AI voice agents · Autessa Phone & Texting
AI call answering
Autessa Phone & Texting includes AI call answering: you connect an AI voice agent or a multi-agent to any business number and it answers every call. It can take the whole line, or be one step in a call flow, for example only after hours or when a caller presses 2, right next to the people on your team.
The problem it solves
Calls arrive when nobody can pick up
Small teams miss calls at lunch, after hours and whenever everyone is already on the phone, and each missed call is a customer who may not try again. An AI voice agent on the number answers every one of them, knows who is calling, helps with what it can and hands off to a person or a voicemail when it should.
What you get
- A number can be answered directly by an AI agent, by a multi-agent, or by a tool, or it can send callers to an agent from any step in its call flow.
- Each number sets its own greeting for incoming calls, either a fixed line or a greeting the AI writes for each caller from a prompt you give it.
- The agent receives call details such as the caller's number and name as variables it can use in the conversation.
- Environment and prompt template variables can be set per number, so one agent can serve several numbers with different details.
- "People to add to incoming calls" lets you add a listener, such as a supervisor, to every call the agent answers.
- Business hours in the call flow can send callers to the AI only when you are closed, and to your team the rest of the time.
- Every AI call lands in your Phone calls table with its transcript, and its recording if you turned recording on.
How it works
How does ai call answering work?
Pick the number
Open Numbers & call flows in the Phone app and choose a number, or get a new one. Admins and people with write access to the number can change who answers it.
Choose who answers
Under Who answers, pick an agent or a multi-agent, or set up a call flow and add an AI agent as one of its destinations, for example after a keypad menu or outside business hours.
Set the greeting and variables
Write the greeting for incoming calls, or a prompt for a generated greeting, and fill in any variables the agent expects, such as a location name or hours.
Give it call tools
On the number's Call tools card, add the tools the agent needs on a live call, such as transfer, voicemail and hang up, then publish the agent.
Call it
Call the number from your own phone. The call shows up in Calls with the transcript, and you can adjust the agent and call settings and call again.
Every option
Settings for an AI-answered number
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Who answers | An AI agent, a multi-agent or a tool directly, or a call flow with AI agent and AI multi-agent destinations. |
| Greeting for incoming calls | A fixed greeting, or a prompt the AI uses to generate a greeting for each call. |
| Environment and prompt variables | Values passed to the agent for this number, so the same agent can answer several lines. |
| People to add to incoming calls | Phone numbers or browser phones added to every call the agent answers, for example a supervisor listening in. |
| Client display message | The text shown on a teammate's browser phone when they are added to the call. |
| Caller details | Built-in variables such as the caller's phone number and name are available to the agent during the call. |
| AI call behavior | Interruptions, reply timing, hang-up phrases, keypad entry and background noise reduction for the number. |
| Call limits | Maximum call minutes with a warning before the end, a silence timeout and prompt repeats. |
Full reference: Phone Numbers guide on docs.autessa.com
Permissions
Who can do what?
| Who | Can |
|---|---|
| Company admin | Set up numbers and call flows, change who answers, and edit call settings for every number. |
| Person with write access to the number | Change who answers, the greeting, variables, call tools and call settings for that number. |
| Person with read access | See the number, its settings and its recent calls, without changing anything. |
| Caller | Talk to the agent, press keys when asked, and be transferred or leave a voicemail if the agent offers it. |
AI on the line
What AI agents do here
The AI voice agent holds the conversation, uses the caller's number and name to personalize it, and calls its tools on the live call: transfer to a person, take a voicemail, record texting consent, look up the caller's recent calls, and end the call politely when the conversation is done.
Connected
How it connects to everything else
PHONE & TEXTING
Call flow builder
Put the AI after a greeting, a keypad menu or business hours, next to ringing people and voicemail.
PHONE & TEXTING
Live-call tools and transfers
The tools that let the agent transfer, take voicemails and hang up on the call it is on.
AUTESSA PLATFORM
AI agents
Build the voice agent itself: its instructions, knowledge, tools and voice.
FAQ
Questions about ai call answering
Can an AI agent answer my business phone number?
Yes. Connect an AI voice agent or multi-agent to the number directly, or make it a destination in the number's call flow. It answers every call that reaches it and can transfer, take a voicemail or end the call with its call tools.
Can the AI answer only after hours?
Yes. Set business hours in the call flow and choose the AI agent as the closed-hours destination. During open hours the same flow can ring your team instead.
Does the agent know who is calling?
It knows the caller's phone number, and the caller's name when it is available, as variables. With the caller info tool it can also look up their recent calls.
Can a person listen in on AI calls?
Yes. "People to add to incoming calls" adds a phone number or browser phone to every call the agent answers, for example a supervisor who wants to listen.
100% customizable, code and all
Make Autessa Phone & Texting fully your own.
Use it out of the box, then change anything. Ask Autobot, Autessa’s AI builder, for a new field, screen, report, workflow or agent and it builds it into your copy of the app. Or open the code and edit it yourself. Nothing is locked: the app, its data and its code are yours.
Start free and make it yours