Set Up Your HighLevel Voice AI Agent

The AI Voice Agent and Voice AI Chat Widget are part of HighLevel's AI Employee feature, which needs to be toggled on at the Agency level before you can use it in your sub-account.

• Click the agency switcher at the top left of the sidebar and select Switch to Agency View.
• From Agency View, navigate to Settings > AI Employee in the left sidebar.
• Under Sub-Account Settings, find your sub-account in the list and toggle the Feature switch ON.
• Switch back to your sub-account using the agency switcher at the top left.

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If you don't see the AI Employee option in Agency Settings, it may need to be enabled at the agency company level first under Settings > Company > Basic Details > Features. Look for the AI Employee toggle and turn it on.

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Back in your sub-account, navigate to the AI Agents tab in the left sidebar, then select Voice AI > Agent List.

• Click + Create Agent at the top right.
• You'll be given the option to create from scratch or choose a prebuilt template from the Marketplace. For your first agent, we recommend creating from scratch so you fully understand how the configuration works.
• Give your agent a name that reflects its role — for example, "Sales Assistant" or "Front Desk Agent."

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Once your agent is created, you'll land in the agent configuration view. Start with the Agent Details section at the top:

• Agent Name: This is the internal name you'll see in the Agent List and when assigning the agent to a chat widget or phone number.
• Voice: Choose a voice from the available options. You can preview each one to find a tone and style that fits your brand.
• Language: Set the primary language for your agent.
• Agent's Initial Message: The first thing the agent says when a visitor opens the chat widget or when a caller connects. Write something conversational that matches your brand — for example: "Hi, thanks for reaching out! I can answer questions about our services or help you book a consultation. How can I help?" Scroll down after entering the LLM Model to enter the Initial Message, then test your Agent:

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The knowledge base is what keeps your AI Agent on message — it will only answer based on what you provide, staying 100% within your business guardrails. Before connecting it to the agent, you need to create the knowledge base and populate it with your business content.

From the agent configuration, go to Agent Goals and click Create New next to the Knowledge Base dropdown. You can also create a knowledge base separately from AI Agents > Knowledge Base in the top nav menu.

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You'll have several options for adding content to your knowledge base:

• Web Crawler: Enter your website URL and the crawler will automatically pull content from your pages. This is the fastest way to get started if your website already has detailed service descriptions, FAQs, and policies.
• Manual Entry: Add Q&A pairs, articles, or text blocks directly. Best for adding content that isn't on your website yet, like objection handling or internal policies.
• File Upload: Upload PDFs, documents, or other files containing your business information.

Prepare the following information about your business:

• FAQs: The questions your team fields most often — pricing, availability, service areas, process, timelines.
• Service Descriptions: What you offer, how it works, what's included.
• Policies: Cancellation terms, refund policies, booking requirements, business hours.
• Objection Handling: Common concerns prospects raise and how you'd address them.

💡 See inside our knowledge base setup

Our own knowledge base was created using the web crawler option to pull in knowledge from 27 URLs. You can view it here:

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With your knowledge base attached, configure what the agent should do — not just what it knows. The Agent Goals section defines the agent's behavior during conversations:

• Knowledge Base: Select the knowledge base you just created from the dropdown.
• Appointment Booking: Enable the agent to book appointments directly into your calendar. Select the calendar you want the agent to book into (you'll need at least one calendar configured in Calendars with a user assigned to it).
• Contact Field Collection: Define which fields the agent should collect during conversation — name, email, phone number, service interest, etc. These are saved automatically to the caller's CRM contact record.
• Call Transfer Rules: Set conditions under which the agent should transfer a caller to a live team member (requires a phone number — covered in Step 10).

Once you've configured the goals, click Save at the top right. Your agent is now fully configured and ready to be deployed.

Now let's create the widget that puts your agent on your website. Navigate to Sites > Chat Widget. If this is a fresh sub-account, you'll see a "Create your first chat widget" prompt.

• Click + New to create a new chat widget.
• From the widget type options, select Voice AI.
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• You'll be taken into the widget builder with four tabs: Style, Chat Window, Messaging, and Agent.
• Go to the Agent tab and select the agent you just created from the dropdown.
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• In the Voice AI Agent Name field, enter the name you want displayed to your visitors (for example: "Sales Assistant").
• Go to Chat Window to set your Title and toggle off Agency Branding for now.
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• Go to Style and choose Sticky.
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• Save your changes by clicking Save at top right.

Now let's get the chat widget embedded on some web pages. The example below embeds it into a sales funnel in the HighLevel Funnels section, but the embed code works on any website (if you have a HighLevel account).

• In the Chat Widget builder, click Get Code at top right beside the Save button.
• Copy the generated <script> tag.
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• Open any funnel you have already created or create a new one (Sites > Funnels). Navigate to the funnel's Settings.
• Find the Head Tracking Code section and paste the script tag into it.
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• Save your changes — the widget will now appear on every page of that funnel.

Time for the fun part. Open your funnel in a new browser tab.

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• Look for the chat widget icon in the bottom right corner of the page.
• Click it and grant your browser microphone permission when prompted.
• Try asking it a question from your knowledge base to verify it's responding with your content.

Before routing real traffic, run the agent through several conversation scenarios to make sure it handles everything well.

• Ask questions from your knowledge base: Verify it answers accurately with your content.
• Try curveball questions: Test what happens when visitors ask questions outside your knowledge base — it should gracefully offer to have someone follow up.
• Test the booking flow: Walk through a scenario where you'd want to book an appointment to confirm it flows through to your calendar.
• Check contact creation: After a test conversation, verify that a new contact was created in your CRM with the information the agent collected.

If you want your AI Voice Agent to handle incoming phone calls in addition to website chat, you'll need to assign it a phone number. For example, you may want to route unanswered calls to your AI voice agent rather than to a standard answering machine or expensive call center answering service. If you only need the website chat widget, you can skip this step.

Navigate to the Phone & Availability tab within your agent's settings:

• Assign a Phone Number: Choose one or more LC Phone or Twilio numbers from your sub-account. When these numbers are called, the AI Agent will answer.
• Set Business Hours: Define the days and times the agent should handle calls.
• Fallback Rules: Configure what happens after hours — route to voicemail, an alternate number, or a workflow.

If you assigned a phone number in Step 10, test the phone experience before going live:

• Quick Test: In the Phone & Availability step, use the Test Your Agent panel on the right side. Choose your call type, enter your phone number, and click Call Me to receive a test call.
• Live Test: Call the assigned number from your own phone. Ask it questions from your knowledge base, try some curveball questions, and test the booking flow.
• Edge Cases: Test what happens when callers ask questions outside your knowledge base, when they refuse to answer qualification questions, and when they call outside business hours.

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The real power of the AI Voice Agent comes when it feeds directly into your acquisition engine. During and after calls or chats, the agent can:

• Update Contact Fields: Automatically save collected information (name, email, service interest) to the caller's contact record in your CRM.
• Trigger Workflows: Initiate your pre-built follow-up workflows based on conversation content — for example, sending a confirmation email after booking.
• Transfer Calls: Route high-intent callers or escalations to a live team member under conditions you define (requires a phone number).
• Book Appointments: Schedule directly into the calendar you connected in Step 5.