How easy is it to set up, really?
Actually quite easy. You will be guided through a step-by-step wizard that will ask for basic information, will guide you on how to connect OpenAI and Twilio, and will craft a starting prompt. From there, you can just call the assistant and try it for yourself.
Most users can set-up a the full system in less than two minutes, and a basic prompt for their use case scenario, fitting your business tone or brand voice in less than 5. If you know how to prompt ChatGPT, you already know how to use Answering AI. We give you an open prompt offering the flexibility to craft your system, your way. No limitation from our end.
Do I require an account in Twilio and OpenAI?
Yes, and for this reason Twilio and OpenAI are billed separately. We want to give you full billing control and for this reason, we decided not to markup over these services.
The current OpenAI pricing is located here and Twilio voice pricing located here. You can easily view your OpenAI usage per call (TTS characters, Whisper seconds, and GPT tokens) in the Answering AI dashboard, and estimate Twilio fees using the call duration. This data is updated when a call is finished.
Is Answering AI a phone service?
No, it's not. We provide the technical platform to connect your own phone service (in this case, Twilio), to the latest AI models and provide exceptional phone answering to your callers through them. We do not provide phone infrastructure or sell phone numbers, and for this reason, we encourage you to use your own Twilio account when using our service.
Also, due its design, it can only be used for inbound calling, and cannot be used for telemarketing, unsolicited calls, or any type of outbound calling.
What models are supported?
We currently only support GPT-4o, the new flagship model from OpenAI. More info here. We also use OpenAI's STT (Whisper) and TTS models, to provide realistic and accurate conversations. All of this runs from your own OpenAI account, giving you full control.
As it's powered by GPT-4o, your receptionist can manage complex and nuanced customer queries, making it capable of handling multiple simultaneous calls efficiently and built to scale even during peak times. For this reason, older models are not supported.
Does Answering AI connect to my software?
If it has a REST API, it can! While we currently do not do custom integrations, you can easily include the information to connect to your external service in your prompt. External requests are limited to a timeout of 20s and 1kb of data. Behind the scenes, Answering AI can do GET, POST, PATCH and other requests to your endpoint, automagically.
Can I customize the tone and personality of my AI phone agent?
Yes, you can! Answering AI allows you to craft the personality and tone of your AI phone agent through customizable prompts. You can set specific guidelines for how your agent interacts with callers, ensuring it aligns with your business's brand voice and customer service standards. Additionally, you can choose from various TTS (text-to-speech) voices provided by OpenAI to match the desired vocal tone and style of your AI phone agent.
I'm a huge enterprise, should I contact sales?
We are currently focused on providing the best phone AI answering system for teams of 10 and less. You can still sign up at the normal rate, but keep in mind our features are aimed at small and medium businesses.
How do monthly minutes work?
Each plan includes a set amount of minutes every month, which are included in the price of the plan. These monthly minutes do not roll over. To prevent running out of these minutes, you can enable Auto-recharge to use additional minutes at the plan's specified rate. Both monthly minutes and additional minutes prorated to the second.This is completely optional. If you don't enable Auto-recharge, all calls over the included minutes will be rejected and not billed.
What happens if I run out of minutes?
You can activate auto-recharge to charge a new block of 1000 minutes automatically once your account reaches less than 100 minutes available. Recharged minutes rollover and are always used first. Minutes are recharged at the additional minute pricing of the plan.
What are your payment options?
Our subscription are sold by Lemon Squeezy. Payments can be made using credit or debit cards, and PayPal. Your billing cycle starts on the day of your first payment and renews monthly (calendar month).
Can I test the service before committing to a plan?
Yes, you can start a free trial to test the service. This allows you to experience the AI phone answering system firsthand before making a commitment. Once the trial ends, you will be automatically placed on our Solo Business Plan. You can cancel your trial at any time, or upgrade to a plan and finish the trial early.
Do I have control of what my AI is doing?
Of course, we provide a detailed call log with call recording and information about each interaction. This allows you to track usage, analyze performance, and make informed adjustments to optimize the service for your business needs.
What happens if my AI phone agent makes a mistake?
Due to limitations in GPT technology, it's not possible to provide 100% accurate information all the time. However, you can minimize errors by creating effective prompts.
Answering AI provides you with a blank canvas to create prompts that limit certain information or fetch updated information from a web resource. Remember, this is a limitation of the technology itself, not our service.
How secure is my data with Answering AI?
Your data security is our top priority. We comply with industry-standard security practices to ensure your information is safe and secure. Additionally, we do not use your data for training any models. Since you use your own OpenAI and Twilio accounts, their own privacy policies and terms of service apply.
