Voice AI allows you to replace rigid IVRs with a natural, conversational assistant that understands customers and routes them quickly to the right outcome. Building your first Voice bot will give a fully functional AI-powered entry point for your calls; complete with a greeting, a simple prompt, and a tool that can answer questions from your Knowledge Base, a foundation you can build on with advanced tools and telephony integrations.
▶️ Process Walkthrough
See how a Voice bot comes together from start to finish:
- Creating the bot in the builder.
- Adding a simple prompt and a tool.
- Adding AI Interaction Data Capture.
- Testing the flow in the Voice AI Playground.
- Reviewing results in the Interaction Logs.
⚙️ Setting Up Your Voice Bot
Step 1: Open Voice Bots Builder
Head to ‘Voice Bots’ in the left-hand menu, then click on the initial template or create a new one with the blue “create voice bot’ button.
Step 2: Set the greeting & pick a voice
- Queue Label: name to identify later.
- Bot First Name.
- Introduction: a short, friendly opener (e.g., “Hi, thanks for calling… How can I help?”).
- Voice: pick the style that fits your brand.
You can preview options by clicking ▶️.
- Voices are listed by language, accent, and gender.
When you’ve found one that fits your brand, click Select.
Need help writing prompts? For a step-by-step guide on crafting effective ones, see [How to Write an AI Prompt].
Step 3: Add a clear, starter prompt
Voice AI is prompt-based: your prompt tells the AI who it is, what to do, and how to handle the call. You’ll need:
- Context: who the bot represents and its purpose.
- Goals: what it should achieve before ending or handing over.
- Conversational path: the few steps it should follow (e.g., For order status checks: ask for order number → confirm postcode)
- Guidelines & style: You have a default prompt which we recommend you keep and add to. For example, respond in the language the customer speaks in keeping brand tone. Do not use eternal information outside of the knowledge base.
- Style: The tone and style of speaking (e.g. keep messages short, date formats, friendly).
Be explicit and clear when writing a prompt, you can also use tools like ChatGPT to help you, simply write the above information and ask it to create a prompt, paste below the prompt template.
Step 4: Adding Tools
These are structured actions that the AI can use during a conversation. These go beyond natural language responses, allowing your Voice AI to:
- Transfer the customer to another department or queue.
- End the call.
- Search your Knowledge Base directly.
- Make external API calls with an HTTP request, e.g. booking a calendar appointment.
You can add multiple tools to a single voice bot.
Click + Add Tool to see the list of available tools.
- Each tool will have different parameters that should be completed.
- Once added you should reference the tool in your main prompt.
- Information that is required is highlighted in red.
Once added, you can repeat the process to add more tools, or simply click Save to finish your setup.
Want to explore tools more? See [Advanced Tools & Configuration] for the complete guide.
🧪 Testing Your Voice Bot
Step 1: Select Test Route
Once you’ve added your prompt and tool(s), it’s time to test.
After saving, you’ll see two testing options appear:
- Call the test number (shown in blue on your screen). This lets you try your Voice bot from a real phone.
- Test your Voice AI Bot in your browser. This opens the Voice AI Playground so you can simulate a live call without needing a phone.
Using the Playground:
- Click Test your Voice AI Bot in your browser.
- The Playground opens in a new window, where you can interact with your bot exactly as a customer would.
- End Conversation between scenario tests.
Test by phone:
- Call the number displayed on your setup screen.
- By default, new configs provision a US number.
- We recommend testing with the playground until your number is connected.
If you need a number for a different region, this will be arranged as part of your upgrade, just contact support@gettalkative.com.
Step 2: Check the results
- After testing, review transcripts and summaries in Interaction Logs.
- If you enabled AI Interaction Data Capture, you’ll also see any structured fields (like names, order IDs) recorded there.
See [AI Interaction Data Capture] to learn how to record key details during calls.
🔎 Choosing Your Voice AI Engine
Your Voice bot can run in two different ways, depending on your needs. The standard TTS/STT setup offers the widest compatibility, while S2S gives a premium, low-latency experience.
Speak to your Customer Success Manager if you’d like to
1. Text-to-speech (TTS) combined with speech-to-text (STT)
- The default option for voice AI.
- Has the highest range of voices and language support.
- Offers the choice of underlying LLM, and therefore the best support for localised AI and data sovereignty.
Works by:
Voice Input & Transcription: Your caller’s voice is converted into text using a STT service.
AI Processing: The transcribed text is sent to a large language model (LLM) that generates a contextually appropriate response based on your prompt.
Response Delivery: The response text is converted into voice using a TTS service and played back to the caller in real time.
2. Speech-to-speech (S2S)
- A premium option for voice AI with higher costs.
- Is currently limited to OpenAI LLMs (US and EU options available).
- Is currently limited to American and British voices (although can speak multiple languages).
Works by directly processing the incoming caller audio and responding with audio. By removing the steps to convert to and from text, it results in lower latency calls, and is better able to understand and convey tone/emotion.
❓FAQ’s: AI Voice Bots
What happens if my caller speaks in a language other than what’s configured?
While Voice AI can handle multiple languages, we recommend setting up one language per phone number to ensure the highest accuracy. If your callers use multiple languages, please contact support for guidance on configuration options. S2S allows calls to seamlessly transition between all languages mid-call. STT/TTS set up can transition between a limited number of languages, depending on the voice and STT/TTS settings used.
Can I customise the voice and accent?
Yes! You can choose from a variety of voices and accents. We highly recommend testing different options to see which best represents your brand’s tone. With STT/TTS you can even create a cloned custom voice.
How much does Voice AI cost?
Pricing is available on our websites for subscriptions. Please contact your Talkative CSM or channel partner if you wish to add voice AI to an existing subscription.