AI Auto Opener
AI Auto Opener: greet live answers by first name
When our answering-machine check hears a person, they get a short greeting with their own first name, in your rep's own cloned voice when that rep has clips, while your rep comes on the line. On our own floor, on one day with no opener, people waited a median 3.46 seconds of silence between their hello and the rep's first word.
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- "Hello?"
- silence
- "Hello??"
- "Hi, is this Maria?"
- "Hello?"
- "Hey Maria, it's Alex."
- "Oh, hi."
- Alex takes it from there
Staged example: a test lead and a test rep. The order of events follows how the opener works.
Built by a team that has built 300+ call centers
- 15 yearsbuilding call centers
- 300+call centers built
- Double or tripleconversions on the floors we build
- 7-12%live answer rates on our floors, some at 13-14%
- About 70%fewer machines reaching agents
Source: Jason Shouldice, CEO, October 2026.
What happens on a live call
From pick-up to your rep
An AI opener sits between the dialer and your rep. Here is what ours does on one call.
The dialer calls and someone picks up
Nothing plays yet. Our answering-machine check is listening to the first moments of the call.
No greeting for a machine
The greeting plays only after the check says person, or not sure. A call the check marks as a machine, or a beep, gets no greeting at all, and nothing plays at the hello.
It waits for the person to finish
If the person is still talking, it waits for a pause. If they keep talking, it skips the greeting and the rep takes the call.
A short greeting by first name
They hear a short clip with their first name and a name from your team. When the rep who takes the call has clips, it is that rep's voice. No first name, or a junk one like "Homeowner", gets a line with no name in it.
Staged: "Hey Maria, it's Alex."The rep hears it too
The greeting plays into the rep's call, so the rep hears what the person heard, and the normal call recording keeps it.
The call always goes to the rep
When the person answers back, or after a short quiet, the rep is on the line. It never hangs up on dead air. If the person talks over the greeting, it stops, waits and plays once more, then hands over.
What a floor loses without it
The silence after hello, measured on our own floor
A predictive dialer connects the call when a person answers, and the rep needs a moment to see the lead and speak. The person is left holding a quiet phone.
- 3.46 smedian silence between the person's hello and the rep's first wordSource: CCDocs two-track call recordings, 3 outbound campaigns, October 15, 2026.
- 6.22 sor more for 1 in 10 of those callsSource: CCDocs two-track call recordings, 3 outbound campaigns, October 15, 2026.
- 3,219answered calls measured, one track per side, on 3 outbound campaignsSource: CCDocs two-track call recordings, 3 outbound campaigns, October 15, 2026.
This is our floor on one day with no opener. Run the same measurement on your own recordings: the gap between the person's hello and your rep's first word.
Want to know how long your leads wait after hello? Bring a day of recordings to a discovery call.
Book a discovery callFor your managers
You decide where it runs
Per campaign, with an end time
You switch it on for a campaign until a set time. It switches itself off at that time, so a forgotten switch is an off switch.
A fair test built in
Run it on half the leads, picked by lead number, and compare the two halves on the same days and the same reps.
A quiet trial first
A shadow mode writes down what it would have done on each call, with no sound, so you can check it before anyone hears it.
Every call written down
Each call gets one log line: whether the greeting played, which clip, and what happened next.
The fair questions
Before you say yes
"It will play into voicemails."
It waits for the answering-machine check, and a call marked as a machine gets no greeting. Nothing plays at the hello. When the check gets a call wrong, the greeting plays as it would for a person.
"My reps will be thrown off."
They hear the greeting in their own call, and they get a follow-on line for their script that picks up where the greeting ends.
"What about the rules on AI voices?"
Under the FCC's ruling on AI-generated voices, a call that uses an AI voice needs the called person's prior express consent. Use the opener only on leads who gave it. Source: FCC Declaratory Ruling FCC 24-17, released February 8, 2024.
"What if it breaks?"
A broken or missing opener means the call runs exactly as it did before. One switch turns it off from the next call.
What you need
What it needs
- VICIdial with our answering-machine check. The greeting waits for that check, so it runs on campaigns that use it.
- Greeting clips. A clip per first name, and per rep if you want your reps' own voices.
- Leads who gave consent. It is an AI voice, so the FCC rule above applies. Leads in California are skipped.
The opener waits on our AI answering machine detection. Want a whole conversation handled by AI instead? Meet Tina, our AI call agent.
Questions we get
FAQ
Will it talk into a voicemail?
Not on a call our answering-machine check marks as a machine, or where it hears a beep. It plays only after the check says person or not sure, and never at the hello. It is only as good as that check.
What if nobody says anything after the greeting?
The call still goes to the rep after a short quiet. It never hangs up on dead air.
What if the person keeps talking?
It waits for a pause. No pause means no greeting, and the rep takes the call. If they talk over the greeting, it stops, plays once more, then hands over.
Can it greet in my rep's own voice?
Yes, when that rep has clips made. The greeting plays after the dialer picks the rep, so it matches the rep who takes the call. If the rep has no clips, a set voice is used. It is never silence.
What if we do not know the first name?
It uses a line with no name in it. Junk names like "Homeowner", initials or business words get that line too.
Can I switch it off fast?
Yes. It is switched on per campaign, it switches itself off at a set time each day, and one switch turns it off from the next call.
Does it slow down calls when it is off?
No. Off means the call runs exactly as it did before. A broken or missing opener file also means the call runs as before.
How do I know it helps my floor?
It can run on half your leads and not the other half, picked by lead number, so you can compare the two halves on the same days.
Is it legal to use?
A call that uses an AI-generated voice needs the called person's prior express consent under the FCC's ruling. Use it only on leads who gave that consent. We do not give legal advice; ask your own lawyer.
Works with
Works with the rest of our AI products
- AI Call Center ManagerSarah listens to every call, coaches each rep in private and answers their questions in Slack.
- AI Call AgentTina talks with a person in real time and both can talk at once, like a real call.
- AI Auto DispoThe robot listens to the customer side of each call and sets the result code in the dialer.
- AI Call ScreenerWhen a phone's call-screening assistant answers, it answers back and waits for the person.
- AI Answering Machine DetectionOur own engine judges answered calls: a person to your reps, a voicemail to the hang-up, on our own servers.
Greet your leads by name
Book a discovery call. We will walk you through the opener on a test call and show you how it would fit your campaigns and your reps' scripts.
Book a discovery callInternational phone numbers work on the booking form.