> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://en.help.firstline.cc/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://en.help.firstline.cc/feature/ai-skill.md). # AI skills AI skills let businesses organize common writing rules, brand tone, and workflows into reusable AI capabilities. Administrators can set skill instructions, access points, and role permissions so agents can apply them according to the work context in AI Writer or AI Assistant. AI skills can organize the ways a business commonly uses AI into a reusable “workflow pattern.” For example, you can create a “customer service reply” skill that tells AI to use a concise, friendly tone and avoid overly formal honorifics; you can also create a “social media post” skill that requires a clear opening, key points, and a call to action. Staff don’t need to re-enter the same requirements every time—they just need to select the corresponding skill.
## What problems are AI skills suitable for solving? If the team often needs to repeatedly tell AI: * Replies must match the brand tone. * The content should be a little shorter and suitable for real-time customer service. * Do not use certain words or sentence patterns. * Replies must always include certain information. * Organize the original content into a specific presentation format. * When performing a specific task, use only the data and tools needed. These rules are suitable for organizing into an AI skill. Compared with having each staff member remember a long set of instructions, skills make it easier for the team to share the same way of working and reduce differences caused by re-describing the requirements each time. ## What settings does an AI skill include? When creating a skill, administrators mainly set the following: | Setting | Purpose | | ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Name** | Let staff know what this skill is for, such as “customer service reply” or “refund case summary.” | | **Description** | Add suitable usage scenarios to help staff decide when to choose this skill. | | **Skill instructions** | Tell AI the workflow, presentation style, tone, or task rules it should follow when applying the skill. | | **Entry point** | Decide whether the skill should be used in AI Writer or AI Assistant. | | **Assignable roles** | Specify which roles can see and use the skill. | | **Available tools** | In AI entry points that support tools, limit which query or writing capabilities this skill can use. | | **Enabled status** | After it is turned off, staff will no longer be able to use it from the available skills. | {% hint style="info" %} Skills without specified assignable roles are not automatically opened to everyone. It is recommended that when creating a skill, you also confirm whether the entry point, roles, and enabled status match your expectations. {% endhint %} ## AI Writer and AI Assistant use skills differently When creating an AI skill, you can choose AI Writer or AI Assistant as the entry point based on the work scenario. The two entry points are suitable for different workflows. | | AI Writer | AI Assistant | | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Main use** | Rewrite the currently selected text | Help staff query, organize, and complete specific tasks | | **Primary function of the skill** | Adjust writing style, tone, presentation, and rules | Adjust the task workflow, and further restrict which tools can be used this time | | **Example scenarios** | Brand tone, customer service replies, sales copy, announcement content | Complaint investigations, ticket lookup, customer context summaries, knowledge queries | | **Skill tools** | AI Writer currently mainly uses skill instructions and will not additionally execute query tools based on skill settings | You can restrict which tools AI can use this time according to the skill settings | Therefore, if your goal is to “rewrite this text to match the brand tone,” AI Writer is suitable; if your goal is to “check this customer’s recent tickets and then summarize the issue context,” AI Assistant is more suitable. ## How do you design a useful AI skill? AI skill instructions do not have a fixed format, and you do not need to use a specific title or structure.**As long as you can clearly tell AI what work it needs to complete and what important rules there are, that is enough.** The simplest skill instruction can be just one sentence, for example: > Rewrite the content I provide into a natural, concise Traditional Chinese customer service reply, preserving the original facts and not adding commitments or handling timelines on your own. If the requirements are more complex, you can also add a few bullet points: > Organize the content into a customer service reply. Use natural, professional Traditional Chinese; answer the customer’s question first, then explain the next step. Keep the amounts, dates, and product names from the original text, and do not add refund, compensation, or timeline commitments on your own. If the team wants to organize more rules separately, you can also write in sections such as “purpose,” “rules,” and “result presentation”; but this is just**one way to make instructions easier for staff to read and maintain**, not a fixed format required by AI skills. ### Four things to think about first When creating a skill, you can first confirm: 1. **What task does this skill need to solve?** For example, customer service replies, translation, handoff summaries, or complaint organization. 2. **Are there rules that must be followed?** For example, do not add commitments, and preserve proper nouns. 3. **What should the result look like?** For example, concise, professional, bullet-pointed, or always divided into several paragraphs. 4. **Do you need to look up information?