AI Assistant (Preview)
Preview: the AI Assistant is in preview and available to invited partners only. Features, limits and pricing may change before general release.
The AI Assistant is a helper built into ToolbagCRM. By default it is named Gauge. You can type a question or call it and talk. It answers from your business's records, such as today's schedule or overdue invoices, and it can take a small number of actions after you approve them.
When to use it
Use the AI Assistant when you want a quick answer without clicking through several pages. For example:
- "What's on my schedule today?"
- "Which invoices are overdue?"
- "Give me my morning briefing."
- "Search help for sending an invoice."
The assistant can only see and do what you can. It follows each person's permissions, so a technician and an administrator may get different answers to the same question.
Where to find it
Select the floating assistant button at the bottom right of any page. A side panel opens. From the panel you can:
- Type a question and read the answer, or
- Call the assistant and talk to it out loud.
Before you start
- An administrator installs AI Assistant from Marketplace. It does not use a plugin slot on any plan, and it has no monthly fee.
- Usage is paid from your business's AI wallet. The minimum top-up is $20.
- An administrator can set a monthly AI spending cap in Settings → Wallet (Monthly AI spending cap ($); 0 means no cap).
- Each person's permissions decide what the assistant can see and do for them. If someone needs access to more records, change their role, not the assistant.
Who can use it
Set these in Settings → Roles & Permissions for a whole role, or in Settings → Team Access for one person. They are listed together under AI Assistant.
| Permission | What it allows | Administrator | Manager | Technician |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Use (chat) | Open the assistant and type to it | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Voice calls | Call the assistant | Yes | Yes | No |
| Customize own assistant | Choose their own name, personality, voice and picture, when the business lets each person choose | Yes | Yes | No |
| Review team transcripts | Read other people's assistant conversations and activity | Yes | Yes | No |
| Manage settings | Change the business-wide settings: approval rules, name, personality, voice, picture | Yes | No | No |
The table shows the defaults for the built-in roles. Everyone who can use the assistant can always see their own conversations.
If you remove someone's Voice calls permission while they are on a call, the assistant stops looking things up for them and the call ends within a few seconds.
Review team transcripts also decides who sees assistant entries in Company user activity log, and whether an account export from Export data includes assistant conversations and action records. People without it don't see those entries, and their exports leave them out.
Type to the assistant
- Open the assistant panel.
- Type your question and send it.
- Read the answer in the panel. Typed answers are text.
To change the subject, select New conversation in the panel.
The assistant uses your browser's time zone for "today" and for any times it gives you. If times look wrong, check your computer's or phone's time zone setting.
Call the assistant
- Open the assistant panel and press the large Call Gauge button (it shows your assistant's name).
- If your browser asks to use your microphone, allow it.
- A "Calling Gauge…" screen appears with a ring while the call connects. Select Cancel if you change your mind. Then the assistant greets you. Talk naturally, the way you would to a person in your office.
During a call:
- You can type as well as talk.
- The conversation appears as text while the assistant speaks, so you can read along. Each person's words stay together, and the call is saved to the same conversation as your typed messages.
- While the assistant looks something up, the panel shows Looking that up….
- You can select Mute voice replies to silence the assistant and keep reading its replies. Muting only silences this device; the call is still billed until you hang up.
- The call screen shows the assistant's picture, a call timer and a large Hang up button. You can hang up at any time; you'll hear a short hang-up tone.
A call ends on its own after 60 seconds of silence, or after 20 minutes.
The assistant's voice is AI-generated. A call needs a microphone and works in current versions of Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox.
What it can do
The assistant can look up the following, but only the parts you already have access to:
- your schedule,
- jobs,
- customers,
- invoices and overdue balances,
- your team,
- ToolbagCRM product updates,
- help articles, and
- a morning briefing that pulls these together.
It can also take actions for you. During the preview, the action it supports is cancelling appointments, one at a time or up to 10 in one request. It always shows you a preview of an action before it runs, and every action follows your business's approval rules (see below).
The assistant never makes up facts. When it doesn't know something, or can't find it in your records, it says so.
Ask about what's on your screen
The assistant knows which page you have open, in typed chat and on calls. When that page shows a customer, job, invoice or appointment, ask "Why is this invoice overdue?" or "When is this job scheduled?" and it reads that record for you. It only reads records you already have access to.
Open pages for you
Ask "Open Jane Doe's last invoice" or "Take me to my schedule" and the assistant opens the page. It can open a customer, job, invoice or appointment, a feature page such as your schedule, or the dashboard, Settings, AI Assistant settings or Help. It only opens pages you could open yourself.
Approvals and safety
Someone with Manage settings chooses how much the assistant can do without asking, on the AI Assistant settings page. There are three presets:
| Preset | What happens |
|---|---|
| Manual | The assistant asks before every action. |
| Auto low-risk (default) | Low-risk actions run automatically. Everything else asks first. Cancelling an appointment is a medium-risk action, so with this preset it asks first. |
| Auto dangerous | Every action runs without asking, including cancelling appointments. Whoever turns this on must tick the acknowledgement first. Requests covering several appointments still need confirming. |
They can also set a rule for each action: Follow preset, Always accept, Ask me or Always decline.
Bulk actions are always confirmed first. If a request could affect more than one appointment ("cancel all my appointments"), the assistant asks you for the scope (today, this week, this month or everything upcoming), reads back the list, and waits for your confirmation, even when automatic approval is on. One request can cover at most 10 appointments within 30 days; if there are more, the assistant asks you to narrow it down. In typed chat you can confirm by replying "yes" in a new message when cancelling is allowed to run without asking (its rule is Always accept, or the preset is Auto dangerous). Otherwise, and always during a call, you tap Approve on screen.
