The AI receptionist answers your phone when you can’t. It talks to callers, answers common questions, takes their details, and can book them in or pass the call to you.
What it can do #
- Answer calls straight away, or only when you don’t pick up.
- Answer questions about your services, area and opening hours, using what you have taught it.
- Take the caller’s name, phone, email and address and save them to the contact.
- Book an appointment in your calendar.
- Transfer the call to you or a team member.
- Send a text, start an automation, and send you a call summary afterwards.
Before you start #
- You need an Autopilot phone number. See How to get your Autopilot phone number.
- Write down what callers usually ask and how you want them answered. Better still, put it in a knowledge base first.
- AI calls use credits. See What AI costs and how it uses credits.
Steps #
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AI Agents → Voice AI
Click AI Agents in the left menu, then the Voice AI tab.
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Create Agent
Click + Create Agent. Choose a ready-made agent from the marketplace, or Create Custom Agent to start from scratch, then click Continue.
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Name, voice and greeting
Give the agent a name, choose a voice and language, and set your timezone. Write the welcome message, for example: “Hi, you’ve reached Smith Cleaning. I’m the assistant. How can I help?”
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Write its instructions
In the prompt, explain who it is, what it should find out, what it may answer, what it must never promise (for example prices), and when to pass the call to you. Tell it not to guess.
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Connect your knowledge base
In Knowledge Base, choose the knowledge base with your business information.
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Add actions
Open Actions and click + New Action. Common ones are Appointment Booking, Call Transfer, Update Contact Field and Send SMS. Save each one.
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Test it
Click Save, then use the test panel. A Web Call tests it in your browser; a Phone Call tests the real thing, including transfers.
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Deploy
Open the Deploy tab and choose your phone number. Under Call Routing, pick Answer Calls Directly or Use as Backup (it answers only when you don’t). Under Working Hours, choose All Hours or a Custom Schedule, then save.
Good to know #
- Use as Backup suits most small businesses: you answer when you can, and the AI picks up the rest.
- Call transfers do not work in a Web Call test. Use a Phone Call test to check them.
- Change one setting at a time and test again, so you know what made the difference.
- To stop the receptionist without deleting it, remove the phone number from it.
Troubleshooting #
If the receptionist doesn’t answer, check that the number is assigned to it, the working hours are right, and your call forwarding and timeout settings give it a chance to pick up.