AI in Inbound CX
An AI step that knows when to hand over.
One AI feature, placed as a step in your call flow. It talks with the caller from instructions you write, and sends the call to a person when it cannot help.
The AI assistant step Coming soon is built into the call flow builder and not switched on for any account yet.
- Callers are told it is automated, first
- Hands over when a caller asks for a person
- At most 12 exchanges a call
Three jobs for AI on a phone line
Where each one stands today. The third is built and stays off until an organization turns it on; the first is built and switched on for no account at all.
- Coming soon
AI assistant step
Talks with the caller inside your call flow, answers from the instructions you write, and hands over to a person when it cannot help.
Two ways out: Resolved, or Escalate to a human
- Coming soon
AI receptionist
Answering the first ring for your business and sending the caller on to the right person.
Today your call flow answers, with the greeting you recorded or wrote
Call summaries
A short written summary of a recorded call that was transcribed: what it was about, why the caller rang, whether the call ended positive, neutral, negative or mixed, a suggested outcome and any follow-ups, kept with the call for whoever looks it up next.
Pro and Business, once an administrator turns transcripts on
What happens when a call reaches the AI step
In order, with the limits the step enforces. There are no timings here, because no real call has gone through it yet.
- Every call
Your call flow answers
The call reaches the AI step the way it reaches any other step you drew.
- Always first
The caller is told
“Just so you know, you’re speaking with an automated assistant.” It cannot be edited or turned off.
- Optional
Your opening line
Yours, or “Hi, how can I help you today?” when you leave it blank.
- Up to 10 s a reply
It listens and answers
What the caller says becomes text and goes to Anthropic with the last few turns. A reply slower than 10 seconds goes to a person.
- At most 12 exchanges
Resolved or handed over
It ends as Resolved, or takes Escalate to a human: when the caller asks, when it cannot help, or at your limit.
Control
You decide what it may say and do
The limits are settings on the step, not promises inside its instructions. You set them once in each call flow that uses it.
- It follows the instructions you write for it
- It hands the call to a person when the caller asks for one
- It stops at the exchange limit you set, 12 at most
- Its only outside connection is to Anthropic, fixed in our code, and your own lookups still reach only addresses you approved
A language model can be confidently wrong. What it may never decide is set out in the AI disclosure.
AI assistant · settings
- Model
- Inbound CX Voice AI (fast) or (most capable)
- Instructions
- Written by you, required
- Opening line
- Optional, spoken after the disclosure
- Voice and language
- Chosen on the step
- Max exchanges
- 6 by default, up to 12
- Reply time limit
- 10 seconds, then a person
- Ways out
- Resolved · Escalate to a human
The AI assistant step is not switched on for anyone yet. When it is, every caller will hear that they are talking to an automated assistant before anything else, and anyone who asks for a person will get one.