AI voice assistant: the phone rings and nobody misses it
An AI voice assistant is software that answers a business phone and replies from the business's own information. ALTAI Digital builds it to speak only from the sources you provide. When a question has no answer there, the assistant does not invent one; it passes the call to your team and a written summary goes with it. Callers are told plainly that they are speaking to an assistant. The first live flow opens in four to eight weeks.
The phone is the channel small businesses miss most. During service nobody can pick up, after closing the line sits idle, and callers rarely leave voicemail. What they ask is usually predictable: opening hours, the address, a price range, the next free appointment, how long a job takes. The answers exist in the business, but the person who has them is busy with someone else.
A voice assistant answers those calls. It understands what the caller says, replies only from the sources you provide and leads the call somewhere: it takes a booking request, leaves a message or passes the call to a person. The sources are your service list, opening hours, pricing policy and frequently asked questions. When a question has no answer there, the assistant does not guess.
Handover is part of the build. A call goes to a person in three cases: a question the sources cannot answer, a caller who asks for a person, and topics you list. Complaints, price negotiation and contracts sit on the default list. During the handover a written summary reaches your team, so whoever takes the call already knows the subject.
How the assistant speaks is your decision. You write or approve the greeting, and the voice and pace are chosen at setup. Callers are told they are speaking to an assistant, and the route to a person stays open. Calls are recorded only if you ask for it and the caller consents; the consent step is part of the build, in line with GDPR and UK rules. How calls reach the assistant is planned together, with your existing line.
What goes wrong today
- 01
Nobody can pick up at the busiest hour
During service or treatment there is no one free for the phone. The caller gives up after two attempts and rings the next business on the list. The missed call is not recorded anywhere.
- 02
The line is idle out of hours
Evening and weekend callers rarely leave voicemail. The next morning nobody knows who rang. For businesses that run on appointments, those are often the busiest enquiry hours.
- 03
The same questions break up the day
Address, opening hours, price ranges and availability come in all day. Each call takes minutes and interrupts real work. The questions repeat, yet nobody collects them.
- 04
No record of who called or why
Enquiries by phone are not written down. Nobody knows what each caller wanted or which call became a sale. When the same person rings again, the earlier conversation cannot be found.
- 05
Menus lose the caller
A keypad menu takes time and callers cannot find the right option. Someone with a question the menu does not cover simply hangs up, and that call leaves no trace.
- 06
Worry about a robot on the line
An assistant that gets facts wrong or hides what it is damages trust. That worry keeps many businesses away from the phone channel, and calls keep going unanswered.
Scope of the build
Answers only from your sources
The assistant is fed your service list, opening hours, pricing policy and FAQs. Answers come only from those sources. Where there is no match, the assistant passes the call on instead of inventing an answer. When a source changes, answers change the same day.
Handover in three cases
A call goes to your team for an unanswerable question, at the caller's request, or when a listed topic comes up. Complaints, price negotiation and contracts are on the default list, which we write with you.
A written summary at handover
As the call is passed on, a written summary of the conversation so far reaches your team. Whoever takes it starts informed, and the caller does not repeat themselves.
Bookings and enquiry records
The assistant takes booking requests and offers times that fit your calendar rules. The request is linked to the customer record, so what each caller wanted is written down and the outcome can be measured.
Greeting and voice
You write or approve the greeting. The assistant speaks with a natural synthetic voice, and the voice and pace are chosen at setup. Callers are told they are speaking to an assistant.
Recording and consent
Calls are recorded only if you want it and the caller consents; the consent step is part of the build. Even without a recording, the written summary stays in the customer record.
Monthly call report
Each month we report answered calls, the most common questions and the number of handovers. Gaps in the sources are listed and filled, and the busiest calling hours appear in the same report.
How the build runs
- 01
Discovery (1 week)
We map the questions arriving by phone and the calls being missed, gather your sources and write the handover list and greeting with you.
- 02
Sources and setup
Sources are organised, the assistant is connected to the line, and handover and booking flows are routed to your team.
- 03
Trial week
The assistant runs with your team first. Wrong or missing answers go back into the sources and handover rules are adjusted.
- 04
Launch and measure
The assistant takes live calls. After the first month we report answered calls, handovers and bookings. The first live flow opens in four to eight weeks.
Products used in this build
AI chatbot and voice receptionist
It greets customers on your site and on the phone, answers what it has a source for, and hands the rest to a person.
Request handling
Requests from five channels collect in one list, the draft reply arrives ready, and the decision to send stays with you.
Online booking and scheduling
Online booking for clinics, salons and hotels; reminders and cancellation handling close the empty slot.
Terms used on this page
- AI voice assistant
- Software that answers a business phone, replies from the business's own sources and passes calls it cannot answer to a person.
- Greeting
- The opening message that introduces the business and tells the caller they are speaking to an assistant.
- Handover list
- The written list of topics that always go to a person, such as complaints and contracts.
- Call summary
- The short written record of what was said, passed to the team when a call is handed over.
- Consent step
- The point in a call where the caller is asked to agree to recording, and that agreement is logged.
AI voice assistantFrequently asked questions
It speaks with a natural synthetic voice, and the greeting is the text you wrote. The voice and speaking pace are chosen during setup.
Yes. The greeting says so, and the route to a person stays open throughout the call. Hiding it costs trust.
The assistant speaks only from the sources you provide. Where there is no answer, it passes the call on instead of guessing. Gaps are listed in the monthly report so the sources can be completed.
In three cases: a question the sources cannot answer, a caller who asks for a person, and topics you list. Complaints, price negotiation and contracts are on the default list.
Only if you want recording and the caller consents; the consent step is part of the build. Without a recording, the written summary still reaches the customer record.
How calls reach the assistant is planned together at setup. You decide which calls go to the assistant and which go straight to your team; the technical side depends on your current line.
Yes. It offers times that fit your calendar rules and records the request. The approval flow follows your rules, so every booking can wait for a person if you prefer.
The first live flow opens in four to eight weeks. The timing depends on how ready your sources are, the handover flow and the calendar or CRM it connects to.
The process first, the proposal after
In a short discovery call we map the process together and tell you plainly whether it is worth automating. If it is not, we say that too.
30 minutes · no preparation needed
