Forwarding Your Business Line to an AI Agent
You do not have to change the number your customers already know. Most businesses set up a phone number for their AI agent in the dashboard, then forward their existing business line to it, either all the time or only when nobody answers.
Common forwarding options
- Always forward: every call goes to the AI agent first
- Forward when busy: calls go to the agent when your line is in use
- Forward when unanswered: calls ring your team first, then go to the agent after a few rings
- Scheduled forwarding: calls go to the agent after hours
Which options you have depends on your phone carrier or phone system. Most carriers and business phone systems support at least one of these; check their help pages or ask their support team how to set it up.
Before you switch it on
- Make sure your agent's greeting, questions and knowledge base are ready
- Call the agent's number directly and run through a few common calls
- Turn on forwarding and call your main number from another phone
- Check the call appears in your dashboard with the details you expect
Keep a way back to a person
Decide what the agent should tell callers who need a human right away, such as a direct number or a promise of a callback. Write it into the agent's instructions so every caller gets a clear next step.
Review the first week
Tell your team
Before you switch forwarding on, tell your staff what will happen to calls they cannot answer and where they will see the details. A short note like "missed calls now go to our AI assistant; check the dashboard each morning" prevents confusion and duplicate callbacks.
Update your greeting and website
Some businesses mention the assistant on their website or voicemail, for example "Our AI assistant answers calls after hours." It sets expectations and reassures callers that their message will reach a person.
Turning it off
Forwarding is easy to reverse. If you need to, turn it off in your carrier or phone system settings and calls go back to ringing as before. That makes it low-risk to try for a few weeks.
Read transcripts from the first few days. If callers ask things the agent cannot answer, add them to the knowledge base. If the agent asks too many questions, trim the list. See How to Write a Script for Your AI Phone Agent.
Put an AI phone agent to work
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