What is a business brief for an AI agent?
When you hire someone to answer the phone, you give them a sheet of the basics: when you are open, what things cost, what to say about parking, and who to call if something goes wrong. A business brief is that sheet, written for your AI agent. This guide explains what goes in one, how the agent uses it, and how to keep it accurate without turning it into a weekly chore.
In one sentence
A business brief is a short, structured summary of your business that your AI agent reads before it replies to a customer: your hours, what you sell, prices, common questions, tone and when to hand a chat to you. It is how the agent knows your facts instead of guessing them.
In more detail
An AI agent is very good at writing, and it knows nothing about your business until you tell it. Without a brief, it fills the gaps with what sounds likely. Sometimes that is right. Sometimes it invents a price, promises a delivery date or says you are open on a bank holiday. A brief closes those gaps with your own words.
The difference between a brief and a pile of notes is structure. A brief has set places for set things: one for opening hours, one for prices and links, one for the questions customers ask most, one for what the agent must never promise, and so on. That makes it easy to see what is missing, easy to change one part, and easy for the agent to find the right fact quickly.
In Spaces, the brief has eleven parts: business name, what you sell, hours, locations, prices and links, frequently asked questions with their answers, tone, languages, things never to promise, when to hand a chat to a person, and an urgent contact. You do not need to write an essay in any of them. A line or two each is usually enough, and a few clear answers beat a long page the agent has to wade through.
The brief lives in Spaces, not inside one chat app. That matters more than it sounds. If you use Claude on your laptop and an always-on agent on a server, both read the same brief. If you switch from one AI app to another next year, the brief comes with you. You write your facts once and every agent you connect works from them.
Your agent can write the brief for you. During setup it asks a handful of short questions in one message, takes your answers and saves them in your own words. Later, when something changes, you tell the agent in a sentence, such as "we close at 4 on Christmas Eve", and it updates just that part. Here is how a brief changes a real reply. Names and details are examples.
An example
| Who | Message |
|---|---|
| Customer (Priya, on Instagram) | Hi! Do you do gel nails on Sundays and how much is a full set? |
| AI agent with no brief (a guess) | Hi Priya! Yes, we are open 7 days a week. A full set of gel nails is around £30. Would you like to book? |
| AI agent with the brief | Hi Priya, we are closed on Sundays, sorry. A full gel set is £38 and takes about an hour. We have space on Saturday morning if that suits. You can book here: example.com/book |
The eleven parts of a business brief
| Part | What to put in it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Business name | The name customers know you by | Rosa's Nail Studio |
| What you sell | Your main products or services, in a sentence or two | Gel and acrylic nails, pedicures, nail art |
| Hours | Normal opening hours and anything unusual | Tue to Sat 10:00 to 18:00, closed Sun and Mon |
| Locations | Where you are, and anything about getting there | 12 High Street, Leeds. Free parking behind the shop |
| Prices and links | The prices you are happy to quote, and your booking or menu link | Full gel set £38. Book at example.com/book |
| Frequent questions | The questions you answer every week, each with your answer | Do you take walk-ins? Only if there is a gap; message first |
| Tone | How you sound | Friendly and short, first names, no emojis |
| Languages | Which languages the agent may answer in | English and Polish |
| Never promise | Things the agent must not say yes to | Refunds, same-day appointments, medical advice about nails |
| Hand over when | When a person should take the chat | Complaints, allergic reactions, group bookings over 4 |
| Urgent contact | Who to reach when something cannot wait | Rosa on 07000 000000 |
Names and details are examples. You do not have to fill every part on day one. The brief says which parts are still missing, so you and your agent can see the gaps and fill them over the first week.
A sample brief, written the way an owner would say it
This is the kind of brief that works well: short lines, real numbers and clear edges. Names and details are examples.
Business: Rosa's Nail Studio
What we sell: gel and acrylic nails, pedicures, simple nail art.
Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 18:00. Closed Sunday and Monday.
Location: 12 High Street, Leeds. Free parking behind the shop.
Prices and links:
- Full gel set £38 (about an hour)
- Gel infill £28
- Pedicure £32
- Book online: example.com/book
Questions:
- Walk-ins? Only if there is a gap. Ask them to message first.
- Deposit? £10 for bookings over £30, taken when booking online.
Tone: friendly, short, first names. No emojis.
Languages: English and Polish.
Never promise: refunds, same-day slots, anything about skin or nail health.
