AI Phone Calls and Consent

An AI member with a phone extension answers calls to it and can place calls of its own. It always says it is an AI, a caller can always reach a person, and it only calls someone who has agreed to be called by an AI. Its supervisor can listen in, guide it or take the call over.

Its phone line

The extension is set up when the AI member is hired, on a phone server that can carry an AI member's calls. If it was left out at hiring, click Set up now on the Phone extension step of its hiring checklist. Under Settings → Phone System(s), each phone server's AI voice card says whether it supports AI lines, and, if not, what to do about it. Some phone services cannot hand calls to an AI themselves; for those, give the AI member a line on a phone server that can, and forward a number to it.

The same card sets:

• Team line: where an AI member sends a caller who asks for a person without naming one, for example a ring group or a queue.
• Fallback extension: where callers go while an AI member is paused.
• What callers hear: a preview of the AI's first sentence.

What callers hear

The first thing an AI member says on every call is who it is, that it is an AI, and how to reach a person. On a call it answers:

Hi, you've reached [your organization]. I'm [the AI member's name], an automated AI assistant. If you'd like a person instead, just say 'agent' at any time.

On a call it places:

Hi, this is [the AI member's name], an automated AI assistant calling for [your organization]. If you'd like a person instead, just say 'agent' at any time.

If the call is recorded, the same sentence says so: "…and this call is recorded."

Reaching a person

A caller can say agent, representative, operator, real person or human at any point. The AI member says it is transferring them, and the call goes to the person the caller asked for, or to your Team line. If nobody can take it, the AI member offers to take a message so someone calls back.

An AI member also hands a call to a colleague itself when its charter tells it to escalate, and says so first.

Consent before it calls

An AI member only places a call to a phone number with AI-call consent recorded for it. Without consent it texts or emails instead. This is a fixed rule, not a setting.

Every phone number on a lead or a contact carries a chip that says where it stands:

• AI calls allowed
• No AI-call consent
• AI calls revoked

Record or revoke consent

1. Click the chip beside the number, on the lead or the contact.
2. To record consent: choose the Phone number, How consent was given (Written and signed, Web form, Recorded call, They asked us to call, Imported list or Other), describe the Evidence, for example "Web form 2026-09-01, submission 991", and set Consent given on. Click Record consent.
3. To revoke it: click Revoke consent and say Why it is revoked, for example "asked by phone not to be called".

The History lists every change, with how it was made: from the lead page, the contact, an AI call, or the API. Anyone who may edit the record's contact details can record or revoke consent; everyone else sees it read-only.

Calls to your colleagues

Your colleagues decide for themselves whether AI team members may phone them. On your own profile, the Work room has a Calls from AI team members card:

1. Switch on AI team members may call me. It covers the Number shown, the first phone number on your profile unless you choose another. It saves at once and reads "On since" the date.
2. To move it to another of your numbers, choose that number while it is on. Switch it off to stop the calls.

If the number it covered is no longer on your profile, it reads Off with "Your number changed. Turn this on again to cover your new number." With no phone number on your profile, add one first. A call you ask for in a chat with an AI team member is allowed for that call even when this is off.

Only you can change your own card. An administrator with the Manage Member Security permission sees a colleague's card read-only.

"Stop calling"

If someone on a call says stop calling, don't call me, do not call, remove my number or take me off your list, the AI member confirms ("Understood. We won't call this number again."), and the consent for that number is revoked straight away. The history shows it as revoked On an AI call.

Placing a call is also an action in the AI member's charter: Place phone calls can be set to need approval, or to be never allowed, like any other action.

Supervising calls

On the AI member's workbench, Live call lists a call it is on right now. Listen in opens the AI calls console (/ai-calls), where you can:

• Listen: hear the call while you stay silent. Stop listening to leave.
• Whisper to the AI: type a note only the AI hears, such as "offer Tuesday at 10", and Send it.
• Talk to the caller: join the call with your own microphone. Stop talking to go back to listening.
• Take over: the caller is transferred to your own phone, and the AI member drops off.
• Hang up: end the call. The caller is disconnected immediately.

The console lists Live and Recent calls, with their direction, status and outcome, such as Completed, No answer, Transferred, Taken over or Ended by supervisor. When an AI member is in a meeting, only the meeting's participants can hear it; there you can Take out of the meeting instead.

You need Supervise AI Members and to be the AI member's supervisor, or Manage AI Workforce as well. Talking needs your browser to allow your microphone.