How do I get the AI to answer my phone?

Voice AI answers your phone number itself: it greets the caller, answers questions using what you have taught it, and hands off to a real person when the call needs one. It uses the same underlying AI as your chat and text conversations; this page only covers the call-specific settings.

Turn it on

1. Go to Calls, then Voice.
2. If you have not set up Voice AI yet, click Provision now.
3. Under AI assistant details, give it your business name and a short description of what you do. Callers hear the AI use this to answer accurately and to know when to escalate.
4. Check "Enable voice calling".
5. Click Save changes.

If you are switching over from a softphone that is currently answering this number, you are asked to confirm the switch first: your softphone stops ringing and the AI takes over instead. You can switch back any time.

Set the greeting and tone

Under Greeting & tone, write what the AI says when it picks up, for example "Thanks for calling Acme, how can I help you today?", and pick friendly, professional, or energetic. Tone changes how the AI's voice actually sounds, not just its wording.

Choose where calls transfer to

Under Transfer destination, pick either a regular phone number, a cell or landline that rings when the AI hands off, or your own softphone, if you have one set up. Leave this blank and the AI hangs up politely instead of transferring when it cannot help.

Type the whole number, with its area code. A number that is too short is not saved.

The texts we send you about a call, such as an appointment request, go to the number under Settings, then General, in the box called Text me when a customer needs a person. For new accounts it starts as the phone you signed up with, and you can change or clear it there. That is separate from the transfer destination above.

If you see Saved, but not live yet, your change is saved. Click Save again in a minute so your phone line picks it up.

Choose when it transfers

Under When to transfer, pick any combination of: when the caller asks for a person, when the issue is complex, for example a billing dispute or a complaint, and when the caller sounds frustrated or upset.

Choose what it can do mid-call

Under Tools the assistant can use, turn on any of: searching your knowledge base for answers, booking appointments, looking up an existing customer, and creating a support ticket.

"Book appointments" does two different things depending on how far you have got, and it is worth knowing which you will get. Once online booking is set up, the assistant reads out times you are genuinely free, books the one the caller picks, and reads the booked time back. Until then it takes the caller's name, number and the time they would like, files that as a callback request, and texts you about it, and one of your team rings them back to agree the time. It only ever tells a caller their appointment is booked when it really is, and if it cannot save either one it says so on the call rather than promising something nobody will do. Read Can my AI book appointments for customers? for the whole picture, including the other channels it books on.

"Look up an existing customer" is narrower than it sounds, and worth knowing before you switch it on. It finds the caller's first name from the number they're calling from, so the assistant can greet them by name. That's the only thing it gets back. A number showing on caller ID isn't proof of who's holding the handset, so the assistant never reads out account, order, invoice or appointment details on the strength of it. A caller who asks where their own job is up to is offered their private progress link instead, read How do my customers check where their job is?.

Once you are happy with the greeting, transfer destination, escalation triggers, and tools, click Save voice settings. All four sections save together with that one button.

Test it

Once it is provisioned, call your own number from your mobile to hear the live assistant. Do this before sending anyone else to it.

Turn it off

Click "Turn off Voice AI on this number". Nothing is deleted, and the number simply will not be answered until you turn Voice AI back on or attach a softphone instead.