Building Objectives

Structured goals your AI Avatar steers conversations toward. How to write them, when to use them vs the System Prompt, and how many is too many.

Home › Help Center › AI Avatars › Building Objectives

Objectives are structured goals your avatar steers conversations toward. Where Guardrails say "don't go there", Objectives say "make sure we get there." Think of them as soft tasks the persona quietly tries to accomplish during a chat.

Examples of objectives

Sales: "If the visitor mentions team size, ask whether they need 10+ seats."
Support: "When the user describes an issue, ask for the order number before troubleshooting."
Coaching: "After 3 turns of discussion, gently encourage the user to commit to one next step."
Lead capture: "Before the conversation ends, naturally ask if the visitor would like a follow-up email."

When to use objectives vs writing into the system prompt

You can write "always ask for an order number" into the System Prompt. So why use an Objective instead?

Objectives are individually tracked. The avatar knows which ones it has and hasn't completed in the current conversation, and quietly works toward the open ones.
Objectives can be reused. Define "qualify lead" once, attach it to 5 different sales personas. No copy-pasting language.
The avatar tracks completion automatically. As the conversation progresses, the avatar decides when an objective is complete and quietly moves on to the next open one.

Verbal vs visual modality

Verbal objectives — completed through conversation. "Ask the user what they're trying to solve." Most objectives are verbal.
Visual objectives — completed by the avatar visually noticing something on the visitor's camera. "Notice if the user is showing a product on camera." Rare; only useful for show-and-tell flows where visitors have their camera on.

How to write a good objective

Be specific about the trigger. "Ask for the order number when the user mentions an existing order." beats "Always know the order number." Be specific about the outcome. "Confirm the user wants to schedule a callback before ending the conversation." not "Make sure follow-ups happen." Keep them small. One sentence each. If an objective has 3 parts, split it into 3 objectives. Each persona can hold up to 20 objectives. In practice 3–6 is the sweet spot. More than that and the avatar starts feeling like it's working through a checklist instead of having a conversation.

How they interact with the System Prompt

Objectives don't override the prompt — they add on top. If your prompt says "speak only in formal English" and an objective says "casually ask for the visitor's name", the avatar will try to thread the needle and ask formally. Big conflicts between prompt and objectives confuse the avatar, so keep them aligned.

After your first few real conversations, look at which objectives the avatar completed and which it missed. Missed objectives almost always mean the wording was too vague — rewrite with a sharper trigger.