AI Voice Calls: More Satisfied Callers, More Sales

Did you know the global call center AI market is projected to grow tenfold in the next 10 years? If you haven’t integrated AI solutions into your call system, you might already be missing out on the leads you could’ve generated and sales you could’ve made.

There’s no reason to delay the transition because things will only escalate from here on. AI voice calls – the term that encompasses all call-related AI technology – are developing rapidly, with more and more companies delegating routing tasks to IVR, AI call agents, and other AI call technologies.

Modern businesses only handle calls manually if these calls require it or upon the caller’s request. This cost-effective approach enables you to reduce call queues, provide callers with relevant information instantly, and resolve simpler requests on the spot, ultimately leading to increased customer satisfaction rates and more sales.

Read on to learn how AI voice calls can revolutionize your business.

What Are AI Voice Calls?

The term AI voice calls might suggest AI solely making outbound phone calls, but it also applies to the AI technologies used to handle inbound calls.

 So I would suggest dividing AI voice call tech into two groups:

Inbound AI voice call technologies	Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Natural Language Processing (NLP), dialog management systems, sentiment analysis, voice biometrics, etc.
Outbound AI voice call technologies	Text-to-Speech (TTS), Natural Language Processing (NLP), predictive dialers, Voice Activity Detection (VAD), Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML), etc.

As you can see, some technologies overlap, with technologies like NLP serving both incoming and outgoing calls.

Why Use AI Voice Calls?

The traditional customer service strategy often results in inefficiencies, including long response times, high operational expenses, and limited scalability. Dealing with a high volume of calls presents several challenges that can lead to a disconnect between customer expectations and the service they receive. 

Customers expect quick and effective assistance, but this is not always the case with traditional call centers. Particularly during busy times, human agents are overwhelmed with a growing number of inquiries. Call centers often require substantial human resources, but at the same time, staffing costs, human errors, and training expenses can eat into profits. 

If you implement AI for lead generation and qualification, the risks are mitigated. With AI, starting with an AI-driven IVR system, you can improve the agent experience by reducing friction in customer service processes.

AI Voice Calls with Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

Even a traditional IVR system can help you immensely with simpler requests, with AI-driven IVR being a significant improvement across the board, the next-generation IVR system that can handle a large portion of caller requests on the spot without connecting a caller to a human sales rep.

Read also: AI Call Agents vs. Human Agents: When to Use Which

Let’s illustrate the difference between a classic IVR and an AI-enabled IVR in the context of inbound calls:

Classic IVR

AI-Enabled IVR

Case: A client is calling an insurance company to file a claim for a car accident. Step 1. The client dials the company’s toll-free number and is offered to press 1 for claims, 2 for billing, and 3 for policy changes. Step 2. After pressing 1, the client is asked to enter their policy number, followed by the choice between auto and home claims. Step 3. After choosing the “auto claims” option, the client is directed to speak to an agent or leave a voicemail. Disadvantages: No direct form-filling option; customers have to wait in a call queue before connecting to a live agent.

Case: A client is calling an insurance company to file a claim for a car accident. Step 1. The client dials the company’s toll-free number and is greeted by an AI assistant, with a conversation flowing the same way as if they were speaking to a human sales rep. Step 2. The caller explains their case, and the IVR identifies the intent, asking for the caller’s full name and policy number. Step 3. The IVR explains that it has noted the details and that the claim adjuster will contact the caller within 24 hours. Additionally, it asks the caller to upload photos of the damage via email and sends the link. Advantages: Complete self-service; no call queues; no agent needed to handle the request.

Non-AI IVR systems are way less cost-effective and have limited scalability, while AI-powered IVR systems can process any number of calls simultaneously and need far fewer human agents to back them up. 

Take Your Inbound Call Management to the Next Level with Phonexa’s IVR

Phonexa’s AI-enhanced IVR might be your best chance to take your inbound call management to the next level. Not only does our IVR have some advanced AI features, but it’s available at no extra cost to Call Logic users, and – more importantly – it can use customer data from our other systems like LMS Sync for web leads or E-Delivery for email outreach.

In practice, this means you don’t necessarily have to rely solely on the caller’s real-time responses but can also factor in all the previously collected data throughout the entire history of their interactions. Then, having custom flows enabled, you can route callers most precisely to grow conversion rates.

 

Here are some of the features enabled with Phonexa’s AI-enhanced IVR system and AI Call Agents:

• Branded voice: Whether inbound or outbound calls, you can use any pre-recorded voice that resonates with your brand, including multiple languages for international campaigns.
• Voice input: Aside from touch-tone inputs, callers can speak their choices – for example, say “auto claims” instead of pressing “1,” which is generally more convenient and provides freedom of choice.
• Call recordings: Our IVR system records the call from top to bottom, allowing you to extract it at any time from the archive for reevaluation or compliance purposes (for example, TCPA compliance via Do Not Call checks).
• Intelligent call routing: If the IVR cannot handle the request immediately, it identifies the most suitable distribution pathway for the caller, connecting them to an AI Call Agent or a live operator.

Book a demo to learn how Phonexa’s IVR can improve your business call flows.

Phonexa’s AI Call Agents as the Best Post-IVR Touchpoint

To scale your business, cut operational costs, and make call campaigns cost-effective in general, you have to automate everything that can be automated around phone calls, especially inbound phone calls that you have less control over.

You cannot predict when and how many customers are going to call you, but you can pre-qualify them with your AI-driven IVR and then – based on the data collected on the caller in real-time and historical patterns for this type of caller – route them to an AI Call Agent, who can identify the need for a human operator. 

