AI voice agents · Autessa Phone & Texting
Outbound AI calls
Autessa Phone & Texting includes outbound AI calling: the Make Phone Call tool lets AI agents, workflows and scripts place real phone calls from your business numbers. A call can hold an AI conversation, play a recorded message and collect a key press, or ring your staff the moment the person answers.
The problem it solves
Follow-up calls are the first thing to slip
Confirming appointments, chasing a missed form or checking in after a visit are calls everyone means to make and few have time for. Outbound AI calls let an agent or a scheduled workflow make them on time, retry when nobody picks up, stay inside calling hours, and pull in a person when that is better.
What you get
- Three call modes: an AI conversation (the default), a recorded or spoken message with no AI, or a call that connects your staff once the person answers.
- The opening can be a fixed first line or a line the AI writes from a prompt for each person.
- Message calls can offer keypad options such as "Press 1 to confirm", and the key pressed is saved with the call.
- Choose what happens at a voicemail: leave a message (audio or text spoken aloud), hang up, or stay on the line.
- Retries on busy, no answer or failure, up to 5 attempts with a delay you set, and each retry shows up as a visible scheduled job.
- Calling hours make a call wait for the next allowed time, or fail, when it would land outside them.
- Answering machine detection on outgoing calls can be automatic, off, check who answered, or wait for the beep.
How it works
How does outbound ai calls work?
Add the tool
Create a Make Phone Call tool and give it to an agent, or call it from a workflow or script. Choose the number it calls from.
Choose the mode
AI conversation for a real back-and-forth, play a message for a quick notice with optional keypad answers, or connect to people to ring your staff when the call is answered.
Set the opening and voicemail behavior
Write the first line or a prompt for it, and decide whether to leave a voicemail, hang up or stay on the line when a machine answers.
Set retries and calling hours
Retry on busy, no answer or failure up to 5 times with a delay of 1 to 1,440 minutes, and set calling hours with wait or fail outside them.
Review the result
The tool confirms the call started. The call itself lands in your Phone calls table with its status, transcript and any keypad response, where a trigger can act on it.
Every option
Make Phone Call tool options
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Mode | AI conversation (default), play message, or connect to people. |
| Opening | A fixed first message, or a prompt the AI uses to write the first line. You can also skip the opening. |
| Keypad options | For message calls, choices like "1: Confirmed" saved as the keypad response, with an option to repeat the message. |
| Voicemail | Audio, or text spoken aloud, plus the behavior: leave a message, hang up or stay on. |
| Ring timeout | 5 to 120 seconds before the call counts as not answered. |
| Retry | On busy, no answer or failed calls, up to 5 attempts, with a delay of 1 to 1,440 minutes. |
| Calling hours | Allowed hours for the call, with WAIT or FAIL when outside them. |
| Conference participants | People to add to the call, for example staff in connect-to-people mode. |
| Call settings override | Per-call overrides of the number's call settings. |
| Answering machine detection | Automatic, don't check, check who answered, or wait for the beep, with a 2 to 60 second limit. |
Full reference: Phone & SMS tools reference on docs.autessa.com
Permissions
Who can do what?
| Who | Can |
|---|---|
| Tool builder | Create and configure Make Phone Call tools and give them to agents, workflows and scripts. |
| AI agent or workflow | Place calls with the tool from the number it is set to, within the tool's settings. |
| Company admin | Control which numbers exist and who can use them; calls are metered against your company's call minutes. |
AI on the line
What AI agents do here
In AI conversation mode the agent holds the whole call: it opens with your first line or one it writes, answers questions, uses its other tools, and ends the call when it is done. In message mode there is no AI at all, which suits simple confirmations.
Connected
How it connects to everything else
PHONE & TEXTING
Live-call tools
During an outbound AI call the agent can still transfer, take keypad input or hang up.
PHONE & TEXTING
Call and text data
Every outbound call lands in your Phone calls table, where triggers can follow up on the result.
AUTESSA PLATFORM
Workflows and automation
Schedule calls and run them from workflows, triggers and work queues.
FAQ
Questions about outbound ai calls
Can AI agents place outbound phone calls?
Yes. Give an agent the Make Phone Call tool and it can call people from your business number, either holding an AI conversation, playing a message, or ringing your staff once the person answers.
What happens if nobody answers?
You choose. The tool can retry on busy, no answer or failure up to 5 times with a delay you set, and when a voicemail answers it can leave a message, hang up or stay on the line.
Can a call collect a yes or no?
Yes. In play-message mode you can offer keypad options such as "Press 1 to confirm", and the key the person pressed is saved with the call.
Can calls avoid early mornings and late nights?
Yes. Set calling hours on the tool and choose whether a call outside them waits for the next allowed time or fails.
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