What are AI Assistants?
AI Assistants are the core of Orato. Each assistant is a fully configured voice AI that can make phone calls, receive inbound calls, or be embedded as a voice widget on your website. You configure an assistant once and it handles unlimited simultaneous conversations. Every assistant shows an estimated cost per minute - typically ~0.09/min - covering Transcriber, LLM, Voice, Telephony, and Platform costs.
Creating an AI Assistant
From the AI Assistants page, click + Create Assistant. The creation flow has three steps.Step 1 - Setup: Name & Instructions

1
Enter a name and select a role
Give your assistant a name (this is what callers may hear) and choose a Role:
- Web Widget - embeds on your website as a floating voice button
- Phone - used for inbound or outbound phone calls
2
Use the AI Instruction Generator
Fill in two fields to auto-generate your instructions:
- “What does your business do?” - e.g.
We sell CRM software for real estate agents - “Call goal?” - e.g.
Qualify leads and book product demos
3
Review and refine the instructions
The generated prompt enforces voice-first rules automatically:
Step 2 - Personality: Voice & Messages

1
Choose your AI Brain (LLM)
Select the language model that powers your assistant’s responses:
- Anthropic
- Groq
- OpenAI
Claude models: nuanced, high-quality responses. Best for complex conversations that need careful reasoning.
2
Choose your Voice
Select how your assistant sounds on every call:
- Cartesia
- ElevenLabs
- Sarvam
sonic-2 and other models: low latency, natural voices. Recommended for most use cases. Click Preview to hear before selecting.
3
Set Opening and Closing Messages
Step 3 - Review: Confirm & Launch

Click Update Assistant to save. Your assistant is active immediately.
Managing your assistants
The AI Assistants page shows live stats across all your assistants:Next steps
Knowledge Base
Upload documents your assistant can reference during calls
Campaigns
Use your assistant in an outbound calling campaign
Phone Numbers
Buy a number to use your assistant for inbound calls
Developer
Embed your assistant on your website via the Web Widget
