Custom AI agent or off-the-shelf platform?

An off-the-shelf platform provides a generic agent that the company configures with text and rules within the product's limits. A custom agent is designed for the company's process and integrated with its systems. Off-the-shelf is faster and cheaper for simple cases; custom pays off when the agent needs to act in the CRM and follow the company's own rules.

Both options use similar language models under the hood. What changes is how much of your process fits into them.

Differences side by side

The criteria that matter most in a sales operation:

Custom AI agent or off-the-shelf platform
Criterion	Off-the-shelf platform	Custom agent
Time to go live	Short	Longer, because of design and integration
Business rules	Whatever the product allows	The company's own, written for it
CRM and ERP integration	The ones the product already offers	The ones the operation needs
Maintenance	The vendor's	The partner's or the in-house team's
When it pays off	Simple customer service and low volume	Qualification, scheduling and actions in the CRM

Signs an off-the-shelf platform isn't enough

The agent needs to read and write CRM data during the conversation
Qualification has criteria that vary by product, region or channel
The handoff to the sales rep depends on a routing rule
The team has already worked around the tool's limits with spreadsheets or manual work

How Nexo applies it

Nexo deploys agents on CRPRO, the CRM for WhatsApp it develops itself. Because the product is its own, the agent follows the operation's rules and acts inside the CRM, instead of being limited to what a third-party platform allows.

Frequently asked questions

Does a custom agent require training a proprietary model?

No. It uses existing language models; what's custom are the rules, the knowledge base and the integrations.

Can I start on an off-the-shelf platform and migrate later?

Yes. Keep the conversations and the written rules; they're the main input for designing the custom agent.

Does your agent need to act in the CRM, or just reply?

The NEXO SCORE assessment helps you decide what your operation needs.

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