How it works

Connect your phone system to your AI assistant.

There are several standard ways to route calls to an AI answering service. None of them require replacing your current number or involving IT.

Keep your existing number

Your business keeps its current phone number. You configure your carrier or phone system to forward calls to a second number — the one assigned to your AI assistant — under specific conditions.

Most carriers support this out of the box. Common forwarding types:

No-answer forwarding — forwards if the call isn't picked up after a set number of rings.
Busy forwarding — forwards if all lines are occupied.
Unreachable forwarding — forwards if your phone is off or out of service.
Unconditional forwarding — forwards every call, immediately.
Time-of-day / scheduled forwarding — forwards only during specific hours or days.

Carriers like AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Google Voice, and RingCentral all support conditional forwarding, usually via a short code (e.g. *71, *92) or a web portal. No IT involvement required for basic setups.

Caller→Your numberforwards →AI assistant

From the caller's perspective, the call is seamless — they dial your number as usual.

Use a dedicated number as your main number

A DID (Direct Inward Dialing) is a real, dialable phone number provisioned from a carrier and assigned to a platform or endpoint. It looks and behaves like any other phone number.

When you use a DID as your main business number, all inbound calls arrive at the AI assistant first. The assistant then decides what to do: answer the call, collect information, or forward to a staff member based on the time of day, the caller's need, or a schedule you configure.

This gives you full control of the routing layer before any call reaches a human.

Caller→AI assistantschedule →Staff

PBX, SIP, and business phone systems

If your business uses a PBX or VoIP phone system (Cisco, Avaya, Asterisk, FreePBX, 3CX, and others), you can route calls to an AI assistant directly — no special integration required.

SIP trunks — your PBX can route overflow or after-hours calls to an external SIP URI or standard PSTN number. The AI assistant accepts both.
Hunt groups / ring groups — if all agents in a group are busy, the AI assistant can be the overflow destination.
IVR overflow — your existing auto-attendant can send callers to the AI assistant when no option matches, or outside business hours.

Caller→Your PBX→AI assistant

From the PBX's perspective, the AI assistant is just another PSTN destination or SIP endpoint.

Which option is right for you?

I want to keep my current number and only use AI after hours	Option 1 — set up conditional forwarding (no-answer or scheduled) on your existing line.
I want the AI to answer all calls and route to staff during business hours	Option 2 — use a dedicated number as your main line and configure a routing schedule.
My business already has a PBX or multi-line phone system	Option 3 — configure your PBX to forward overflow or after-hours calls to your AI assistant number.
I just want to try it without changing anything	Option 1 — forward your line to the AI number during a test window. Revert anytime.

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