variable: Mandatory if Mapped to variable is selected. Select the variable created to store this value during the conversation.
- Ticket Form: This setting is only available when the create_ticket tool is selected. A ticket form is mandatory to create a ticket in the CRM.
- If you already created a form, select it from the dropdown.
- If not, click Create New Form and enter the details.
- Once all details are in place, click Create. You will then be provided with a form builder to create a simple form with up to 4 fields ingested from the CRM. After saving, return to the agent builder space where the form will be available for use.
- (Optional) Click Add instructions to include multiple steps.
- (Optional) Click Add another skill to define more functionalities.
- Click Create.
You will be redirected to the newly created voice agent page, where you can review, edit, and manage your agent and its skills.
Voice agent overview and settings
Once your voice agent is created, you can manage its configuration and performance from the voice agent overview page. Below is a guide to the available controls and sections:
Top controls
- Click the pencil icon
next to the voice agent name to edit it. - Version history icon
: View the agent’s version history and publishing activity. - Preview icon : Click the preview icon to test how the voice agent performs in real time.
- Settings icon
: Customize general and support settings:
- General
- Voice settings: Click the Filler words and phrases toggle to allow the bot to include natural pauses or fillers, especially during longer responses.
- Temperature control: Adjust the AI's response style. Lower values (closer to 0) make answers more focused and deterministic, while higher values (closer to 1) produce more creative and varied responses.
- General settings: Click the Automatic call recording toggle to record all voice agent interactions. Recordings follow your defined data retention policies.
- Privacy controls: To adjust PII settings, visit Contact Center privacy and Data Retention.
- Support
- Click the Categorical support scenario toggle to add predefined phrases that trigger immediate support for specific topics. Click Add phrase to define categories or situations that warrant escalation.
- Publish: Use the Publish button to make your latest agent updates live and available to users.
- After clicking the Publish button, the system automatically analyzes your agent configuration to detect common issues such as duplicate tools, conflicting instructions, ambiguous skill names, or unclear prompts. Detected issues are grouped by type with explanations and examples to help you resolve them.
- Click Retry to reanalyze the agent after making updates.
- Click Skip to publish the agent without resolving the recommended optimizations.
- If no issues are detected, click Publish to make your changes live.
Analytics
- View engagement metrics from the past 30 days, including:
- Engagement count
- Average interaction duration
- Escalated engagements
- Click View more for detailed reporting and trends.
Properties
Click the pencil icon to update:
- Greeting message
- Agent guidance
- Selected voice actor
Starter questions
Click Add question to create introductory questions that the agent will ask immediately after the greeting. These questions override all other greeting prompts.
Knowledge
- Click Add source to connect knowledge sources such as web URLs, documents, or custom articles.
- To remove a source, click the ellipsis icon
next to it and select Remove.
Skills
- Click Add skill to give your voice agent specific instructions for handling tasks.
- You can reference tools and variables to support more advanced or dynamic responses.
Channels
Click Add agent to channel to deploy your voice agent to specific voice channels, making it accessible to end users.
How to use and edit the voice agent template
Zoom provides ready-made voice agent templates with default conversation flows and pre-loaded knowledge base articles. You can easily customize each element to suit your specific use case.
- Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
- In the navigation menu, click AI Studio then Virtual Agents.
- Under the Agents tab, click Voice agent.
- In the pop-up window, select a Zoom Phone voice agent template that fits your needs.
- Customize the following:
- Agent name: Edit the voice agent name.
- Agent guidance: Edit the pre-defined guidance text or click Refine with AI assistant to generate guidance. You can include the agent's role, tasks, or specific instructions.
- Agent greeting: Customize the initial greeting message to callers.
- Voice actor: Select a voice actor that fits your brand’s tone.
- Knowledge base: Select an existing knowledge base or create a new one.
- Skill: Edit the skill name and the trigger description to define when the skill should be triggered.
- Instructions: Add more instructions or routing logic to handle specific scenarios:
- Zoom_phone_routing tool: Use the forward slash button (/) and click the Tool tab. Search for Zoom_phone_routing from the tool template. This built-in tool enables call transfers to the correct user, call queue, or shared line group. For example, if callers ask to speak with a nurse, you can route them to a shared line group assigned to the nursing team.
- Appointment_scheduling tool: Use the forward slash button (/) and click the Tool tab. Search for Appoinment_scheduling from the tool template. Use this built-in tool to integrate with Zoom Scheduler. Under Scheduler link, click Zoom Scheduler. This will open a new tab. Copy the desired scheduler URL and paste it in the Scheduler Link field.
- Custom API Call tool: Use the forward slash button (/) and create a new tool. This creates an API tool that checks caller information. For example, route known users to Line A and unknown users to Line B based on their phone number.
- Publish and connect your voice agent to the Zoom Phone.
Subprocessors
Voice agent uses artificial intelligence models from third parties, such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Eleven Labs for certain features.
Zoom requires its subprocessors to satisfy obligations substantially equivalent to those outlined in Zoom's Data Processing Agreement. Zoom's subprocessors are subject to security assessments on at least an annual basis as part of Zoom's third-party risk management program. Zoom's third-party risk management controls are assessed by independent audit firms in many of its security certifications and attestations, which are available to customers on Zoom's Trust Center.
These subprocessors may retain content used to provide the service for trust and safety purposes within the U.S. or EEA, as applicable, for up to 30 days, unless a longer retention period is required by applicable law.