What happens after Hello: 8 ways AI is changing how businesses answer the phone

Have you ever called a business, selected from a menu of options by pressing a number on your phone, then another, only to sit on hold and eventually leave a message? You hang up without the answers you needed. This gap between Hello and getting help is where using AI to answer the phone can make a difference for your business.

It doesn’t replace the people running your business, but it can decrease caller frustration and missed calls, and it gets your callers to the right place efficiently. Take a look.

AI tools for business communications

As AI grows, there are many AI business tools emerging, including those that improve business communications. From transcribing meeting notes to writing and editing written communication to providing customer support and call routing, AI in business is automating simple tasks that used to take up employees’ time. When it comes to your business phone system specifically, there are several tools available:

AI answering service

An AI answering service answers missed calls, responds to customer questions and takes customer messages, delivering messages to the right person for quick follow-up.

AI receptionist

An AI receptionist is more advanced than an AI answering service. It answers calls in a conversational manner and provides company information like business hours, schedules, appointments and answers more complex inquiries.

AI transcription

AI transcription captures a record of a call, then puts it into a short summary for you. It not only serves as a written record of calls but can also be shared for team collaboration or future reference.

8 ways AI is changing business communication

AI in business communications is growing, with good reason. It can respond to calls in a natural, conversational way, even though it isn’t human. In fact, AI currently handles about 30 percent of customer service inquiries, and that number is expected to grow to 50 percent by 2027. Here are eight ways that AI is changing business phone systems and can help your business too.

Fewer calls go unanswered

No more calling and waiting while the phone rings and rings. AI can also answer calls during peak times when your human operators are busy. This prevents hold times and keeps callers from hanging up during that endless ringing. It saves time for everyone involved.

24/7 assistance

Not only does AI answer calls when humans are busy, but it also answers calls after hours, on weekends and during the holidays. Do your customers need to know your business hours on Christmas Day? AI can answer and share company information with your callers.

Automated answers to routine questions

Many times, customers have routine questions such as your business hours, company information, directions, location and service availability. With AI call answering, it can handle a variety of repetitive questions that would otherwise clog up your business phone lines.

Consistent quality

AI can answer repetitive questions so that your employees don’t have to. This takes away the repetitive burden of answering the same question 100 times and allows callers to get a calm, knowledgeable answer every time.

Quicker scheduling

Using AI for call answering can also help with scheduling. It can sync with your internal systems to do things like schedule appointments, cancel and reschedule appointments and confirm with the caller when appointments are scheduled.

Smarter call routing

When you use AI to answer the phone, callers no longer need to “Press 1”; instead, AI can understand what the caller is saying and respond in a human-like way by answering questions and routing callers to the appropriate person. It can also qualify callers and filter out routine inquiries before passing them to a human contact.

Freed up time for other tasks

Typically, employees are interrupted every two minutes throughout the workday. When you use AI to answer the phone, it can cut down on interruptions. Employees don’t get misdirected calls or general questions. Instead, the calls that reach them are qualified and intent-driven, with detailed information already collected. This frees up your employees’ time for the calls and phone conversations they need to have, as well as other important tasks.

Personalized conversations

AI has evolved to the point that it can feel very tailored and personalized to the caller. Customers have come to expect this – 61 percent expect AI-powered interactions to feel tailored to them. Not only can AI practice business phone etiquette and personalize the caller’s experience, but it can gather all the necessary context so that when routed to a human agent, that too is personalized. The agent can pick up right where the AI agent handed it off.

Best practices when using AI for business phone communication

Remember that AI can do a lot, but one thing it can’t do is replace a human. It can assist and do it well, but it cannot show empathy for someone trying to cancel a deceased loved one’s account. Nor can it patiently help an elderly caller who is worried they did something wrong or reassure a scared mother with a sick child.

The best way to use AI is to balance its automation with a human touch. You can do this by always disclosing that it is AI, offering an opt-out to a human at any time, making it easier to reach a human if needed and automatically transferring to a human after two errors.

In the end, AI is a great tool for your business phone communications. But it is just that, a tool. While you can’t rely on it for everything, when used as part of your overall business phone system, it can benefit you, your callers and your employees.