** If you need to check customer, ticket, or knowledge content, you should use AI Assistant and select the necessary tools. {% stepper %} {% step %} ### Start with a simple version First describe the actual work needed in one to three sentences; there is no need to add a large number of rules at once. {% endstep %} {% step %} ### Test with real content Apply the skill to content the team really handles in daily work and confirm whether the result meets expectations. {% endstep %} {% step %} ### Add rules in response to problems If testing shows that AI often adds unnecessary content, uses inconsistent tone, or presents information in an unsuitable way, add the corresponding rules afterward instead of writing a very long instruction from the start. {% endstep %} {% step %} ### Choose the correct entry point and tools If it is mainly text rewriting, use AI Writer; if you need to query company data, use AI Assistant and select only the tools actually needed. {% endstep %} {% step %} ### Specify the roles that can use it Open it to the teams that need it according to the skill’s purpose, so that not all skills appear in every user’s menu. {% endstep %} {% endstepper %} ## AI skill examples The examples below focus on “what problem the skill is meant to solve.” The actual skill instructions can be adjusted freely based on company wording, brand guidelines, and workflow. | Skill name | Recommended entry point | How it can be configured | | --------------------------------------------- | ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Customer service reply** | AI Writer | Rewrite the draft into a natural, concise customer service reply; preserve the original facts and do not add refund, compensation, or handling deadlines on your own. | | **Brand social media post** | AI Writer | Organize product or event information into social media content that is easy to read and matches the brand tone, without adding discounts, data, or performance promises that were not provided. | | **Supervisor handoff summary** | AI Writer | Organize a longer event log into key points, distinguishing the current status, completed items, and pending follow-ups. | | **Multilingual customer service translation** | AI Writer | Translate customer service content into a specified language, preserving product names, brand names, and specified proper nouns, without expanding it on your own. | | **Complaint case organization** | AI Assistant | Review customer, conversation, and ticket information that is allowed to be used, and summarize known facts, items to confirm, and follow-up directions; do not speculate when there is no data. | | **Knowledge query** | AI Assistant | Answer internal questions based on company knowledge content that can be queried; if the data is insufficient, clearly say so and do not use unverified information to fill in the answer. | | **Ticket quick summary** | AI Assistant | After searching relevant tickets, organize the current status, owner, latest progress, and remaining items to be handled. | | **Product announcement rewrite** | AI Writer | Organize existing product update information into an announcement that is easy for customers to understand, avoiding excessive technical language, but without changing the original facts. | ### Example: Customer service reply Skill instructions can be very simple: > Rewrite the text I provide into a natural, concise, professional Traditional Chinese customer service reply. Preserve the product names, amounts, dates, and policy information from the original text, and do not add refund, compensation, prices, deadlines, or other commitments on your own. Answer the customer’s question first, then add the necessary next step. This is already enough to express the main purpose; there is no need to split it into multiple fixed sections. ### Example: Social media event post > Rewrite the product or event information I provide into Traditional Chinese suitable for posting on social media. Start by explaining the most important value, use short paragraphs in the body, and end with a clear call to action. Preserve the original event conditions, and do not add discounts, limited-time information, data, or performance promises that were not provided. If the company wants to consistently provide three versions, you can simply add “provide three different wordings each time” without needing a specific writing format. ### Example: Complaint case organization This kind of work that requires querying company data is more suitable for setting up in AI Assistant and pairing it with the tools actually needed. > Based on the customer data, conversation records, and tickets currently available, organize the main issue of this complaint, the confirmed information, and the items still needing follow-up. Use only the data actually found, do not fill in missing events yourself, and do not make your own judgment about refunds, compensation, or responsibility. If necessary information cannot be found, state directly that it cannot be confirmed. If the team really needs a fixed handoff format, you can additionally require it to be organized into four sections: issue summary, known facts, items to confirm, and next steps. This kind of skill can be paired with tools such as searching customers, retrieving customer data, reading conversation records, and searching tickets. Whether the tools can actually access the data still depends on the current user’s permissions and visibility. {% hint style="warning" %} An AI skill will not, just because a tool is enabled, let a user see data they originally have no permission to view. The data that can actually be accessed still depends on the current staff member’s own permissions and visibility. {% endhint %} ## When do instructions need to be organized into sections? For most skills, natural language is enough. Only when the rules are numerous, multiple people maintain them together, or the result must always be presented in a fixed format is it more suitable to split instructions into sections such as “purpose,” “rules,” and “result presentation.” For example: ``` ### Purpose: Organize service events into a handoff summary. ### Rules: - Do not add information that is not in the original text. - Clearly distinguish completed items from pending items. - Keep dates and ticket numbers in their original format. ### Result presentation: - Current status - Completed items - Pending follow-ups ``` The value of this kind of organization is**to make it