Sending calls to an AI agent

If your organisation runs an AI voice agent with a provider, a Cradle rule can send calls to it. The agent answers, helps with routine questions, and when it can't help, or the caller asks for a person, it hands the call back to Cradle. Cradle then rings your team as it would for any other call.

You choose the provider, set up the agent, and connect it to whatever it needs to answer questions, such as your stock, orders or a knowledge base. Cradle connects calls to the agent and takes them back; it doesn't build or host the agent, and it doesn't see what the agent looks up.

Cradle passes the caller's number to the agent, so it can look the caller up, and the Cradle number they called, so one agent can serve several of your numbers.

Set up the rule

1. In the admin portal, go to Setup → Rules and open the rule that should send calls to the agent, or create a new one.
2. For the during-hours or after-hours destination, choose Send calls to: An AI agent.
3. Enter the Agent SIP address your provider gives you, for example sip:+6491234567@agent.example.com:5061;transport=tls. Include the + in the number, and use the encrypted (transport=tls) form if your provider offers it.
4. Enter a Username and Password only if your provider asks Cradle to sign in. Once saved, the password isn't shown again; leave the field blank to keep it.
5. Under When the agent can't answer or hands a caller to the team, choose the rule your team answers from. Its business hours, groups and voicemail all still apply. If you choose End the call, callers the agent hands back hear a short message and the call ends.
6. Save, and point a phone number at the rule.

The rule only switches to the AI agent once you've entered a valid SIP address.

Set up the agent at your provider

Setting names differ between providers. These are the ones to look for.

• The number that identifies your agent. Many providers have you register a phone number for SIP calls and assign your agent to it. Use exactly the number in the Cradle SIP address, with the +. It doesn't need to be a number you bought from the provider.

• Sign-in. If your provider supports a username and password for incoming SIP calls, set them there and enter the same ones in Cradle.

• Trusted or remote domains. If your provider has a setting for the domains it trusts on encrypted connections, add sip.twilio.com. Without it, the agent can talk to callers but hangs up when it tries to hand one to a person.

• The transfer tool (often called "Transfer to number" or "Transfer to human"). Set the transfer type to SIP REFER, and the destination to a SIP address:

  • sip:role.<group ID>@cradle.io rings one of your groups. This is the usual choice: the caller reaches your team the way a normal call does.
  • sip:client.<SIP client ID>@cradle.io rings one person. Their SIP client ID is the username their desk phone signs in with.
  • sip:+6491234567@cradle.io sends the caller to an outside number. If it's one of your own Cradle numbers, the call goes to your team instead, so callers don't loop back to the agent.
  • Cradle support can tell you the group ID or SIP client ID to use. A destination Cradle can't find carries on with the rule you chose in step 5.

  Then describe when the agent should transfer, for example "The caller asks to speak to a person, or you can't answer their question."

• A keypad shortcut (optional). If your provider lets the agent hear keypad presses, turn that on and add to the agent's instructions: "If the caller presses 0 at any point, transfer them to sip:role.<group ID>@cradle.io straight away."

What to expect on calls

• If the agent doesn't answer within about 20 seconds, is busy, or can't be reached, the call goes to the rule you chose in step 5.
• In the call log, the call shows as sent to the AI agent, and a handover shows as a transfer by the AI agent.
• A call the agent handled by itself shows as answered, and no missed call email is sent. If the agent hands a caller to your team and nobody answers, the call is missed or goes to voicemail as usual.
• The rule's Record inbound calls setting covers the conversation with the agent, and Record transferred calls covers the part after a handover. Your provider also keeps its own history of each conversation.
• Callers should know they're speaking with an AI and that the call may be recorded, so say so in the agent's greeting.

If something isn't working

The agent hangs up when a caller asks for a person. Add sip.twilio.com to your provider's trusted or remote domains, and check that the transfer type is SIP REFER with a SIP address destination such as sip:role.<group ID>@cradle.io.

Calls go straight to my team, or the agent never answers. Check the SIP address in Cradle, that its number matches the number registered for the agent at your provider (with the +), and that the username and password match.

A caller asked for a person and the call ended. The AI agent destination has no rule to hand back to. Choose one under When the agent can't answer or hands a caller to the team.

I don't see "An AI agent" under Send calls to. It isn't switched on for your organisation yet. Contact Cradle support.