What an AI can do on the phone today
A modern voice AI understands freely worded requests, with no menu or set keywords. It can give information on anything in its knowledge base: opening hours, address, services, indicative prices, terms, documents to bring. It qualifies the caller’s request by asking questions, just as a good receptionist would.
It can also take action: note a structured message with the caller’s contact details, book an appointment in the business’s calendar, or redirect the call to the right person. And it does so at any hour, including at night, at weekends and while the whole team is busy: precisely the moments when calls get lost.
What it can’t do (yet)
An AI only knows about your business what you have given it. Faced with a question outside its scope, the right response is not to make something up but to acknowledge the limit and offer a message or a transfer. Be wary of solutions that promise to handle everything without ever handing over.
Nor is it the right contact for sensitive situations: an unhappy customer who needs to be heard, a sales negotiation, a dispute. In those cases, its role is to spot the situation and quickly route the caller to a person, not to persist.
How a call with an AI unfolds
The caller dials your usual number. The AI answers, introduces itself, states that it is an artificial intelligence and that the call is recorded (two pieces of information the rules require it to give). Then it simply asks how it can help.
The caller explains what they need in their own words. The AI answers, asks clarifying questions if necessary, and closes with an action: an answer given, a message taken, an appointment booked or a transfer made. After the call, the business receives the transcript and a summary, so it can call back fully informed.
How to set it up in your business
Setting it up takes three steps. First, describe your business: services, opening hours, frequently asked questions, specific instructions. This is the material the AI will use to answer. Next, define the rules: when to transfer and to whom, what information to collect for a message, which slots to open for appointment booking.
Finally, connect the line: either the AI answers every call, or only unanswered or out-of-hours calls, as overflow for your team. This is exactly the path Alyas offers: it announces the AI and the recording at the start of the call, answers from your information, transcribes and summarises every call, transfers to a human and books appointments via Google Calendar or Cal.com, with a 10-day free trial so you can judge it on your own calls.
Frequently asked questions
Will my customers accept talking to an AI?
The alternative usually isn’t a person but voicemail or a phone ringing out. Faced with that choice, an AI that answers immediately, gives real information and offers a transfer or a callback goes down better than a lost call. Being transparent from the moment it picks up does a lot for acceptance.
Does the AI answer all my calls or only some?
Both set-ups exist. You can hand it the whole line, or only unanswered calls, overflow and closing hours, with the team in charge the rest of the time. Many businesses start with overflow before widening its role.
What happens to the content of my calls?
Each call produces a transcript and a summary sent to the business, which therefore keeps a record of every request. The caller is told about the recording and its purpose at the start of the call, as the GDPR requires, and the business sets how long this data is kept.