Starter kit: How to create an AI virtual assistant

Unlock lifelike, interactive AI virtual assistants with Tavus’s Conversational Video Interface—combining digital personas and replicas for seamless, humanlike video conversations.

Picture logging into your favorite productivity app and being greeted by a digital assistant that not only understands your words, but also responds with natural expressions, gestures, and a voice tailored to your preferences. This isn’t science fiction—it’s the power of Tavus’s Conversational Video Interface (CVI). By combining advanced AI personas with hyper-realistic digital replicas, Tavus delivers truly humanlike AI virtual assistants. Whether you need a sales coach, healthcare consultant, or customer service agent, CVI enables your AI virtual assistant to see, hear, and respond just like a real person, transforming everyday interactions into engaging, productive conversations.

Understanding AI virtual assistants: The basics

An AI virtual assistant is your always-on, ultra-smart digital helper. They can chat, answer questions, and automate tasks using artificial intelligence. Think of it as a digital butler, learning your habits and preferences to make your life easier.

AI virtual assistants matter because they:

• Handle repetitive tasks like scheduling meetings
• Are available 24/7
• Reduce overwhelm by managing small details
• Drive business outcomes in sales, customer service, and training

There are several types:

• Consumer assistants (e.g., Siri, Alexa): Manage reminders, play music
• Business assistants: Handle emails, meetings, and customer queries
• Specialized assistants: Serve as sales coaches, health advisors, or customer service agents

Start by identifying your needs—this helps you select the right AI virtual assistant for the job. Begin exploring which tasks you’d like to offload to maximize your productivity.

The tech behind the magic: How AI virtual assistants work

AI virtual assistants use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand and respond to human language. NLP enables your assistant to listen, interpret, and reply in a way that feels natural—like having a conversation with a real person.

Modern AI virtual assistants connect to:

• Calendars
• Email
• CRM tools
• Other business software

This connectivity allows them to schedule meetings, retrieve customer information, and send reminders—acting as a universal remote for your digital life.

Personalization is key. AI virtual assistants learn your preferences over time, adapting their responses and style to suit you. The more you interact, the smarter and more helpful your assistant becomes.

With Tavus’s CVI, these capabilities are supercharged. CVI’s modular pipeline includes:

• Perception: Captures user input (voice, facial cues)
• Speech-to-Text (STT): Transcribes spoken language
• Large Language Model (LLM): Understands context and generates responses
• Text-to-Speech (TTS): Delivers lifelike, expressive audio replies

This seamless integration ensures your AI virtual assistant is not just smart, but also deeply engaging and responsive. Start integrating these technologies to elevate your assistant’s capabilities and user experience.

Making it yours: Personas and replicas

A persona defines your AI virtual assistant’s personality, tone, and expertise. It determines how friendly, formal, or technical your assistant sounds, and what knowledge they bring to each interaction. Think of it as the character your assistant plays—whether that’s a confident sales expert or a calm healthcare advisor.

Personas matter because they:

• Set the tone for every conversation
• Make your assistant relatable and humanlike
• Align your assistant with your brand and audience

A replica is the visual embodiment of your AI virtual assistant—a digital human face that appears on video or in chat. With Tavus, you can select from a vast library of hyper-realistic digital humans, customizing the look and style to match your brand and audience.

The right combination of persona and replica builds trust and engagement, making your assistant feel like a true member of your team. Start experimenting with different personas and replicas to find the perfect fit for your needs.

Designing your AI virtual assistant persona

With Tavus, you have the flexibility to define your AI virtual assistant’s tone, expertise, and style. You can:

• Choose the assistant’s demeanor (friendly, formal, playful)
• Set their knowledge base (what they know and can help with)
• Match their style to your brand or audience

This customization ensures your AI virtual assistant resonates with users and fits seamlessly into your workflow. Think of it as building your own action figure—select the outfit, catchphrases, and special skills.

A well-designed persona can make users feel understood and valued, and it helps your assistant integrate smoothly into your organization. Take the time to craft a persona that reflects your goals and audience for maximum impact.

