AI that makes phone calls for you: what it can and can't do

Yes, it can ring the restaurant

An AI can make a phone call for you today. A real call, to a real business, on a normal phone line. You tell it what you want, it dials, has the conversation, and sends you a written summary of what was agreed. For everyday errands (a table, an appointment, a quote, a question about opening hours) it does the job well.

It can't do everything a person can, and a few things it could do, it shouldn't. It won't pay for anything, it won't pretend to be human, and it won't work its way down a list of strangers. Here's the honest version of both lists, so you know what to hand over and what to keep.

It can do these

These are the calls it's built for. They have something in common: a clear ask, and an answer that fits in a sentence or two.

• Book. A table, a haircut, a service slot for the car. It gives your name and a callback number, and reads the date and time back before hanging up.
• Reschedule or cancel. Moving your own dentist appointment from Tuesday to Thursday is a two-minute call that nobody wants to make.
• Ask. Is it in stock, are you open Sunday, do you take walk-ins, can we bring the dog.
• Wait on hold. It works the phone menu and sits through the music. When a person who can help picks up, it can ring your mobile and put you through.
• Take a quote. The price, what's included, how long the price holds, when they could start. All written down.
• Chase a callback. The contractor who said he'd ring on Thursday, and didn't.

It can't, or won't, do these

Some of these are limits of the technology. Most are rules, and we think they're the right ones.

• Pay. It never reads out a card number and never agrees to a charge. If the restaurant wants a deposit, that comes back to you.
• Pretend to be a person. It introduces itself as an assistant, and says it's an AI whenever anyone asks.
• Bulk dial. One call, for one reason, for one owner. It isn't a sales dialer and it doesn't work through lists.
• Give advice it has no business giving. Medical, legal, electrical safety, insurance claims. It takes the details and passes them on.
• Hold a text conversation with the business. Texts from the line to other people are limited for now, so anything that must arrive goes as a call or an email.
• Decide for you. A choice outside what you told it comes back as a question.

Why the second list is the reason to trust the first

You could read those limits as weaknesses. We'd argue the opposite. The reason you can hand a call to an assistant and go back to what you were doing is that the worst outcome is small. It can commit you to a booking. It can't commit you to a bill.

Same with honesty. A caller that admits what it is gets a straighter conversation, because people are more helpful when they know who they're dealing with. We go into that in should an AI say it's an AI on calls, and the rules our own line follows are on the trust page.

What a good brief looks like

The brief is what you tell it before the call, and it's the biggest difference between a call that works and one that comes back with a shrug. Here's a thin one: "Book the dentist." Which dentist? For whom, when, and what if they're full?

And a better one: "Ring my dentist and move my cleaning from Tuesday the 14th. Any weekday after 3pm in the next two weeks is fine. It's under Graham. If they've got nothing, ask to go on the cancellation list."

That took fifteen seconds longer to say. Four things in it are doing the work, and there's more detail in how to write a call brief.

• Who and what. The business, and the one thing you want from it.
• Your window. First choice, plus what else you'd accept. This is what lets it say yes to a counter-offer on the spot.
• The name. Whose booking it is.
• The fallback. Waitlist, callback, or leave it.

When the call doesn't go to plan

Calls go sideways. The place is closed, a machine picks up, the person says you have to book online. A decent assistant doesn't dress that up. Our line logs an honest outcome for every call: confirmed, an alternative confirmed, waitlisted, no availability, needs the owner, call back later, not reached. You read one line and know where you stand.

What it shouldn't do is improvise. If the salon offers a slot outside your window, it asks once for something closer, then takes the waitlist or comes back to you. It doesn't accept a 7am on your behalf because saying no felt rude.

Calls you should still make yourself

Some calls aren't errands. Ringing your mom. Telling a supplier of ten years that you're moving on. Anything where the call is the relationship and not the task, or where the other person deserves to hear it from you.

And anything with money changing hands, a contract, or a judgment only you can make. If you're not sure which kind of call you're looking at, ask whether you'd be happy for a colleague to make it for you. If you would, hand it over. If the idea makes you wince, pick up the phone.

Common questions

More on the basics

• What is an AI phone number, and how do you get one?
• How to give your AI agent its own phone number
• How an AI phone call actually works, from dial to summary
• AI phone agent, AI receptionist, voice assistant: what's the difference?