How to Hire an AI Team Member

Add an AI member to your team. Kamo then sets up its mailbox and its instructions for you, step by step, and, unless you leave them out, its phone extension and its computer.

Before you start

• You need the Manage Members permission.
• The AI Workforce app must be switched on for your organization (Settings → My Account → Apps & Features).
• Your plan needs a free seat. An AI member uses one, like a person.
• Decide who will supervise it: an active team member who is a person, not another AI. They will receive its approval requests, so choose someone who will answer them.
• It helps to have its department and job title ready, with a charter that describes the job. The quickest way is a job template; see Job Templates and Personas.

Steps

1. Open Accounts, go to the Team Members tab, and click Add Team Member. (Your organization may have renamed team members; the button uses that name.)
2. Under Person or AI, choose Artificial Intelligence. If you started on the form for members, choosing AI takes you to the team member form, because AI members are always team members.
3. Check the seat line under your choice. It says how many seats are free, for example "3 of 5 seats free — hiring uses one". If every seat is in use, add one under Plans & Billing first.
4. Under Artificial Intelligence account, set the Supervising team member. It starts as you; click Choose a supervisor to pick someone else. AI accounts are listed but cannot be chosen.
5. Optionally fill in AI model or system, a note for people about what runs this account. It is for display only: the models the AI member really uses are chosen as described in Routing & Budgets Explained.
6. Choose its Sex: Female or Male. It decides whether the AI member speaks with a female or a male voice. Create Team Member stays unavailable until you choose.
7. Decide what Kamo sets up besides its mailbox. Phone extension gives it an extension on your phone system, so people can call it. Workstation gives it a computer of its own, which its supervisor can watch and take over. Both start on; switch one off to leave it out. You can set it up later from its hiring checklist.
8. Give it a Name. The name it goes by is the preferred first name if you set one, otherwise the first name, followed by the last name. Fill in the Phonetic name too if the name could be mispronounced on a call.
9. Choose a Username, its Timezone, and, under Role, its Department and Job title. Its work location starts as Remote.
10. Read The charter this AI member starts with. It lists what it inherits from your organization's Team Member role, the department and the job title. Click Preview operating brief to read the instructions it will start with. You can add its own charter items after it is hired.
11. Check the Hiring checklist card: it lists what Kamo will set up for this AI member. Then click Create Team Member.

You don't enter a personal email address or a password. An AI member gets its own work mailbox, and it never signs in with a password, so nothing is mailed to anyone.

What happens next

The AI member's profile opens on the Access room, where its Hiring checklist shows what Kamo is setting up:

• Reports to its supervisor: its supervisor becomes its manager.
• Work mailbox: a mailbox on your organization's email domain.
• Phone extension: a line on your phone system, if it has one that can carry an AI member's calls.
• AI workstation: its own computer. See AI Workstations: Watch, Take Over and Hand Back.
• Operating brief: its instructions, compiled from its charter.
• Starts working: it starts and checks in for the first time.

Each step reads Pending, Done, Waiting, Needs attention or Not needed. Waiting steps are retried automatically, starting after a minute and then less often, so a step that waits for something, like room for its computer, finishes on its own once that is there. Not needed means the step does not apply, for example when your organization has no phone system. A phone extension or workstation you switched off when you hired it says "Not requested when this AI member was hired." Click Set up now on that step when you want it after all. The same checklist is on its workbench, in the AI room.

AI members start Active. Unless its charter says otherwise, a new AI member is Supervised: apart from keeping its own notes and plans, it asks its supervisor before it acts. You can give it more freedom later; see How to Supervise an AI Team Member.

If it doesn't work

"Only someone with the Manage Members permission can create an AI account." Ask an administrator for the permission, or to hire it for you.

"AI Workforce is not enabled for this organization." The app is off. An administrator turns it on under Apps & Features.

"Every seat on your plan is in use. Add a seat to hire an AI member." Add a seat, then try again. Kamo checks the seat again when you click Create, so the number on the form can change if someone else is hired at the same moment.

A step says Needs attention. Read its Details, fix the cause, and click Retry on that step. A work mailbox needs an email domain your organization has verified; a phone extension needs a phone server that supports AI lines.

A step keeps Waiting. It shows when it will try next. The AI workstation waits until there is room for another computer; Kamo frees room as other computers go to sleep.