Use the Voice and tone setting to shape how your InSite agent communicates with visitors. This setting does not change the facts your agent uses. It changes how those facts are delivered, including the level of formality, the wording, and the overall feel of each response.
A strong voice and tone description helps your agent sound like your brand, not a generic chatbot. You can find this setting on the Responses tab in the agent composer.
Quick Reference (Advanced Users) - Click to Expand
- Purpose: Controls how the agent sounds, not what source content it can access.
- Applies to: Responses generated from your knowledge source and response rules written as guidance.
- Does not apply to: Exact quoted responses in response rules.
- Best length: Usually 3 to 6 sentences.
- Best approach: Describe the style you want in positive, specific language.
What Voice and Tone Does
When your agent responds using information from your knowledge source, it relies on two things:
- The content available in your knowledge source
- The voice and tone guidance you define
Think of voice and tone as the style layer applied to every generated response. It influences word choice, sentence structure, level of formality, and how direct or conversational the agent sounds.
This means two agents can answer the same question correctly but sound very different depending on the voice and tone guidance each one has.
Response rules work a little differently:
- If a rule contains an exact response in quotation marks, the agent delivers that response as written.
- If a rule gives general guidance instead of exact wording, the agent generates a response using that guidance and your voice and tone setting.
In practice, this gives you flexibility. You can lock down wording when you need precision, and still let the agent sound consistent everywhere else.
What to Include in Your Voice and Tone Description
Write this setting like a short style brief for someone who understands good writing but knows nothing about your brand yet. The goal is to make your agent sound consistent across different questions and use cases.
A strong description usually includes:
- Overall character - Describe the personality behind the writing. For example: knowledgeable and approachable, confident and calm, or practical and direct.
- Formality level - Explain whether the tone should feel polished and professional, conversational and relaxed, or somewhere in between.
- Focus and priorities - Decide what matters most in the response style. For example: clarity, empathy, efficiency, reassurance, or expertise.
- Delivery style - Explain how the information should be presented. Should the agent lead with the answer, provide context first, or keep replies brief unless more detail is needed?
- Preferred language style - Describe the kind of language you want the agent to use, such as plain language, short sentences, or business-friendly wording that avoids unnecessary complexity.
Keep the guidance specific. Vague descriptions like friendly and professional do not give the agent much to work with. More detailed phrasing leads to more consistent results.
Example
Here is an example of a voice and tone description for a B2B technology company:
Our brand voice is clear, confident, and human. We communicate like a knowledgeable colleague who understands the complexity of our space and explains it in plain, accessible language. Responses should be concise and direct, leading with the most useful information first. We are warm but professional, treating every visitor as someone who values clarity and efficiency. When discussing technical topics, use everyday language and keep the focus on what the visitor needs to know.
This works well because it gives the agent practical direction. It defines personality, level of formality, priorities, and preferred writing style in a way the model can apply consistently.
Generate a Voice and Tone Description with AI
If you are not sure how to write this from scratch, use AI to analyze the writing already published on your website.
Start with one or two pages that reflect your brand at its best, such as:
- An About page
- A product overview page
- A well-written blog post
- A solutions or services page
Then ask an AI tool to describe the writing style it sees and turn that into a reusable style guide for your agent.
You can use a prompt like this:
I'm setting up an AI chat agent for my website and need a voice and tone description that will guide how it communicates with visitors. Please review the content at the following URL(s) and write a voice and tone description based on the writing style you observe. The description should cover: overall personality and character, formality level, communication priorities, delivery style, and preferred language style. Write it in a way that could be given directly to an AI as a style guide.
URLs: [paste your URLs here]
Keep the description to approximately 800 characters.
After you generate a draft, review it carefully. Remove anything that feels too generic, too formal, or not quite right for your brand. The best result is something your team would recognize immediately as “how we sound.”
Tips for Better Results
- Aim for 3 to 6 sentences. That is usually enough detail to guide the agent without making the instruction bloated or repetitive.
- Be specific. For example, conversational but polished, like a knowledgeable consultant answering a first question gives better direction than friendly and professional.
- Phrase guidance positively where possible. Instead of focusing on what the agent should not do, describe the style you want it to follow.
- Revisit this setting after reviewing conversation reports. If responses feel too stiff, too vague, or off-brand, refining voice and tone is often one of the fastest ways to improve them.
Voice and tone is not a one-time setup task. It is a practical tuning tool. Small changes here can make a noticeable difference in how natural and on-brand your agent feels.