Step-by-step: Creating your AI virtual assistant persona

1. Access the Tavus Persona Builder

Log in to the Tavus Developer Portal and navigate to the Persona section.

2. Choose a persona template or start from scratch

Select from pre-built templates like AI Interviewer, Sales Coach, or Customer Service Agent—or create a new persona tailored to your needs.

3. Configure core settings

• Name: Give your persona a memorable name (e.g., “Ava the Sales Coach”).
• Role/Description: Define the assistant’s purpose (e.g., “Helps users qualify leads and improve sales skills”).
• Tone: Choose the communication style (e.g., friendly, formal, technical).
• Knowledge Base: Specify what your assistant should know (e.g., product details, FAQs, industry best practices).
• Behavioral Traits: Set attributes like patience, humor, or assertiveness.

4. Adjust advanced options

• Turn-taking: Configure how the assistant manages conversation flow.
• Speech Recognition: Fine-tune how it listens and responds to voice input.
• Language Support: Enable multilingual capabilities if needed.

5. Preview and test

Use the built-in preview to interact with your persona and ensure it behaves as expected.

6. Save and deploy

Finalize your persona and deploy it to your application or website.

Example configurations:

• Sales Coach Persona: Confident, persuasive, knowledgeable about sales techniques, uses motivational language.
• Healthcare Consultant Persona: Calm, empathetic, focuses on general health advice, avoids medical jargon.
• Customer Service Agent Persona: Patient, clear, solution-oriented, familiar with product troubleshooting.

Start by defining your assistant’s core purpose and personality, then iterate based on user feedback to create a truly engaging AI virtual assistant experience.

Exploring what’s possible

AI virtual assistants can revolutionize productivity, teamwork, and customer experiences across industries. Use cases include:

• Automating repetitive tasks like scheduling and data entry
• Offering instant, personalized support
• Guiding customers through buying decisions or troubleshooting
• Assisting with onboarding, training, or FAQs

Industry-specific examples:

• Healthcare: Virtual health coaches, appointment schedulers
• Sales: Lead qualifiers, demo guides
• Education: Personalized tutors, interactive lesson guides
• HR: Onboarding buddies, benefits explainers

Mix and match personas for different touchpoints—deploy a friendly helper for new customers and a technical expert for advanced users. Start brainstorming how an AI virtual assistant could transform your workflow or customer journey.

Bringing it all together: Real-world possibilities

With Tavus’s Conversational Video Interface, you can create AI virtual assistants that not only automate tasks but also deliver rich, humanlike interactions. The combination of persona and replica—powered by modular perception, STT, LLM, and TTS layers—enables your assistant to see, hear, and respond in real time, with utterance-to-utterance latency under one second.

Whether you’re looking to boost sales, support customers, or streamline internal processes, Tavus gives you the tools to build AI virtual assistants that fit your brand and goals. Start by imagining your ideal helper, then use Tavus’s persona and replica tools to bring that vision to life.

Next steps: Build your AI virtual assistant today

• Identify the tasks or roles where an AI virtual assistant could add the most value.
• Use Tavus’s Persona Builder to design a persona that matches your needs.
• Select or customize a replica to give your assistant a lifelike presence.
• Integrate your assistant into your workflow using Tavus’s CVI pipeline.
• Gather feedback and iterate—refine your persona and replica for even better results.

The world of AI virtual assistants is ready for you to explore—one persona at a time. Start building, experimenting, and transforming your digital experiences with Tavus today.

Getting started with Tavus

Ready to dive in? Here’s how to get started with your own AI virtual assistant using Tavus:

• Create your Tavus account to unlock access to all development tools.
• Explore the Persona Builder and CVI features to start designing your AI virtual assistant.
• Experiment with different personas and replicas to see what works best for your needs.
• Try out the Conversational Video Interface in your workflow and see the impact firsthand.

Jump in and start building your next-generation AI virtual assistant with Tavus—The Human Computing Company.