Set up and use AI receptionists

Use our AI receptionist, complete with various tools such as information capture forms and knowledge base articles, to provide a more efficient and helpful routing experience for your callers while improving your business's efficiency, professionalism, and customer satisfaction.

Note: Laws regulating the use of AI vary based on location. It is your responsibility to ensure your use of this feature complies with applicable laws before enabling the AI Receptionist.

Before you begin: You must be assigned the Admin or Super admin role to perform the following tasks.

Implementing an AI Receptionist can transform how you handle inbound communications with benefits such as:

Round-the-Clock Service: Provides 24/7 availability to handle customer inquiries, ensuring a seamless and responsive experience at any time.
Increased Efficiency and Cost Savings: Automates routine tasks, streamlines call routing, and reduces operational costs while freeing your team to focus on higher-value activities.
Scalable and Professional Customer Experience: Delivers fast, accurate responses that enhance customer satisfaction and projects a polished, professional image as your business grows.

For a more tailored experience, use our in-product guided setup feature! After signing in to GoTo Admin, select

Digital Workforce > Getting started.

Each needed step is listed there with an estimated completion time. When you select a task to work on, it will jump you to the appropriate place to complete that task with helpful tips and context provided along the way.

Create help material to support your AI receptionist

Create knowledge base articles and information capture forms to further instruct your AI receptionist on specific topics and provide a more robust self-service experience for your callers.

From the left navigation, select

Digital Workforce and then choose what you want to do:

Options	Instructions
Create a collection of articles Knowledge base articles serve as a searchable database that the AI can reference to provide consistent and accurate information.	Select Knowledge > + Create a collection. Add a name and description for the collection of articles and then select Create. Open the newly created collection and then select + New article. Add an article title and the desired content and then select Save. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to add additional articles to an existing collection or steps 1-4 to create additional collections of articles. Tip: We recommend keeping your articles concise and easy to read. Where possible, use visuals or video tutorials along with step-by-step instructions. Be sure to keep your content current.
Create an information capture form Information capture forms allow your AI receptionist to collect and organize essential data from customers during their interactions to help with things like lead generation, appointment scheduling, etc.	Select Info capture > +Create form. Add a name and description. Use the + icon to add rows for each item you want to capture in the form, such as the caller's email address or phone number. Enter a name and description for each row and then select Save. Tip: We recommend keeping your forms short and focused to encourage higher completion rates.

Options

Instructions

Create a collection of articles

Knowledge base articles serve as a searchable database that the AI can reference to provide consistent and accurate information.

Select Knowledge > + Create a collection.
Add a name and description for the collection of articles and then select Create.
Open the newly created collection and then select + New article.
Add an article title and the desired content and then select Save.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 to add additional articles to an existing collection or steps 1-4 to create additional collections of articles.

Tip: We recommend keeping your articles concise and easy to read. Where possible, use visuals or video tutorials along with step-by-step instructions. Be sure to keep your content current.

Create an information capture form

Information capture forms allow your AI receptionist to collect and organize essential data from customers during their interactions to help with things like lead generation, appointment scheduling, etc.

Select Info capture > +Create form.
Add a name and description.
Use the + icon to add rows for each item you want to capture in the form, such as the caller's email address or phone number.
Enter a name and description for each row and then select Save.

Tip: We recommend keeping your forms short and focused to encourage higher completion rates.

What to do next: Set up your AI receptionists and configure the applicable options to use the material you just created.

Build your AI receptionist

Before you begin: Though optional, we highly recommend creating any knowledge base articles and information capture forms before following these steps to provide the most efficient set up.

Sign in to GoTo Admin.
From the left navigation, select Digital Workforce > AI receptionists > + Create a receptionist.

Note: If you need to edit an existing entry, select the desired entry from the list and make the needed changes. You can select a specific extension to make changes to, duplicate an extension as a base for creating a new entry, or delete the extension.
From Personality, use the drop-down menus to select the desired voice and tone. If desired, you can select Listen to preview the voice.
From Conversation flow, select Configure next to the ability you want to add. You have the following options: (multiple abilities can be configured)

Info capture

Select + Add ability, and then use the search box to search for and select the desired info capture form created beforehand.
Enter the email address you want to receive the forms to and then customize the subject line for the emails.
Select Save when finished.

