Voice AI

Enable IrisAgent Voice AI, try it from the dashboard or over the phone, and configure what it does using procedures

IrisAgent Voice AI answers customer calls, understands what the caller needs, and resolves the request using your knowledge base, past tickets, and the procedures you define. This page covers getting Voice AI turned on and running your first conversation. To route calls from a number you already own, see the provider-specific guides listed at the end.

Enable Voice AI

Voice AI is enabled for your account by the IrisAgent team. Reach out to your IrisAgent point of contact, or email us, and we will turn it on and provision a phone number for you.

Run Voice AI

Once Voice AI is enabled, go to the Voice AI page on the IrisAgent dashboard. You have two ways to start a conversation:

• Click “Start Conversation” to talk to the AI agent directly from your browser. This is the quickest way to test changes.
• Call the phone number shown on the page to reach the same AI agent over a normal phone call.

You can give the provided phone number to your customers so they can reach the AI agent directly, without any additional setup on your side.

Configure the voice assistant

After IrisAgent enables and provisions Voice AI, administrators can change how the assistant sounds and handles calls without asking IrisAgent to provision it again.

1. Go to Manage Chatbot in the IrisAgent dashboard.
2. Select Voice AI.
3. Update the settings described below.
4. Click Save voice settings.

Setting	What it controls
Voice	The voice callers hear. Choose one of the supported voices in the list.
Language	Use English for English-only calls, or Multilingual (auto-detect) to detect the caller’s language, reply in that language, and follow the caller when they switch languages. Product names, URLs, and identifiers are preserved.
Allow callers to interrupt the greeting	Lets a caller begin speaking before the initial greeting finishes.
Initial greeting	The first message spoken at the start of a call. It is required and can contain up to 1,000 characters.
Response timing	Controls how quickly the assistant replies after the caller stops speaking. Choose Fast, Balanced, or Patient.
Interruption sensitivity	Controls how easily callers can speak over the assistant. Choose Easy to interrupt, Balanced, or Resistant.
End call after silence	Ends an inactive call after 10–600 seconds.
Maximum call duration	Ends a call after 1–720 minutes.
Record calls	Stores call recordings for quality review and training. Make sure your use complies with applicable notice and consent laws.

Changes apply to new calls as soon as they are saved. The settings page reads the current configuration from the provisioned voice assistant, so changes made after initial setup do not require the Voice AI setup command to be run again.

If the assistant was configured outside IrisAgent with a custom voice or another voice provider, the page labels that voice as unsupported. The existing configuration remains visible, but you must select a supported IrisAgent voice before saving other voice settings.

If another administrator or an external Vapi update changes the assistant while you are editing, IrisAgent does not overwrite the newer configuration. The page reloads the latest settings; review them, reapply your changes, and save again.

Configure what Voice AI does

Voice AI answers from your knowledge base and past tickets out of the box. To handle a specific scenario a particular way, such as collecting an order ID and looking it up, verifying eligibility before a refund, or handing off to a team, create a procedure.

1. Go to the Create Procedure page on the IrisAgent dashboard.
2. Select Voice as the channel so the procedure applies to voice conversations.
3. Enter a name, a short scenario description (when the AI agent should use this procedure), and the actions it should take.
4. Choose Instructions for AI Agent for procedures that collect information or run actions. Add the required fields to Information to collect.
5. Select Inbound under Voice calls for the inbound assistant, set Status to Enabled, and click Save.

You describe procedures in plain English rather than building a flowchart, and IrisAgent recognizes when the scenario applies and runs the steps end to end. See Workflows for how to write them, including how to call your own APIs mid-conversation to pull in live data.

Procedures take precedence over answers from your trained knowledge base. When a caller’s request matches a procedure’s scenario, the AI agent follows the procedure’s steps instead of generating a free-form answer.

Create tickets from voice conversations

When Zendesk is your active ticketing provider, the procedure editor automatically includes Create Zendesk ticket under Actions → Connected actions. Use it to turn a caller’s collected information into a support ticket without provisioning a Custom API.

