How Do You Dictate Goals to an AI Agent?
I probably would have only typed a sentence or two, especially with the fancy nails that I have on. But using voice mode, I got a lot done.
I tend to find that speaking into the microphone for one to two minutes gives my system enough information to start working.
Two ways to give an AI agent its goals: type or speak
As a best practice when setting up an agent similar to how we onboard a new hire, we need to give really good instructions, contacts, and access to systems. So what I typically do is I give my agent the persona. The next thing I'll tell my agent to do is, "Hey, these are the goals that I want you to achieve." Now, there's two ways that we can do this. We can type it all out or we can speak into it.
Hear this at 10:53 in the recording.
The goals dictated to the AI agent
My chief of staff agent, I'd like you to help me to stay on top of my quarterly goals. And my quarterly goals are to maintain great relationships with the Women Applying AI community. So I'd like to follow up on Slack messages, emails, and send useful information through Slack. Additionally, I want to be able to manage my calendar and not miss anything and not miss replying to critical emails at the end of day. I also want to ensure that you are, as my chief of staff agent, providing a dashboard so that I can visually see things that I need to take action on right away and things that maybe do that I've let slip through the cracks. Be proactive and make smart decisions. And also, I shouldn't have to say this, but I will be honest with me.
Hear this at 11:54 in the recording.
What the dictation produced
I just demonstrated with you how I use the dictate feature inside of the window. What I'd like you to do is do something similar. Tell your agent what you wanted to assist you on. What you now see on my screen is that the microphone actually translated into text.
Hear this at 12:52 in the recording.
What happens after you press the up arrow
What we'll do next is we're going to use the up arrow, which is the return enter feature. So what's going to happen next is our screen is going to change slightly. Do not be alarmed. This is a regular part of the build process.
What you'll see on your screen is that your agent starts to think. And you'll see that it actually dictates and transcribes what it's doing based on the instructions that you provided on my screen. If you're following along on my screen, my agent is now asking for input. It's provided multiple choice questions for me. I can select from those options, but if none of those fit, I can use option D, which is other, and I can type in my response. So if you have questions on your screen, I'd like you to go ahead and answer those questions and hit submit. Your agent will begin to think again.
Hear this at 16:45 in the recording.
Where this comes from
Every sentence above is Jacqueline V. Twillie's own, spoken live with Women Applying AI on October 7, 2026. The headings, questions, timestamps and links are the only additions. Filler words are cut, and a passage that skips a few seconds starts at the timestamp shown.
Build Your First AI Agent in One Hour: the full build, with the clips, the prompts and the transcript. This article's clip is Dictating the AI agent's goals, the live demo.
Related reading: What Is the Dictate Feature for an AI Agent?, What Are AI Agent Goals and Deliverables?, How to Build Your First AI Agent: A Single-Session Guide for Mid-Career Pros.
Frequently asked questions
What are the three rules for setting up an AI agent?
There are three rules that I like to follow as a best practice for setting up an AI agent. Number one, give the agent a persona. So for those of you who are building a chief of staff agent alongside us today, we're going to first tell our agent, you are my chief of staff agent. So we give our agents a persona. The next thing that we want to do is we want to tell the agent what its goals are. And this is for any agent, persona, goals, and deliverables.
How do I name my AI agent, and does the icon matter?
If you're looking at my screen, I've given my agent a name and this one has nothing to do with function. It's all about aesthetics. When I log into my dashboard, I come in to the icon section and select an emoji with color. Again, this has nothing to do with function. It just gives me a little bit of flair when I come onto the screen.
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