Universal Chat in Pencil: A New Way to Work with Agents
Pencil’s Universal Chat experience brings the power and flexibility of ChatGPT-style interaction into the Pencil platform - allowing you to move effortlessly between creative tasks and agents, all within a single conversation.
What is Universal Chat?
Universal Chat is a new interface on the Pencil homepage that allows you to start and continue natural-language conversations for any creative task. Instead of selecting tools or agents from menus and starting each task in isolation, you can now:
Start a conversation from the homepage with any goal or idea
Seamlessly switch between different agents (e.g. Blog Copy, Image Generation)
Stay in the same conversation thread as you move across tasks and through the platform
Save and return to chats, all of which will be listed on the left hand side of your workspace
Why It Matters
Previously, using Pencil meant moving between different editors - Text, Image, and Video, selecting an appropriate model, and using iterative one-way prompting to generate content.
The introduction of Agents which, with their natural-language chat interface, and task-specific training, made them more like teammates or colleagues and enabled you to use them in a modular fashion, restructuring the creative process.
With Universal Chat, that structure is still present behind the scenes, but you don't have to think about it if you don't want to. For example, you can:
Start broad (e.g. “I need a marketing email for a product launch”) and let the chat interface guide you
Switch between agents seamlessly within the same chat and as such,
Chain creative tasks (e.g. generate email > generate matching image > adjust copy) within one flow
Return to saved chats and pick up exactly where you left off
Demo and explore agents more fluidly - great for pitching or for new users.
Where to Find Universal Chat
You’ll see the Universal Chat interface right on the Pencil homepage after you login. It appears as a prompt box under “What do you want to create?”
Once you have started a chat, it will automatically appear on the left hand panel under 'Chats' and your thread will remain accessible. You can click the three dots on the right of the chat to rename it:
As you switch between tasks and/or agents (e.g. from Audience Personas to Email Copy), the main interface will change accordingly but the the conversation stays connected on the left hand side.
You can save and revisit any chat from the left sidebar at any time.
Each agent will still perform as expected - it may still ask questions and gather required inputs, ensuring high quality results.
You are not locked into one editor or more - you move naturally, just like a conversation.
Tips for Using Universal Chat
Start with plain language – e.g. “Help me write a product launch email”
Use the agent switcher if you want guided help (e.g. Image Generation, Email Copy)
Return to threads to continue or iterate later
Use saved chats to organise work by project or campaign
Brand Library Settings
By default, all Universal Chat sessions reference your brand library, meaning your Knowledge and Tone settings are submitted alongside every prompt to help generate on-brand outputs.
You can control this at any point during a chat via the Reference brand library settings toggle in the Settings panel. It is on by default, but can be turned off if you want more neutral outputs for a particular prompt or session.
Note: changing this setting after a prompt has already been submitted will not affect the response currently being generated. The setting is applied at the moment the prompt is sent.
Sharing Chats with Your Workspace
Your chats are private by default, but you can choose to share any Universal Chat with other members of your workspace. For step-by-step instructions, see How to Share a Chat.
Once shared, workspace members can view the conversation in read-only mode; they can see the full thread, including any future messages you add, but cannot edit or contribute to it. Shared chats will also appear under the "Public Chats" section in the left sidebar.
Note: Be mindful not to include personal or sensitive information in chats you intend to share.