Add fields such as Caller name, Caller email, Caller phone, and Issue summary to Information to collect, then insert {{Create Zendesk ticket}} at the step where the ticket should be created. The collected email becomes the requester email, and all collected non-empty values are included in the ticket description.

See Create Zendesk tickets from a procedure for field mapping, example instructions, and testing. This is useful for an answering service that records requests for later follow-up without transferring the caller immediately.

Transfer calls to a human

Call transfer connects a caller from the inbound Voice AI assistant to your support team when IrisAgent requests escalation. This can happen because a procedure calls for a human handoff or because IrisAgent cannot answer. It does not transfer every call just because the setting is enabled.

Enable call transfer

1. Open the inbound Voice AI settings and select the Call transfer tab.
2. Turn Human handoff on. Check that the switch shows Enabled.
3. Enter the Transfer phone number in international format, including + and the country code, such as [phone].
4. If needed, enter an Extension of 1–10 digits. The extension is dialed after the destination answers.
5. Enter the Message before transfer. This is what the caller hears when the transfer starts. The default is “I’ll connect you with a human agent now.” The message can contain up to 1,000 characters.
6. Click Save transfer settings and wait for the save confirmation. Start a new call to use the saved configuration.

Saving a phone number and message while Human handoff is disabled does not enable transfers. To turn transfers off later, switch Human handoff to Disabled and save again.

Use a direct agent, ring group, or contact-center number. Do not use the Voice AI inbound number, or another number whose routing sends the caller back to Voice AI. This can create a call loop.

These settings apply to the inbound assistant. Outbound Voice AI uses a separate assistant managed by IrisAgent.

Request handoff in a procedure

In a procedure with Instructions for AI Agent, place the cursor where handoff should occur and click Actions → Agent actions → Escalate to human. The button inserts escalate as plain text, without curly brackets. Explain the condition under which the AI should take that step.

For example:

1. Ask the caller what they need help with.
2. If they ask to speak with a person, escalate.
3. Otherwise, follow the troubleshooting steps for their issue.
4. If the issue remains unresolved and the caller wants human help, escalate.

Make sure the procedure includes Voice and Inbound in Availability, set Status to Enabled, and save it. The transfer setting supplies the destination and announcement; the procedure supplies the condition for requesting handoff. A sentence saying “I’ll transfer you” alone is not a transfer action.

What happens during transfer

IrisAgent uses an immediate transfer, also called a blind transfer. The assistant announces the transfer using your saved message and connects the caller to the configured destination. It does not first speak privately with a human agent or check that one is available.

• Unanswered calls may go to the destination’s voicemail, depending on your phone-system routing.
• Configure business hours, queues, and unanswered-call handling in the destination phone system.
• Additional telephony charges may apply.
• Transferring a call does not automatically create a Zendesk ticket. If you need both, include Create Zendesk ticket before escalate in the procedure.

Verify call transfer

1. Reopen the Call transfer tab and check that Human handoff is Enabled and the saved destination is correct.
2. After saving, place a new phone call to the Voice AI number. Use a real phone call to verify the full telephone route; a browser conversation alone is not an end-to-end phone-transfer check.
3. Trigger the handoff condition in your enabled procedure, for example by asking to speak with a person.
4. Confirm that you hear the saved announcement and that the destination rings. If you configured an extension, verify that it reaches the intended recipient.
5. Review the call in Chat and Voice Logs.

If no transfer occurs, check the saved toggle state, the procedure’s status and inbound voice availability, and whether its escalation condition was reached. If the transfer starts but does not reach a person, check the destination number, extension, queue, and voicemail routing.

Review conversations

Every call is logged under Chat and Voice Logs on the dashboard, where you can listen back, read the transcript, and see which procedures ran.

Route your existing phone number

To have IrisAgent answer calls to a number your customers already dial, connect your telephony provider:

• Voice AI on 8x8
• Voice AI on GoTo Connect
• Voice AI on Ozonetel
• Voice AI on Exotel
• Voice AI on Puzzel

Feel free to email us if you encounter any issues or require assistance with product onboarding.