AI voice agents and telephony
An agent that answers the phone after hours, at peak moments and when everyone is already on a call. It recognises why someone is calling, books an appointment in your calendar, transfers when unsure and emails you the rest.
A voice agent is not a phone menu with a friendlier voice. It hears what someone asks, follows up the way a colleague would, and puts the appointment in the right place in the calendar. When it cannot handle something it hands over with a summary of what was already said, so your colleague does not start from scratch.
What you get
Priced per case. In the discovery call we establish how many call types it must handle and which systems it connects to. You then get a fixed quote.
Questions and answers about this service
What is an AI voice agent?
An AI voice agent is a digital receptionist that holds conversations in plain language. It answers the phone or makes calls itself, understands what someone is asking, asks the follow-up question a colleague would ask and carries out the agreed action: booking an appointment, recording details or transferring the call to a colleague. It is not a phone menu with a friendlier voice.
Who is an AI voice agent for?
For organisations where the phone is the bottleneck. Think of a practice line that is jammed between eight and ten in the morning, an office that does not answer after hours or a team that has to call back leads every day. That applies to a small office just as much as to a large organisation.
When does a voice agent pay off?
When you miss calls, keep callers waiting or have the same conversations over and over: booking, moving and cancelling appointments, answering standard questions or following up leads. A rule of thumb: missed calls per week × average order value × conversion rate. If that comes to more than a thousand euros a month, a voice agent almost always pays for itself within a quarter.
How is a voice agent built?
In the discovery call we decide which kinds of conversation it has to handle and which systems it connects to. Then I define what it recognises, what it does when it does not understand something and when it transfers the call. We test with real calls, and during the first six weeks someone listens back to calls every week to fine-tune it. A voice agent is usually live within three to four weeks.
Which systems does a Datawonder voice agent work with?
I build voice agents on platforms such as ElevenLabs and Retell. The agent gets its own number or your existing number forwards to it. It connects to your calendar, CRM, email or database, for example through Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Airtable or n8n. For Irish Trade Federation a voice agent calls leads from an Excel list every day, and n8n writes the outcome to Airtable.
What about privacy and the EU AI Act?
Up front we agree which data the agent may see, how long recordings and transcripts are kept and which suppliers are involved, backed by a data processing agreement. Since 2 August 2026, Article 50 of the EU AI Act requires that people know they are talking to AI, so that belongs at the start of the call. Decisions of substance stay with a human: when in doubt, the agent transfers the call.
What does an AI voice agent cost?
That depends on the number of conversation types and integrations, so after the discovery call you get a fixed quote. The cost has four parts: the per-minute cost of calls, the one-off build, fine-tuning during the first six weeks and, on the other side, what missed calls cost you today. The article on what a voice agent costs works through those parts.
Thinking along, arranging it, staying inside the law
Three things that don't fit in a service list, but that decide how working with me feels.
I think along with you
You're not hiring a pair of hands that builds whatever the brief says. If I think your question isn't your real problem, I'll say so. Often there's a simpler or cheaper route, and sometimes the answer is that you shouldn't build this yet. Sparring over that choice is part of the work.
You don't have to figure it out
I run the whole track: choice of technology, the build, integrations with your existing systems, testing with real cases, explaining it to your team and maintenance afterwards. One point of contact, and one person responsible when something breaks. No vendors pointing at each other.
Compliant, and provably so
Everything I build has to survive current legislation: GDPR, the EU AI Act and the Data Act. That means agreeing up front which data the system may see, where it is processed, retention periods, a data processing agreement and a log of what the system did. So you can explain it when somebody asks.
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View this service →Ready to see what's being left on the table?
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