Knowledge

Select + Add a knowledge ability, and then use the search box to search for and select the desired collection of articles created beforehand.

Attention: If you have not already created any knowledge articles or collections, select Visit my knowledge resources and then see the "Create material for your AI receptionist to use" section of this article for help creating that content.
Select Save when finished.

FAQ

You can add up to 15 questions per receptionist.

Select + Add a question, and then enter a common customer question.
Provide a specific answer for the AI to use.
Select Save when finished.

Transfer to extension

Before you begin: Make sure any extensions you want to use for this ability are already created on your account.

You can add up to 30 transfers per receptionist.

Select + Add transfer, and then use the search box to search for and select the desired destination.
Add a detailed description to educate the AI assistant on when to use this transfer option, and then select a name for the transfer.
Optional: Search for and select an info capture form to collect specific caller information that will be included with the transfer request.
Select Save when finished.

Note: By default, the extension's name will be used, but you can disable that setting and add a custom name if desired. Doing so will not change the extension's name in your account, the custom name will only be used with this AI receptionist entry and the associated dial plan using this feature.

Interaction rules

Select + New interaction rule, and then add a name and instructions for the desired rule.
Select Save when finished.

Escalation rules

Before you begin: Make sure any extensions you want to use for this ability are already created on your account.

Use the search box to search for and select the desired destination.
Enter the desired escape key for callers to use. Keys 0-9, #, or * are supported.
Select Save when finished.

Add AI receptionist to your dial plan(s)

Before you begin: Make sure you have already created the AI receptionist in your GoTo Admin portal before following these steps to add it to a dial plan.

Sign in to GoTo Admin.
From the left navigation, select Phone system > Dial plans.

Fastpath: If you are still in Digital Workforce, you can select Add to dial plan next to the desired AI receptionist and it will jump you to the dial plan page in the Phone system tab.
Select the desired dial plan you want to add AI receptionist to or create a new dial plan.
Drag and drop the AI receptionist node next to the Start here node and then grab the solid dot on the top right of the Start here node and connect it to the left side of the AI receptionist node.

Tip: To comply with the legal requirements, consider adding a Sound clip node before the AI receptionist and recording a message to inform your callers that AI will be used. For example, your message could say "Hello! Thank you for calling. I'm an AI receptionist who can answer questions and connect you to the right person, often faster than traditional methods. This call may be recorded to help us improve the customer experience. Would you like to continue?"

Result: A new arrow line should appear showing the desired pathway between the two nodes.
Use the drop-down menu on the AI receptionist node to select the desired AI receptionist you created beforehand.
Decide where you want to send the caller if an error occurs. Drag and drop the appropriate node from the Node Library.
As before, connect the "On error" dot on the AI receptionist node to the newly added node and complete any needed configuration there.
Continue to build out the dial plan if desired. Select Save when complete.

What to do next: Ensure the desired phone number is active and routing to this dial plan.

View analytics on your AI receptionist

Monitor important metrics right from the admin portal like Average Talk Time and Escalated Percentage, or dive deeper into our analytics portal to see more granular data on the performance of your receptionist.

Sign in to GoTo Admin.
From the left navigation, select Digital Workforce > AI receptionists and then select the desired receptionist to monitor.
From Analytics, you can see a summary of how your receptionist is performing, including metrics such as total calls, the total and average talk time between callers and your receptionist, and the percentage of the totals calls that were handled, escalated to a live agent, or abandoned by the caller.

Tip: We recommend regular review of call logs and these report metrics to identify areas for improvement in the AI's responses and routing decisions. These metrics can also help you compare your AI receptionist's effectiveness against your traditional auto attendants to determine the process optimizations.

What to do next: To dig deeper into all AI Receptionist interactions and view more granular call data such as the call reason identifications or routing behavior, see the Call report and Queue caller dashboards in our Analytics portal and be sure to use the available filters for the AI receptionist. This feature may not be available with your plan.

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