AI phone assistant
A voice assistant that picks up when nobody can: it greets, listens, recognises cold calls and scam attempts and gets rid of them, answers questions from your own documents, transfers to the right person when it is urgent — and sends a summary afterwards.
Status
A reference project, proven in two environments: on a phone system on the premises and on a fixed line. Built to run every day — but not an off-the-shelf solution.
The occasion
Every call costs time, and the wrong ones cost the most
Cold calls, surveys, alleged prizes, people claiming to be from your bank: a sizeable share of calls wants nothing you need. Pick up every time and the day disappears in pieces; do not pick up and you miss the customer who is calling right now.
A voicemail does not sort anything. It cannot say who is in charge, cannot look anything up, cannot ask a question back and cannot turn anyone away. An assistant that listens can do all four — and passes on what it does not know.
The approach
- Picks up on the phone that is already there — a system on site or your own line
- Sorts the call instead of merely recording it
- Answers only from your own documents
- Hands over to a person as soon as it stops being a matter of information
- Record, summary and a notification after every call
Rendering with sample dataThe overview: what happened on the phone today
The registration of the line, the day's calls, how each one was classified and a line per call with what was discussed. The language sits next to it, because the caller decides it, not a setting.
Rendering with sample dataOne call: transcript, summary, what was done
The same scam attempt as it really runs: pressure, urgency, the request for a simple "yes". Beside it stands what the assistant did — and what it pointedly did not do.
What it takes over
Six jobs somebody otherwise does by hand
All of it is built and proven in operation. What the assistant is allowed to do in a given call depends on the caller's role — see below.
Turning away cold calls
Anyone trying to sell does not get through. The assistant stays friendly but firm, points out that there is no consent for advertising calls and asks for the data to be deleted — then ends the call instead of being drawn into a pitch.
Spotting scam attempts
An alleged prize, an outstanding claim, a call from a bank or an authority: here the assistant confirms nothing, never says a bare "yes", gives out no details and refers the matter to the post. The call is marked as a suspected scam and reported.
Information for customers and prospects
An outside caller gets the basics: what there is, what it suits, who is in charge. The assistant first clarifies what the call is about and then looks it up — no prices, no internals, nothing about other customers.
An internal knowledge base
Your own documents as PDF, Word, text or Markdown, kept apart as released and internal. The search runs by keyword and by meaning at once, so a question phrased differently still finds the right paragraph. Answers come from there and nowhere else.
Transfer after asking
When it is urgent the assistant calls the person in charge, says briefly what it is about and only connects the two on a yes. Several numbers are tried one after the other; if nobody picks up, the call goes back into the conversation — not into nothing.
Message, summary, notification
Otherwise it takes the name, callback number and subject and repeats them for confirmation. After the call the transcript and a short summary with a classification are ready — important, normal, advertising, suspected scam — along with a notification.
The sequence
From the first second to the summary
Four steps per call. The third one decides whether the caller gets information, a person — or a polite ending.
- 01
Answer and classify
The assistant answers, says unprompted that it is an AI and points out that the call is being transcribed. The calling number shows whether this is a colleague, someone known or a stranger.
- 02
Listen and understand
It speaks at a normal pace, and you may interrupt it — it stops talking and listens. It recognises its own voice and does not get thrown off by it. It detects the caller's language from the sentence and stays with it.
- 03
Decide: information, a person or an ending
A question of fact: clarify, look up, answer. Urgent: ask the person in charge and transfer. Advertising or a scam: turn away and end. Every call has a time limit, announced before it is reached.
- 04
Wrap up
Message saved, transcript and summary filed, classification assigned, notification sent. Anyone looking it up later finds the call in the overview — with what was said.
The rights
Who is calling decides what may be said
That is not a matter of wording but of tools: each role has different ones available. What is not there cannot be used by mistake — giving a price to a stranger is not forbidden, it is impossible.
A stranger
Basic information from the released documents, taking a message, turning away advertising and scams. Names and whereabouts are not given out unprompted.
Someone known
Recognised by the calling number and greeted personally. When it is urgent, a transfer follows — after asking the person, through several numbers in turn.
From inside the company
Information including internals, notes to remember, transfers to colleagues. For authorised callers also appointments, reminder calls and a search of the web.
The rules
What is forbidden in a call
A phone assistant that sounds polite and occasionally makes something up is worse than a voicemail: the caller does not notice and acts on it. Hence a few rules that are not negotiable:
- Figures and commitments only from the stored documents
- If something is not in there, it is said out loud — not paraphrased
- On annoyance, uncertainty or request, a person immediately
- Callers are told unprompted that they are speaking to an AI
- A message is repeated back before it is saved
- To strangers: no names, no absences, no mobile numbers
What it is not
Not a switchboard and no substitute for sales. The assistant catches what would otherwise end up in the voicemail and passes on what needs a person. Where negotiation starts it is the wrong place — and it knows that.
Languages
It answers in the language it is called in
The assistant detects the language from the sentence, not from the calling number and not from a setting. If the caller switches mid-conversation it switches along — and every language has its own voice instead of a German one reading English sentences aloud.
- German, English and Russian are built and proven
- A separate voice per language, no accent carried over from the neighbouring one
- Product names, type designations and proper names stay unchanged
- The documents stay German — the content is rendered in the other language
- Further languages are a matter of setting up, not of rebuilding
For authorised callers
Appointments, reminder calls and a search of the web
Anyone who calls in and is recognised gets more than information: the assistant keeps a shared calendar, asks when it should remind you — and then really does call. If nobody picks up it tries again later and otherwise reports the appointment as missed.
- Create, review or delete an appointment during the call
- A reminder call at the agreed time, a second attempt half an hour later
- A notification when a reminder has reached nobody
- A web search for questions the documents do not cover
Setup and operation
What it takes
The assistant sits on the phone that is already there: as an extension on the system on site or directly on the line. Calls reach it through a forwarding rule, an overflow or an extension of its own — the telephony does not move.
- Connected via standard SIP, no new phone number needed
- Runs on a small machine on your own network or on a server of your own
- Your own documents as PDF, Word, text or Markdown
- An overview page for registration status, calls, summaries and appointments
- Restarts itself and reports when the registration on the line drops
- Notifications to your phone; messages as an email draft on request
Open
What is not solved yet
The assistant is on the phone every day, but it is not a finished product. What is missing is stated here — before the first conversation, not after it.
No ERP connection
Order status, delivery dates or customer data cannot be looked up. The place for it is provided for, the connection is not there.
Presence kept by hand
Who is in is maintained in the directory. Without a link to a calendar or a phone status the assistant occasionally transfers to someone who turns out not to be at their desk.
Concurrency has a price
How many calls run in parallel depends on the design. For an extension with an overflow very little is needed; for a switchboard in continuous operation it has to be calculated.
Records and duty to inform
Calls are transcribed and summarised. How callers are informed and how long the records are kept is the operator's decision — that belongs before use, not in the software.
Enquiry
Does this fit your phone?
It gets interesting when calls outside working hours are being lost, advertising and dubious calls cost time, and there are documents recurring questions can be answered from. Write what your phone is connected to and what the assistant should take over — whether it fits is usually settled quickly.
Price
from €30 a month
plus a one-off setup
What the monthly amount covers and what the setup costs depends on the phone system, on the extent of the documents and on what the assistant is to take over. We are glad to put together a quotation — without obligation, and with a figure that holds.
Final amount, no VAT charged under § 19 of the German VAT Act (UStG).