Call answering · Autessa AI Receptionist
AI call answering
Autessa AI Receptionist is an AI answering service for your main line: every call is picked up by an AI receptionist, day and night, that asks one short question at a time and ends each call itself. It finds out who is calling and why, answers simple questions about your company from your own documentation, and turns the call into a message your team can act on.
The problem it solves
Every missed call is a question nobody answered
A main line rings at the worst moments: in a meeting, at lunch, after hours. Voicemail gets skipped, and a receptionist cannot be at the desk all day. An AI receptionist answers every call the same calm way, finds out what the caller needs, and leaves your team a clear note instead of a missed-call notification.
What you get
- Every call to your main line goes straight to the AI receptionist, around the clock, with no business-hours gaps.
- The default greeting says plainly that the caller is talking to an AI receptionist: "Thank you for calling. I am an AI receptionist powered by Autessa. How can I help you today?"
- It asks only for what is missing, one question per turn: name, then company, then the reason for the call.
- Questions about your company are answered from a short company description and your documentation, in at most two spoken sentences.
- It never quotes pricing, discounts, timelines, roadmap, customer names or contract terms.
- Short filler lines like "One moment." play while it looks something up, so the caller never hears dead air.
- It closes with "Is there anything else I can help you with?" and hangs up itself after the goodbye.
How it works
How does ai call answering work?
The call comes in
Your main line sends every call straight to the receptionist. Before it speaks, it quietly looks up the number: is it blocked, have they called before, have they agreed to texts.
A short greeting and one question
The receptionist greets the caller and asks how it can help. If it still needs a name, a company or the reason, it asks for each one in turn, in a single short sentence.
It handles what it can
It answers a quick question about your company, offers to text a booking link, screens a request to be put through, or flags something urgent.
It records the call as a message
As soon as it knows the reason, it saves a message, so a caller who hangs up early still leaves a full note. Anything new at the end is added once more.
It wraps up cleanly
It asks if there is anything else, says goodbye and ends the call. After six minutes it offers to take a message once and then closes, unless a link was sent or the call was put through.
Every option
How every call is answered
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Answering | Every call to the main line goes to the AI receptionist, 24/7. There are no business hours on the line, by design. |
| Greeting | "Thank you for calling. I am an AI receptionist powered by Autessa. How can I help you today?" |
| Questions it asks | Name, company (if any), and what the call is regarding, one per turn and only when missing. |
| Company questions | Answered from a short company description, then from your documentation, in at most two spoken sentences. |
| Never discussed | Pricing, discounts, timelines, roadmap, customer names and contract terms. |
| Background noise | Noise suppression is on, and a vocabulary of your names and terms helps it hear them right. |
| Silence | After 20 seconds of silence it asks "Are you still there?" once. |
| Long calls | At six minutes it offers to take a message and wraps up. Calls end at 20 minutes, with a friendly warning a minute before. |
| Ending | It ends every call itself with a fixed goodbye line, so calls never hang open. |
Permissions
Who can do what?
| Who | Can |
|---|---|
| Callers | Talk to the receptionist, ask about your company, leave a message, ask to be put through, or get a booking link. |
| Anyone the app is shared with | Read every call and message the receptionist files. |
| Company admin | Run the setup check that keeps the line pointed at the receptionist, and run the self-test. |
What the AI does
How the receptionist handles it
The receptionist is an Autessa voice agent. It looks up the caller first, keeps every turn short, decides whether a call is a prospect, a customer, a vendor, spam or a wrong number, and calls a documentation agent when someone asks about your company. It never makes up an answer: if your docs do not cover it, it offers to take a message.
Connected
How it connects to everything else
AI RECEPTIONIST
Returning caller memory
The first thing the receptionist does on every call is look up who has called from this number before.
AI RECEPTIONIST
Message taking
Every answered call becomes a message with the caller's details and reason.
AUTESSA PRODUCT
Autessa Phone & Texting
The main line, its call settings and the browser phone your team takes transfers on.
Questions
Questions about ai call answering
Does the AI receptionist answer every call?
Yes. Every call to your main line goes to the receptionist, day and night. There are no business hours on the line, so nobody reaches a voicemail box.
Does it tell callers it is an AI?
Yes. The default greeting is "Thank you for calling. I am an AI receptionist powered by Autessa. How can I help you today?"
Can it answer questions about my company?
Yes, briefly. It answers from a short company description and your documentation, in at most two sentences. It never gives pricing, timelines, roadmap, customer names or contract terms, and offers a message when the docs do not cover the question.
What stops a call from going on forever?
The receptionist ends calls itself. After six minutes it offers to take a message and wraps up, after 20 seconds of silence it checks in once, and every call ends at 20 minutes.
100% customizable, code and all
Make Autessa AI Receptionist 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