Skip to content

introduction.mdx

Latest commit

 

History

History
219 lines (192 loc) · 6.5 KB

introduction.mdx

File metadata and controls

219 lines (192 loc) · 6.5 KB

title: Welcome guide subtitle: Build voice AI agents that can make and receive phone calls slug: quickstart/introduction

What is Vapi?

Vapi is the developer platform for building voice AI agents. We handle the complex infrastructure so you can focus on creating great voice experiences.

Voice agents allow you to:

  • Have natural conversations with users
  • Make and receive phone calls
  • Integrate with your existing systems and APIs
  • Handle complex workflows like appointment scheduling, customer support, and more

How voice agents work

Every Vapi assistant combines three core technologies:

Converts user speech into text that your agent can understand Processes the conversation and generates intelligent responses Converts your agent's responses back into natural speech

You have full control over each component, with dozens of providers and models to choose from; OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, and many, many more.

Two ways to build voice agents

Vapi offers two main primitives, designed for different use cases:

**Best for:** Most use cases and fast iteration
Assistants use a single system prompt plus tools and structured outputs. Perfect for: - Customer support - Lead qualification - Booking and routing
**Best for:** Multi-assistant setups with specialization
Squads orchestrate multiple assistants with context-preserving transfers. Ideal for: - Medical triage and scheduling - E‑commerce orders, returns, VIP - Property management routing

Key capabilities

  • Real-time conversations: Sub-600ms response times with natural turn-taking
  • Phone integration: Make and receive calls on any phone number
  • Web integration: Embed voice calls directly in your applications
  • Tool integration: Connect to your APIs, databases, and existing systems
  • Multi-assistant orchestration (Squads): Compose specialized assistants with seamless transfers

Choose your path

- Create a voice agent for inbound/outbound calls - Build customer support or sales automation - Get started with no coding required 
*Build your first voice agent in 5 minutes using our dashboard.*
- Add voice capabilities to your web application - Integrate voice chat into your existing product - Build with code and SDKs 
*Embed live voice conversations directly in your app.*

Developer tools

Vapi CLI

The Vapi CLI brings the full power of the platform to your terminal:

Install in seconds with: ```bash curl -sSL https://vapi.ai/install.sh | bash ``` Everything from the dashboard, now in your terminal.

Popular use cases

Built with Assistants
Automate inbound support calls with agents that can access your knowledge base and escalate to humans when needed.
Built with Assistants
Make outbound sales calls, qualify leads, and schedule appointments with sophisticated branching logic.
Built with Assistants
Handle booking requests, check availability, and confirm appointments with conditional routing.
Built with Squads
Emergency routing and appointment scheduling for healthcare.
Built with Squads
Order tracking, returns, and customer support workflows.
See our collection of examples covering a wide range of use cases.