Responsible deployment
What should an AI phone agent do when it does not know?
A good system does not hide uncertainty: it detects it, reduces scope, and gives control to a person.
Canadian French + English • Configurable human handoff • Keep your number when supported by your carrier
At a glance
Defined by the workflow, not only the voice
Voice agents can mishear a name, use stale knowledge, encounter an integration outage, or receive an out-of-scope request. A natural voice does not remove those risks.
Reliability comes from assuming failure: thresholds, validation, permissions, fallback messages, handoff, and human review.
Outcomes
Failure modes to test
Misunderstanding
Noise, accent, proper names, correction, overlapping speech, or language change.
Insufficient knowledge
Missing question, stale policy, or conflict between sources.
Impossible action
Calendar downtime, denied permission, duplicate, or incomplete data.
Higher-risk request
Emergency, professional advice, complaint, threat, or sensitive data.
Implementation
Design safe recovery
- 1
Recognize
Detect uncertainty, an out-of-scope request, or technical failure.
- 2
Clarify once
Ask a simple question without forcing endless repetition.
- 3
Reduce scope
Move from action to message capture when confidence is insufficient.
- 4
Transfer and record
Give context to a person and retain the event for correction.
Scenarios
When to require a person
Sensitive decision
Advice, exception, refund, contractual commitment, or professional judgement.
Uncertain identity
No account disclosure or sensitive action without suitable authentication.
Emotion or danger
Intense anger, threat, reported danger, or emergency-services request.
FAQ
Limitation questions
Can AI hallucinate on a phone call?
A model can generate an incorrect answer. Limited scope, approved sources, action rules, and handoff reduce but do not eliminate that risk.
How many times should it ask a caller to repeat?
The workflow should limit attempts and then offer another path, such as transfer or structured message capture.
Must every call be reviewed?
Not necessarily, but new scenarios, higher-risk calls, failures, complaints, and quality samples should have a defined review process.
What does a person receive during handoff?
When supported, they should receive the reason, captured information, and handoff cause so the caller does not start over.
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