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Conversational AI on the phone: eight examples, call by call
Definitions don't help much here. Calls do. Here are eight, each in a few sentences.
By the CosVoice team · · 6 minute read
What makes a call conversational
"We've nothing at 7:30. I could do 6:45 or 8:15." What the caller says next is the whole test. A phone menu can't answer that sentence. A script reader repeats the request. Conversational AI hears the offer, checks it against what it was asked to get, and says "8:15 works, is that inside?"
So that's the plain meaning: software that holds a spoken conversation, responds to what was said instead of what it expected, and finishes the job. The eight examples below are the kinds of call our line is built to handle. They're illustrations, not case studies. The assistant is called Lloyd, the owner is Graham, and everyone else is made up.
Four calls placed for someone
A booking. Graham wants a table for four on Friday at 7:30, and tells Lloyd anything up to 8:15 is fine. Lloyd rings the restaurant, says in one sentence who it is and who it's calling for, and asks for 7:30. The host offers 8:15. Lloyd takes it, gives Graham's name and a callback number, and reads the date, time and party size back before hanging up. There's a longer walk-through in how an AI books a restaurant table by phone.
A reschedule. Graham can't make his dentist appointment on Tuesday. Lloyd calls, gives the name and the existing slot, and asks what's free later in the week. The receptionist offers Thursday at 9 or Friday at 2. Graham said mornings, so Lloyd takes Thursday, and the summary records what was canceled and what replaced it.
A quote. Six fence panels came down in the wind. Lloyd rings a contractor, who asks how tall the fence is and whether the posts are concrete or timber. Lloyd has the height from Graham's instructions. It doesn't know about the posts, and says so instead of guessing. It asks for the quote by email, gives the line's own address, and notes that the contractor wants a photo, which is Graham's to send.
Hold, then connect. Graham needs a person at his airline, and asks to be put through once one answers. Lloyd works the phone menu and sits through the hold music. When an agent picks up, Lloyd says "one moment" and rings Graham's mobile, so he joins already talking to the right person. If he doesn't pick up, Lloyd apologizes to the agent and arranges a callback. More in let an AI wait on hold for you.
Two calls answered
A missed call. A tile supplier rings Graham back while he's on a roof. His mobile forwards the unanswered call, and Lloyd picks up as his assistant. It asks what the price came to, what's included, how long the price holds and when they could deliver. Graham climbs down to a written summary, marked as missed on his mobile.
A price at the front desk. A stranger rings Graham's plumbing line and asks what a water heater swap costs. Graham has pasted his rate card into the line's standing instructions and allowed it to quote. Lloyd gives the listed price for a standard tank and says what it covers. Then the caller asks about a tankless unit, which isn't on the card. Lloyd says it doesn't have that price, takes the details, and passes the question on.
One refusal
A card to hold the table. The restaurant wants card details to secure a table of eight. Lloyd says it can't give a card over the phone, and asks whether they can hold the table while Graham arranges the deposit himself. The host says until noon tomorrow. The booking comes back to Graham marked as needing him, with the deadline in it.
Is that a failed call? We'd say it's the rule working. An assistant that will read out a card number to whoever asks is one you can't leave alone with a phone. We've argued it at more length in should an AI ever give your card number over the phone?
One instruction from the owner
A call from the van. Graham rings his own line between jobs. "Call the supplier, tell them Thursday not Wednesday, and ask if the gray tiles are in." The call comes from his mobile, so the line treats it as an instruction, not as a caller to be screened.
Lloyd makes the call. The answer arrives in writing: Thursday is fine, the gray tiles are due next week. A text from the same mobile would have done the same job, which is handy when he's somewhere he can't talk.
What the eight have in common
Look at what's going on underneath, because it's the same in every one.
- It answers what was said. A counter-offer, an unexpected question, a request for a card. None of those was in the plan, and each got a sensible reply.
- It knows its limits in advance. "Up to 8:15" and "mornings" were given before the call, so nobody had to ring back to check.
- It admits what it doesn't know. The fence posts, the tankless price. A guess would have sounded smoother and been worse.
- It reports honestly. Confirmed, waitlisted, needs the owner, nobody reached. The outcome is whatever happened, not whatever sounds best.
- It leaves a written record. Every call ends with a summary, so the result doesn't depend on anyone's memory.
Where it still falls short
A fair list of examples should include the calls we wouldn't hand over. Anything where the caller is distressed and needs comfort more than answers. A long negotiation where reading the other person matters. Any call where the relationship is the point. A person does those better, and probably always will.
There are smaller limits too. The assistant only knows what it's been told, so a thin set of instructions produces a thin call. Voices differ: on our line some can be interrupted mid-sentence and stop to listen, while the clearest and quickest ones finish their sentence first. And a few people simply don't want to talk to software. When anyone asks, the line says it's an AI, and they can decide for themselves.
Hear one instead of reading about it
Written examples only go so far, because the thing being described is a voice. Our own line is answered by an AI agent called Lilly, on (949) 368-9902. Ask her something awkward. Interrupt her. Ask whether she's an AI.
If you'd sooner listen without having to talk, the demo page has recordings of full calls, including a table being booked and a plumber's call being taken.
Common questions
What is conversational AI, in plain words?
Software you can talk to the way you'd talk to a person. It listens, replies to what you said, copes when the conversation goes somewhere unplanned, and gets the task done. On the phone that means a voice that holds a normal call.
Is conversational AI the same as a phone menu?
No. A phone menu makes you pick from a list, and it can't handle anything that isn't on the list. Conversational AI lets the caller speak normally and responds to the content of what they said.
Can conversational AI make calls as well as answer them?
Some can, and ours does. It places calls on your instruction, such as bookings, appointments and callbacks to suppliers, and it answers the calls you can't take. It isn't a dialer for marketing calls.
Does the AI tell people it's an AI?
Ours introduces itself as an assistant and says it's an AI whenever anyone asks. It never claims to be a person.
Read next: How an AI phone call works, start to finish · AI voice agent vs phone menu · What an AI caller can and can't do
Hear it for yourself.
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