Hire your first AI employee
Create a department, hire an agent, connect a model, brief it, and say hello - all in about 10 minutes.
Overview
By the end of this guide you'll have an AI employee that answers you in the app, knows what its job is, and is ready to be reached on WhatsApp. Here's the plan:
Create a department — the part of your business the agent works in.
Hire the agent — name it and let Opereo set up its private workspace.
Connect a model — sign in with your ChatGPT plan or paste an API key.
Say hello and brief it — chat, then write its job description.
Give it a phone — turn on WhatsApp so you can reach it from anywhere.
Estimated time: about 10 minutes, most of it waiting for the workspace to finish setting up.
Before you start
You need an Opereo AI account. Opereo is currently invite-only: sign up with an invite code or a personal invite link from someone already using it, or join the waitlist at opereo.ai/access.
The first time you sign in, Opereo asks you to create your organization — your company. Pick the company name; you can change it later in Settings.
Step 1: Create a department
A department is one part of your business, like Sales or Operations. Start with the one you'd hand off first.
On the Set up your first department screen, type a name or tap one of the suggestions: Sales, Operations, Customer support, Marketing, Finance, or Admin.
Optionally answer What does it handle? in a sentence, for example "Answers customer emails and books appointments." Your agents read this to understand where they work.
Click Create department.
Opereo takes a few seconds to get the office ready, then opens the department's canvas with the New employee panel already open.
Step 2: Hire the agent
Give the agent a name. A fun one is filled in for you; replace it with anything up to 64 characters.
Review the Agent hosting card. Founding members get a 30-day free trial on their first eligible workspace, with monthly or yearly billing afterwards. The trial length and price are shown right there. Hosting is all you pay Opereo for — you connect your own AI account in the next step.
Click Start free trial. If a card is required, you'll be taken to checkout and brought back to the department when you're done.
Back on the canvas, a card reads "{name} is moving in." Opereo is building the agent's private workspace. This usually takes a couple of minutes and the page updates on its own.
While you wait, a short tour points out the canvas, the sidebar, and the Get {name} working checklist. The checklist stays docked in the corner and ticks itself off as you go; you can hide it anytime and bring it back from your avatar menu with Show me around.
Clicking your agent during the tour opens chat and continues the guidance there automatically. You don't need to press Next after opening it.
Good time to prepare a Business Context Profile — one prompt you run in ChatGPT (or any AI that already knows your business) that produces a document every agent can read. See Give your agents business context.
Step 3: Connect a model
An agent can't answer until it has an AI model to think with. Opereo doesn't charge for AI usage — you bring your own.
On the checklist, click Connect a model. This opens the agent's models settings.
Click Connect ChatGPT on the Run on your ChatGPT plan banner.
A window opens where you sign in to ChatGPT. Follow the prompts; if the window shows a code, paste it back into Opereo where it says Paste the code from that window.
Sign in once and every agent on this workspace can run on your ChatGPT plan.
You can switch models anytime — from the models settings, or from the model pill next to the chat composer. See Models for advice on which one to pick.
Step 4: Say hello, then brief it
Click the agent's card on the canvas (or Say hello on the checklist). The chat opens.
Type something into Ask anything… and press Enter. Try "What can you do?" The reply streams in, and any tools the agent uses along the way are shown inline.
Now give it a job. Click the gear (Employee settings) or Tell it where it works on the checklist to open identity.
Write the job description in plain language: where it works, what it owns, how it should sound, and what it must never do. Click Save.
The agent reads its identity before every task, so this is the single most useful thing you'll write. Best practices has a template you can copy, and the Use cases section has complete briefs for common roles.
Have documents the agent should read? Open Files in the sidebar, upload them, then attach a file to a message with the paperclip. Agents only see a file when you attach it. See Files.
Step 5: Give it a phone
Opereo gives every agent a WhatsApp number. No WhatsApp Business account, no keys.
Open Employee settings → channels, or click Give it a phone on the checklist.
Under Ready to use, click Set up on the WhatsApp row.
Click Link a phone. You'll see a short code and the number to send it to.
Click Open in WhatsApp, or text the code to that number yourself from the phone that should talk to the agent.
Your phone appears in the Linked list within a few seconds. From now on, messages you send to that number reach this agent, and its replies come back the same way — with the same memory as the chat in the app.
You're done. Your first AI employee has a job, a brain, and a phone number. The rest of the checklist — connect an app, add a skill, put it on a schedule, hire the next one — is covered in the guides below.
Next steps
Give your agents business context
Generate a Business Context Profile once and hand it to every agent.
Use cases
Build a support agent, a CFO, a sales assistant — with prompts you can paste.
Best practices
Write a brief that works, pick the right first task, and review the results.
Automations
Schedule the weekly report, the morning digest, or the daily check-in.
Team
Invite teammates for free and decide who can change what.
How Opereo works
The handful of ideas behind Opereo AI, explained in plain language - company, departments, agents, models, and the canvas.
Give your agents business context
Run one prompt in the AI tool that already knows your business, and hand the resulting Business Context Profile to every AI employee you hire.