Warren, an AI phone receptionist

Warren tells you it's an AI when it answers, and calls are recorded. It isn't my direct line, but it takes a message for me.

Why I built it

The easiest way to understand an AI receptionist is to call one, so Warren is first a demo: a working example of the kind of automation I build. It's also a real line for my business. It can tell you about my work and how a project goes, and if you'd like to reach me, it takes a message.

What happens when you call

1. Warren answers and tells you it's an AI.
2. It answers your questions about Fast Wombat: what I build, how a project works, and how to get started.
3. If you'd like to reach me, it takes a message, along with your name and contact details if you give them.
4. After the call, I get an email with a summary of the call, your message, and your contact details.

How it's built

Three parts work together. A voice system answers the phone, turns what you say into text, and speaks the replies. An AI model understands the question and decides what to say. A workflow tool, the same kind I use for my other automations, handles what happens after the call, like sending me the summary.

Each part involves tradeoffs between intelligence, speed, and cost:

• The voice. More natural voices cost more, and some take longer to start speaking.
• The AI model. A smarter model gives better answers but can be slower, and on the phone, a long pause feels awkward.
• Speech to text. Faster and more accurate transcription costs more, and accuracy matters most for names, numbers, and addresses.

Picking the right mix for your callers and your budget is part of the build.

What's next

I'm working on two additions: booking a discovery call right on my calendar, and putting a call through to me when you'd rather talk to a person.

What an AI receptionist can do for your business

Anything an AI model can do in a conversation, plus whatever it's connected to. Linked to a workflow tool and to the software you already use, it can:

• Route calls to the right person or department, and to a person whenever a caller asks for one.
• Answer common questions about your hours, services, and policies, from your own information.
• Collect the details before anyone calls back: name, contact information, and what the call is about.
• Look things up in your systems, like an order's status or a customer's account, through tools built to connect to your customer database or order system.
• Book appointments on your calendar.
• Keep you in the loop with an email summary of every call, so a person always knows what came in and what needs a follow-up.

It doesn't have to answer every call, either. It can be your backup: calls ring through to you as usual, and when you're on a job or can't get to the phone, the AI receptionist picks up instead of voicemail. The caller gets help right away, it collects everything you need to call back or books the appointment itself, and you get a summary of the call. That beats a voicemail you might not get to for hours.

If you can picture one answering your phones, or doing something else entirely, book a discovery call and we'll talk through what it could handle for your business.