Replace your IVR with an AI voice agent
No menu to sit through. The caller says what they need, and the agent answers it, books it or sends it to the right person. Your numbers and your carrier stay where they are.
What is IVR replacement?
IVR replacement means retiring a press-1-for-this phone menu and putting a conversational voice agent in its place. The caller speaks in their own words, the agent works out what they want, and it either finishes the job on the call or routes it to a person with the details attached. It usually sits on your existing telephony, so you do not need a new phone system.
IVR and AI voice agent, side by side
| Traditional IVR | AI voice agent | |
|---|---|---|
| How the caller starts | Listens to the options, presses a key | Says what they need |
| When the reason is not on the menu | Picks the closest option or presses 0 | Understands it, or asks a question |
| What it can finish on the call | Whatever was scripted into a branch | Bookings, changes and answers from your knowledge base |
| Reaching a person | A transfer, often with no context | A warm transfer with the summary |
| Changing it | Re-record prompts, rework the tree | Update the knowledge base and the flow |
| What you learn | Which keys were pressed | A recording, transcript and summary of each call |
When to replace it, and when not to
Replace it when callers mostly want something a person would handle in a sentence or two, when most of them press 0 anyway, or when the menu has grown branches nobody can explain.
Leave a part of it alone when a branch has a compliance reason to be exact, when a short menu already routes well and nobody complains, or when call volume is too low for the work to pay back. You do not have to choose all or nothing: the agent can take the calls it is good at while a branch stays as it is.
How a replacement runs
The risk in an IVR replacement is the cutover, so we do not do one big cutover.
- 01
Read the calls you already get
We rank the reasons people call, using your logs and recordings where you have them. The top few reasons usually cover most of the volume, and those get built first.
- 02
Connect it without moving your numbers
Call forwarding, SIP or your carrier's API. It works with an existing PBX, so the phone system stays where it is.
- 03
Pilot on a slice of real traffic
Often after-hours, overflow or one branch of the menu. Your team keeps every other call, and we read the transcripts together.
- 04
Move branches over one at a time
Each branch moves when its calls are working. Anything the agent should not handle transfers to a person, so there is always a way out.
- 05
Keep running it
We operate the line after go-live: monitoring, weekly reports, and new reasons added as they show up in the calls.
What to measure
- Containment: how many calls finish without a person, and whether those callers call back
- Transfer rate, and whether the transfers go to the right person the first time
- Abandonment: how many callers hang up, and at what point in the call
- Tasks finished on the call: bookings made and changes completed
- Time your team spends on the calls that still reach them
Who this is for
We build these for owner-led businesses and multi-location groups, where a phone tree went in years ago and nobody owns it now. If you run a large contact center with its own engineering team and you are looking for a platform to run yourself, a self-serve platform may suit you better. What we sell is the finished line, operated by us.
Hear a phone line with no menu
Press the button and say what you would say to a person. Bella is a live agent, not a recording.
Your browser will ask for microphone access. Nothing is stored from this demo.
Try asking her
- “Do you have anything on Thursday afternoon?”
- “What are your opening hours, and where are you located?”
- “I need to move my Tuesday appointment to next week.”
- “Do you accept my insurance?”
- “Can I speak to someone from the sales team?”
On a real line, she also
- Picks up in under 2 seconds, every time
- Books, reschedules and cancels in your calendar
- Answers from your own knowledge base, not the open internet
- Quotes a job live on the call when the quoting agent is wired in
- Warm-transfers to a person when she should
- Leaves a recording, a transcript and a summary of every call
Questions, answered
Do we need a new phone system to replace our IVR?
No. The agent connects by call forwarding or SIP and works alongside an existing PBX and carrier. You keep your numbers.
Can we replace only part of the IVR?
Yes, and that is how we recommend starting. The agent can take after-hours calls, overflow or one branch of the menu while the rest stays as it is, then more moves over as the calls prove out.
How long does IVR replacement take?
A single inbound line with booking can be live within 48 hours of sign-off. A menu with many branches and integrations goes live in phases, and we quote the phases in writing before work starts.
What happens when the agent cannot help the caller?
It transfers to the person or team you name with a summary of the call, or takes a message if nobody is available. You set the rules, and every call is logged so you can check them.
Does an AI voice agent handle other languages?
Yes. The same agent speaks 30+ languages from one knowledge base, so you do not need a press-2-for-Spanish branch.
How much does it cost to replace an IVR with AI?
Every build is scoped and quoted in writing after a discovery call, before any work starts: a one-time build fee, then a monthly operating fee that covers hosting, telephony, monitoring and continuous improvement.
Retire your phone tree
Thirty minutes with someone who builds these every day. Bring your call volume and your systems; we tell you what we would build and quote it in writing.
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