Callodesk assistants are AI, not people. They say so when asked, and businesses can have them say so in the greeting. Any caller can ask for a person at any time. The assistant only knows what the business has told it.
This summary is for convenience. The full text below is what applies.
1What Callodesk is
Callodesk is an AI voice receptionist. When you call a business that uses Callodesk, your call may be answered by an automated assistant that uses speech recognition and AI language models to understand you and reply in a natural-sounding voice. The voice is computer-generated; it is not a recording of a real person speaking to you live.
2How the assistant identifies itself
- If you ask whether you are talking to a person, a robot or an AI, the assistant will always answer truthfully that it is an AI assistant.
- Our default greeting introduces the assistant as a “virtual assistant”. Businesses approve their greeting before going live, and we do not permit greetings or scripts that claim the assistant is human.
- Where a law requires an upfront disclosure (for example, for certain sales or outbound calls), we configure the assistant to give it at the start of the call.
3You can always reach a person
Say “talk to a person”, “representative” or similar at any point. Depending on how the business has set things up, the assistant will:
- transfer you to a staff member, with a short summary so you don’t have to repeat yourself;
- take a detailed message and tell you when to expect a callback; or
- send urgent calls (for example, “no heat” or “flooding”) straight to an on-call number.
In an emergency, hang up and dial 911. The assistant is not an emergency service.
4What the assistant does — and doesn’t do
| It can | It will not |
|---|---|
| Answer questions using information the business provides | Guess at prices, policies or availability it doesn’t know |
| Book, reschedule and cancel appointments | Give medical, legal, financial or safety advice |
| Take messages and capture your contact details | Ask for payment card, Social Security or ID numbers |
| Send confirmation and reminder texts | Pretend to be a person |
| Speak English and Spanish (other languages on some plans) | Make decisions the business hasn’t authorized |
5Accuracy and human oversight
AI can make mistakes, such as mishearing a name or a date. That’s why the assistant confirms important details back to you, sends a text confirmation of bookings, and passes anything uncertain to the business. Callodesk staff and the business review calls to correct and improve answers. If something was handled incorrectly, please contact the business directly.
6Outbound calls
On some plans, businesses can use Callodesk to place reminder or reactivation calls. These calls use an AI-generated voice, identify the business and the assistant as automated at the start, and are placed only to people the business confirms have given the consent required by law, such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. You can ask not to be called again at any time, and that request will be honored.
7Your data and AI
Recordings and transcripts are used to provide the service to the business you called and are handled as described in our Privacy Policy. Our AI vendors are contractually prohibited from training their general-purpose models on call data.