Meet Captain: How to Configure Your Personalized AI Assistant

Q: What are Captain's "Tools"?

These are tools that allow Captain to perform actions. Native tools are functionalities integrated into Papo, such as scheduling an event in Google Calendar. Custom tools allow developers to connect Captain to external systems via HTTP calls (API), enabling the AI to check an order status in an e-commerce store or register a lead in an external CRM, for example.

Captain is Papo's (https://papo.global/) customizable artificial intelligence assistant, designed to automate responses and tasks across your customer service channels. You can train it with your company's specific knowledge base, including documents, FAQs, and action scenarios, so it can answer customers, qualify leads, and assist your team with accurate and contextual information, 24 hours a day.

With Captain, you transform your customer service, leaving repetitive responses to automation and freeing your agents to focus on complex and strategic cases. It functions as a central brain that can be connected to various inboxes, such as WhatsApp, Instagram, or your website's chat, ensuring consistency and agility in communication.

Knowledge Type	Description	Use Cases
Documents	Files (PDF, DOCX, TXT) with detailed information, such as manuals, privacy policies, or product catalogs.	Answer complex questions about a product's technical specifications by consulting its manual.
FAQs	A list of direct questions and answers for common queries.	Provide quick answers about operating hours, payment methods, or return policy.
Scenarios (Handoffs)	Specific instructions for what the AI should do in certain situations, such as transferring to a human.	When a customer says "I want to speak to an agent," Captain executes the handoff action to the team.
Tools	Actions the assistant can perform, such as scheduling meetings or querying external systems via API.	A customer asks to schedule a demo, and Captain checks the calendar and books the time.

How Captain Works?

Captain operates based on a knowledge base that you build and manage. Instead of using generic internet responses, it exclusively consults the sources you provide. This ensures that the information is always aligned with your company's policies and data.

The process is simple: when a customer sends a message, Captain analyzes it and searches for the most relevant answer within its trained "brain." It can combine information from a PDF document with an FAQ response to formulate a complete and cohesive explanation. If the question requires an action, such as transferring the service, it activates the corresponding scenario.

Training Your Captain Assistant: Step-by-Step

Configuring your Captain assistant involves feeding it the necessary knowledge so it can act autonomously and efficiently.

Create Your Assistant: The first step is to create a new assistant on the Papo platform. You can give it a name and description, defining its identity and purpose. It's possible to have multiple assistants for different areas of the company, such as one for sales and another for support.
Feed with Documents: Use Papo's File Center to upload important documents: technical manuals, commercial policies, catalogs, terms of service, etc. After uploading, you link these files to your Captain's knowledge base. The AI will then use the content of these documents to answer questions.
Add Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Register a list of questions and answers for your customers' most common queries. This creates a shortcut for quick and direct responses. The platform can also suggest new FAQs based on customer questions that the assistant couldn't answer, allowing you to continuously improve the knowledge base.
Configure Action Scenarios (Handoffs): Define rules and instructions for specific situations. The most common scenario is "handoff," where you instruct Captain to transfer the conversation to a human agent if the customer requests it or if the topic is too complex.
Enable Tools: Captain can go beyond answering questions. You can enable native "tools," such as integration with Google Calendar to schedule meetings, or configure "custom tools" via HTTP so the assistant can query or send data to your own systems (ERPs, CRMs, etc.).
Link to an Inbox: With the assistant trained, the final step is to activate it on one or more channels. You can link your Captain to a WhatsApp inbox, Instagram, your website's chat, or any other channel connected to Papo. From that moment on, it will begin interacting with customers on that channel.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the difference between training with Documents and with FAQs?

Documents are ideal for broad and detailed knowledge, where the AI needs to read and interpret context to formulate a response, like a 50-page manual. FAQs are for direct and objective answers to specific questions, such as "What is the store's address?". Using both makes the assistant more robust.

What happens if Captain doesn't know the answer?

You configure the default behavior for this situation. The best practice is to create a "handoff" scenario that automatically transfers the conversation to a human agent, ensuring the customer never goes unanswered.

Can I have more than one Captain assistant?

Yes. The Papo platform allows you to create and manage multiple assistants. You can have a Captain specialized in sales, with knowledge about products and prices, and another focused on technical support, trained with manuals and troubleshooting guides.

Does Captain work on all channels (WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.)?

Yes. Captain is a central intelligence that can be activated in any inbox configured in your Papo account. Simply link the desired assistant to the inbox of the corresponding channel (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, website chat, etc.).

What are pending FAQ suggestions?

It's a continuous improvement feature. When Captain receives a question it cannot answer with the current knowledge base, the system can record that question as a "pending FAQ suggestion." An administrator can then review these suggestions, create the correct answer, and approve it, making the assistant's knowledge base increasingly comprehensive.

What are Captain's "Tools"?

These are tools that allow Captain to perform actions. Native tools are functionalities integrated into Papo, such as scheduling an event in Google Calendar. Custom tools allow developers to connect Captain to external systems via HTTP calls (API), enabling the AI to check an order status in an e-commerce store or register a lead in an external CRM, for example.