In this context, Phonexa’s AI Call Agents, part of Call Logic, can become an invaluable BoFu touchpoint for your business, successfully handling over half of inbound calls independently of a live operator. Everything happens in the background for your marketing and sales team – AI Call Agents work autonomously without eating away your resources, with all essential data being automatically pulled to Phonexa’s all-encompassing dashboard.

“You need Phonexa to squeeze the most revenue out of the calls, to monetize them as well as possible, keep fraud out of the picture, and keep everyone happy on both sides of the equation.” – Evan Weber, an expert in B2C and B2B digital marketing and online advertising, Phonexa’s Amplify Webinar Series

Here are some popular applications of Phonexa’s AI Call Agents across industries:

Finance & Insurance	Loan application eligibility, insurance coverage options, policy information, and claims status
Automotive & Car Dealerships	Vehicle availability, pricing, financing, and test drive scheduling
Home Services (HVAC, Plumbing, Roofing, Pest Control)	Service inquiries, appointment scheduling, and job opportunities
eCommerce & Retail	Product availability, order tracking, returns of goods, and customer support questions for improvement
Healthcare & Dental	Appointment scheduling, insurance inquiries, and patient intake
Hospitality & Travel	Hotel bookings, cancellations, and concierge services

Here are some cornerstone features of Phonexa’s AI Call Agents:

• Personalized interactions: When activating AI Call Agents, you can choose from Phonexa’s pre-built vertical knowledge bases where AI has already been trained to provide niche-focused, expert-level responses to popular customer queries. Likewise, you can create response sequences and industry-specific FAQs on your own by adding any vertical not included in our knowledge base.
• Free data flows: With Ping Post Calls, you can pull lead data from LMS Sync for callers with a history of web interactions. Details like website activity, form fills, and other types of engagements can be useful when qualifying the call.
• Omnichannel coverage: Whether the call resulted in a sale or the caller needs further nurturing, you can automate follow-ups with Phonexa’s E-Delivery. Likewise, you can use E-Delivery to re-engage leads who are idle or those not converted during a call.
• Accuracy & flexibility: On the one hand, Phonexa’s AI Call Agent templates come with guardrails to keep the conversation aligned with your Call Logic products. On the other hand, we have settings to follow up with a consumer in case of extended silence and limit the total call length.
• Easy deployment: Deploying AI Call Agents is done with the same IVR builder you’re already using with Call Logic, now featuring a new AI Agent appearing as an IVR block. AI Call Agents are compatible with all other IVR tools used to build call flows.

Once an AI Call Agent is set up, it’s best to try it yourself to see whether the conversation flow is just as you’ve envisioned or if you need adjustments. Then you can go live and monitor the performance of your AI Call Agents via the call history page. Of course, you can also use the standard features of Call Logic to track the details of every call.

“A lead seller I spoke to last week is losing 50% of their call volume to IVR drop-off. Not bad leads. Not fraud. Just people hanging up when asked to “enter your ZIP code.” That was costing him around $4,000 per month. Most systems can’t flag this because they don’t show what happened between the click and the call routing. If your IVR is leaking leads, you don’t need more traffic. You need better conversion infrastructure. We fixed it by replacing button-press menus with an AI Agent that speaks to the caller, captures the data naturally, and hands it off to a ping tree. ✅ Drop-off rate down ✅ Qualified call volume up ✅ Revenue gap closed How many calls are you losing before they even reach a buyer?” – Oliver Koukoulis-Fribbens, Global Chief Sales Officer at Phonexa

Build your plan now, or take a product tour to explore our software in action.

A Single Comprehensive System for Calls & Web Leads

Even with AI-driven IVR and AI Call Agents, you cannot realize the full potential of inbound calls because you’re still not using data from other marketing channels – who the caller is, the traffic source, whether they are a new or repeat caller, etc.

“When phone calls convert 30% faster, spend 28% more, and the retention rate is 28% higher, you don’t need to generate as many as you would web leads. A lot of people are used to generating hundreds of thousands of web leads, but you can’t consider phone calls as equal. Calls are more valuable; therefore, you don’t need to generate as many. So businesses are leaving money on the table if they’re just neglecting them altogether.” – David Pickard, CEO at Phonexa, Phonexa’s Amplify Webinar Series

But that’s never going to be a problem with Phonexa, a comprehensive performance marketing suite that covers the entire customer journey from top to bottom across marketing channels and touchpoints while gently collecting actionable insights and transferring them to sales reps.

Get Phonexa’s eight proprietary solutions at a single price (online price calculator):

Build your plan now, or book a demo to learn more about Phonexa.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are AI voice calls & AI call agents, and how do they work?

AI voice calls is a term that encompasses all call-related AI technologies, including IVR and call agents. In turn, AI call agents are a narrowly focused AI voice call solution that handles customer conversations.

AI call agents are AI assistants that manage inbound and outbound calls by providing personalized responses without requiring human intervention. AI call agents make real-time communications almost as effective as if the caller were speaking to a human operator.

What are the costs of using AI voice calls?

The costs of using AI voice calls depend on the systems that handle your inbound and outbound calls, as well as the call volume and some other factors. There is no cost to enable the AI Agents – you can enable and test them before deploying them. Once you are ready to take them live, your usage is your cost per minute.

Can I test AI voice calls before deploying them?

Absolutely! Use the platform’s test call feature to fine-tune each agent’s performance, ensuring everything works seamlessly before launch.