Workflow Tutorials
How to Auto-Answer Customer Questions with an AI Email Agent
This is a full FAQ agent build from scratch, with no cuts hiding anything. The distinguishing idea is where the answers come from: instead of letting a general model guess, Carly reads the last three months of your email, pulls out the questions customers actually ask and the answers you actually gave, and writes them into a single CSV. That file gets attached to the agent via file search, so every reply is grounded in your real support history. The build also scopes the agent down hard, switching off every tool then adding back only web search and file search, which is what makes it safe to hand out the address. Setup takes under two minutes and the same pattern works for employee handbook questions, vendor and invoicing questions, product manuals, contracts, and policy docs.
Step by step
- 01
Create a specialized agent
Open the Email Agents tab and choose Create specialized agent. Name it (the example uses Carly FAQ) and it gets its own email address immediately. That address is what you'll eventually hand out to anyone with product questions.
- 02
Scope the tools and permissions down
Switch off every tool, then add back only what this job needs: web search and file search. Per-agent scoping is the point: the agent can only reach the tools you grant and only read the documents you attach, so it can't wander into private data.
- 03
Turn your email history into a Q&A file
Have Carly read your last three months of email and pull the most common questions, along with the answers you actually gave, into one CSV. This is the step that makes the agent yours rather than generic; it's answering the way you already answer.
- 04
Attach the file via file search
Attach the CSV to the agent through file search. The agent queries that file to answer incoming questions, so replies come from your real support history instead of the model's best guess.
- 05
Write the instructions
Set the agent's name and tone, and tell it to say that a real human will come in to assist. That one line sets the right expectation with customers and keeps the agent from overpromising on anything it can't resolve.
- 06
Hand out the address
Give the agent's email address to anyone with product questions. The same setup works well beyond support: employee handbook questions, vendor and invoicing questions, product manuals, contracts, and policy docs all follow the identical pattern.
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