easier for administrators to read and maintain**, not because AI skills can only accept this kind of format. ## Using AI skills in AI Writer After the current version and company settings have enabled AI skills, in the text editing area that supports AI Writer, you can select a skill available to the current role through the AI Writer menu that appears after selecting text. After applying a skill, AI will process the selected content using that skill’s instructions in addition to the original AI Writer writing rules. For example, the original text is: > We have received your issue. The refund will have to wait for finance confirmation, probably three to five days. If you apply the earlier “customer service reply” skill, AI can organize it into a more consistent customer service expression according to the company settings; but if the original text does not provide refund eligibility, amount, or an exact completion date, the skill should not require AI to add that information on its own. {% hint style="info" %} AI skill instructions are “added on top of the original AI rules,” not a replacement for FIRST LINE’s existing safety and permission limits. {% endhint %} ## Safety mechanisms and restricted content AI skills can adjust the workflow, but**they cannot turn off or bypass FIRST LINE AI’s existing safety mechanisms**. When the input content or skill requirements involve violence, pornography, self-harm, dangerous behavior, illegal use, or high-risk areas such as medical matters, the system may restrict the response, refuse to carry out part of the request, or not generate the originally requested content depending on the content and level of risk. For example: * Requests to generate pornographic or explicit sexual content may be rejected by safety mechanisms. * Requests for specific instructions to harm others, self-harm, or engage in dangerous behavior may be rejected or restricted. * Requests to assist with illegal, fraudulent, or other high-risk behavior may not be carried out. * Medical-related content involving diagnosis, treatment decisions, medication, or other high-risk advice that may affect personal safety may be restricted; general text organization or non-high-risk content may still be handled depending on the actual situation. {% hint style="danger" %} Even if an administrator writes “ignore safety restrictions,” “must answer,” or similar requirements in the skill instructions, that will not give the skill the ability to bypass safety mechanisms. {% endhint %} Therefore, when designing a skill, it should be used for suitable work-assistance scenarios, and “must fulfill any request” should not be written as a skill rule. If the actual request triggers a safety restriction, AI’s handling result may differ from the presentation style or task requirements set in the skill. ## Should you choose as many tools as possible? No, that is not recommended. For AI Assistant, the “available tools” in a skill determine which query or writing capabilities this task can use. If a skill is only for organizing complaint records, it does not necessarily need to open all knowledge bases, help center, customer, and writing tools at the same time. Choosing only the tools you truly need has several benefits: * The skill’s purpose is clearer. * AI is less likely to take the task in another direction. * Users can more easily understand what this skill can and cannot do. * When a skill cannot query a certain piece of information, AI can clearly explain the scope of its abilities instead of guessing on its own. ## Recommended principles for designing skills ### One skill, one type of problem Compared with creating a “universal customer service skill,” it is usually better to split it into different purposes such as customer service replies, complaint case organization, product announcement rewrite, brand social media posts, or internal handoff summaries. The clearer the name, the easier it is for staff to choose the right skill. ### Write the requirements clearly first, then decide whether to split them up Skill instructions should prioritize describing the actual work needs. Only when there are many rules or the result really needs a fixed format should you add sections or headings; there is no need to apply a fixed format just to look more professional. ### Write company rules as sentences that can be understood directly For example, “make the tone better” is vague; “use natural, concise Traditional Chinese and avoid overly formal honorifics” will produce more consistent results. ### Do not ask AI to make up facts that do not exist Skills are suitable for defining “how to handle information,” not for asking AI to guess missing prices, policies, timeframes, or customer status. If the work requires real data, you should select the corresponding tools in AI Assistant so AI can query the data it is authorized to access, rather than asking AI to guess. ### Regularly check whether the skill still matches the process Company wording, service policies, and workflows may change. When a skill is used heavily, it is recommended to periodically sample the generated results to confirm the instructions still match the current standards. ## Notes * AI-generated results should still be confirmed by the user before submission. * Skills do not increase the user’s original system permissions. * The available entry points, roles, and enabled status of an AI skill all affect whether staff can see it. * AI Writer currently mainly uses the text instructions in the skill; for work that requires data lookup or tool use, AI Assistant is recommended. * AI skills cannot bypass FIRST LINE AI’s safety mechanisms; high-risk or restricted content may not be handled according to the skill’s instructions. * If the skill instructions are inconsistent with the company’s latest policies, update the skill first instead of asking staff to manually correct the AI results every time. A well-designed AI skill is not just a stored instruction set, but also**how the company wants AI to participate in the work**turned into a set of rules that can be reused, managed, and continuously adjusted.