When an action needs approval, the request shows in the assistant panel and on the AI Assistant page under Waiting for your approval. Only the person who asked can approve their own request. A request expires after 10 minutes; ask the assistant again if you still need it.
To stop a mistake from spreading, the assistant sends only one cancellation request per message, and it won't cancel more than 10 appointments, or appointments more than 30 days apart, within a couple of minutes, even across several requests. On a call, it only acts once your words have been saved; if they weren't, it asks you to say the request again.
Name, personality, voice and avatar
These are on the AI Assistant settings page, which you can also open from Assistant settings in the assistant panel. Someone with Manage settings chooses, under Who chooses the assistant's name, personality and voice, between The business (one setup for everyone) and Each person (the business setup becomes the default, and each person with Customize own assistant can choose their own under Your assistant).
Name
The default name is Gauge. A name can be up to 30 characters, using letters, digits, spaces, apostrophes, hyphens or periods.
Personality
Choose a preset or write your own:
- Friendly (default)
- Professional
- Pirate
- Sarcastic
- Drill sergeant
- Southern charm
- Custom: describe the personality you want in up to 300 characters.
Personality changes the assistant's tone only. It never changes what the assistant is allowed to see or do.
Voice
Choose from 12 voices. Press the play button next to a voice to hear it. There are 10 English voices and 2 Brazilian Portuguese voices, which may suit Spanish speakers. Previews play in English or Spanish to match your app language.
Avatar
The assistant shows Gauge's picture by default. Select Upload a picture to use your own PNG, JPEG or WebP image under 10 MB. Square pictures work best, and it is shrunk automatically. Select Use the default picture to go back to Gauge.
Languages
The assistant understands and replies in English and Spanish.
Billing
All prices below apply during the preview and may change.
- Voice calls: $4.50 per hour of voice, billed by the second. That is 7.5¢ per minute. Every call is billed for at least 15 seconds (about 2¢).
- Lookups and typed questions: lookups the assistant runs during a call, and typed questions, are billed at the AI provider's cost plus 50%, with a minimum of 1¢ per step. A typical typed question costs 1–2¢.
- No monthly fee: the assistant does not use a plugin slot and has no monthly fee.
All charges come from your AI wallet (minimum top-up $20) and appear in the wallet's history. An administrator can set a monthly AI spending cap.
Nothing is charged when the wallet is empty. If the wallet runs out or the monthly cap is reached, a call ends politely and typed questions show a message asking you to top up.
Example costs
| Use | Approximate cost during the preview |
|---|---|
| A 5-minute call | About 38¢, plus a few cents of lookups |
| 20 typed questions | About 20–40¢ |
Privacy and conduct
- Conversations, both typed questions and spoken call transcripts, are saved for safety and quality, along with the page that was open, every action the assistant takes, and the exact message that asked for it and confirmed it. Open them from the AI Assistant page under Activity and transcripts. Everyone sees their own; people with Review team transcripts see everyone's. ToolbagCRM support can review them when helping you. Support must give a reason each time, and every view is recorded.
- A conversation is kept for 13 months after its last message, and each action record for 24 months, then deleted automatically.
- The assistant is made by ToolbagCRM and works for your business, and ToolbagCRM's conduct rules come before any setting or request. Whatever personality it has, it stays calm and brief when people are rude or frustrated. It refuses sexual content or harassment once, and if it continues, it hangs up a call or stops responding in typed chat except to refuse.
- It never shares one person's data with someone who doesn't have access to it.
Connect AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude
Connecting an outside AI tool, such as ChatGPT or Claude, isn't available from the app yet. When it is, the tool will have the same permissions as the person who connected it, and every action will still follow your business's approval rules.
Tips
- Start with questions before actions. Asking "Which invoices are overdue?" is a safe way to learn how the assistant answers.
- Keep the default Auto low-risk preset until your team is comfortable with how the assistant previews actions.
- Set a monthly AI spending cap before rolling the assistant out to your whole team.
- If an answer looks wrong, check the record itself before acting on it.
Troubleshooting
My microphone is blocked
Your browser is blocking the microphone for ToolbagCRM. Open your browser's site settings for ToolbagCRM, allow the microphone, then reload the page and press Call Gauge (or your assistant's name) again.
I can't hear the assistant
Check that the assistant's voice isn't muted in the panel, then check your device's volume and sound output.
I don't see the Call button, or the assistant at all
The assistant needs the Use (chat) permission, and calls need Voice calls as well. Ask an administrator to check your permissions under AI Assistant.
It says "Voice isn't available right now"
Wait a moment and try the call again. If the message keeps appearing, contact ToolbagCRM support.
My call ended or I see a top-up message
Your AI wallet is empty, or your business has reached its monthly AI spending cap. Ask an administrator to add funds or raise the cap.
The assistant says it can't access something
The assistant can only see what your role allows. Ask an administrator to check your permissions for that area.
It says "No microphone was found"
Connect a microphone or headset, check that your device can see it, then try the call again.
The assistant asks me to say my request again
On a call, the assistant only cancels appointments once your words are saved. Repeat the request, or type it in the panel.
The assistant won't cancel any more appointments
One request covers at most 10 appointments within 30 days, and only one cancellation request is sent per message. Within a couple of minutes it won't go past 10 appointments, or past 30 days, across several requests. Narrow the request (for example, "today" instead of "this month"), or wait a couple of minutes and ask again.
My approval request expired
Requests expire after 10 minutes. Ask the assistant again.