Anna Neely from ElevenLabs describes how they developed a robust framework for testing and improving conversational AI agents, using their documentation assistant, El, as a case study. Their process involves establishing reliable evaluation criteria to monitor agent performance, focusing on criteria such as valid interactions, user satisfaction, and the agent's ability to solve user queries without hallucinating information. Once areas for improvement are identified, the Conversation Simulation API is employed to test these improvements through both full and partial conversation simulations. This structured testing approach, integrated with their CI/CD pipeline via ElevenLabs’ open APIs, allows for automated testing of updates, ensuring rapid iteration and preventing regressions. This methodology has significantly enhanced El's capabilities and provides a scalable framework applicable to other conversational agents.