The AI Receptionist answers inbound calls to your agency's phone line, identifies who's calling, and either resolves their request on the spot or routes them to the right person on your team. Use it in place of a traditional IVR or a live receptionist so candidates get instant answers about their applications, assignments, and open jobs — and so every call that can't be resolved automatically still reaches someone.
Before you start
Before you configure an AI Receptionist agent, make sure you have the following:
Connect your ATS
AI Receptionist reads candidate, application, and placement details from your applicant tracking system (ATS), and can write updates back to the ATS. Make sure your ATS integration is active before you configure the bot.
Have a phone number ready
Each AI Receptionist bot requires a dedicated inbound phone number. You can't reuse a number that's already assigned to an outbound agent or screening/data-enrichment agent in AI Agents, or to another AI Receptionist bot.
How it works
AI Receptionist follows the same basic flow for every inbound call:
- Greeting
The bot answers the call, plays your configured greeting, and informs the caller that the call is being recorded. - Identify the caller
The bot looks up the caller's phone number against your candidate records.- If exactly one record matches, the bot identifies the caller automatically.
- If multiple records match or no record matches, the bot asks for the caller's email address and then their full name to confirm their identity.
- If the bot finds a potential match, it may read the matched name back to the caller for confirmation before continuing.
- Classify the intent
Based on what the caller says, the bot determines the reason for the call. For example, the caller may have a question about a placement, application, candidate data, HR or payroll policy, or a sales inquiry. - Resolve or route the call
Based on the identified intent, the bot either:- Answers the caller using information from your ATS and configured FAQs, or
- Routes the call to the person you've designated for that intent.
- Handle fallback scenarios
If the bot can't confidently identify the caller or match the call to a configured intent, it uses the default fallback settings. Depending on your configuration, the call may be routed to a default phone number and a notification may be sent to a default email address.
Tip: If you're familiar with AI Agent Builder, you'll find several AI Receptionist modules familiar. Greeting, FAQ, Closing Statement, and Voice configuration work similarly in both experiences.
Creates a candidate when no record exists
If the caller can't be matched to an existing candidate record, AI Receptionist can collect basic information, such as the caller's name, email, city, state, and work authorization. It can then use this information to create a new candidate record in your ATS.
The call can result in a new candidate record, even if the caller isn't already in your ATS.