Hand over when: complaints, allergic reactions, groups of more than 4.
Urgent contact: Rosa, 07000 000000.Notice what is not there. There is no long history of the studio and no marketing copy. The agent does not need either to answer "how much is a full set?". Every line is something a customer might ask about or something the agent must not get wrong.
Common mistakes
- Writing prices as ranges you would never actually charge, such as "from £20". The agent will quote the range, and the customer will expect the low end.
- Leaving "never promise" empty. This is the part that stops the most expensive mistakes, so give it at least three lines.
- Putting temporary changes in and forgetting to take them out. A "closed until Monday" line still being there in March confuses everyone.
- Copying your whole website into the frequent questions. Pick the ten questions you really get and answer each in a sentence.
- Describing your tone with adjectives only. "Warm and professional" means different things to different people. Add one example sentence in your own voice.
- Giving the urgent contact as a general inbox nobody checks at weekends. Use a person who will actually answer.
Keeping it up to date
A brief is only as good as its newest line. The easiest habit is to tell your agent the moment something changes, in plain words. It can change one part, such as holiday hours or a new price, without touching the rest. Once a month, ask it to read the whole brief back to you and check it against what is true today.
- When a price changes, tell the agent the new price and the date it starts.
- Before a holiday, add the closed dates and what to tell customers, and add a reminder to take them out afterwards.
- When the same question comes up three times in a week, add it to the frequent questions with your answer.
- When the agent hands over a chat it could have answered, add the missing fact so it can answer next time.
- Once a month, ask the agent which parts of the brief are missing or look out of date.
Why it matters for your business
- Most wrong answers from an AI agent are missing facts, and the brief is where facts go.
- A clear "never promise" list stops the replies that cost money, such as refunds or dates you cannot meet.
- A clear "hand over when" list means the right chats reach you, and the rest are answered without you.
- Because the brief is stored once, every agent you connect gives the same answers.
- Changing one line is quicker than retraining anyone, so your replies stay current with very little effort.
How Spaces handles it
Every Spaces workspace has one business brief. When your agent first connects, Spaces' setup steps ask for the brief before anything else: the agent asks you its short questions in one message and saves your answers. The agent is told to read the brief before replying to a customer and to follow it.
The agent can read the brief, replace the whole thing from a fresh set of answers, or change only the parts you mention and leave the rest alone. Replacing is useful when you start again; changing one part is what you will use most weeks. Saving the brief needs the permission to manage accounts, so an agent you only allowed to read and reply cannot rewrite your facts.
Spaces does not connect to your booking system, shop or stock, so the brief holds what is true in general and your agent reaches anything live through its own tools, if you set that up. If you want to read replies before they go out while you are still tuning the brief, ask your AI agent to hold replies as drafts, and nothing goes out until you approve it.
In short
A business brief is the one page of facts and boundaries your AI agent reads before it answers anyone. Keep it short, use real numbers, fill in what it must never promise and when to hand over, and update it the day something changes.
FAQ
Is a business brief the same as a prompt?
Not quite. A prompt is whatever you type to an AI app in the moment. A brief is a saved, structured set of facts that every agent you connect reads before replying, so you do not have to repeat yourself in every chat.
How long should a business brief be?
Usually less than a page. A line or two in each part is enough for most small businesses. If a part is getting long, it is often a sign that some of it belongs in a link, such as a full price list on your website.
Do I have to write it myself?
No. Your AI agent asks you a few short questions in one message and saves the answers in your words. You can then read it back and correct anything it got wrong.
What happens if a part of the brief is empty?
The agent has less to go on for that topic, so it is more likely to say it will check or hand the chat to you. The brief also lists which parts are missing, so you can fill them in when you have a moment.
Can I have a different brief for each channel?
There is one brief per workspace, shared by every account and every agent. If you answer differently on LinkedIn than on WhatsApp, write that difference into the brief, for example in the tone part.
Can the agent change my brief without asking?
Only an agent you gave the permission to manage accounts can save changes. A good habit is to tell your agent in its notes to read changes back to you before saving them.
Does the brief know about today's bookings or stock?
No. The brief holds what is generally true, such as prices and hours. Live information like today's free slots comes from your own systems, which your agent can reach through its own tools if you set that up.
What should go in "never promise"?
Anything that costs you money or trust when it is wrong: refunds, discounts, exact delivery dates, same-day work, and any advice that needs a qualified person. If you would not want a new member of staff saying yes to it on their first day, put it here.