AI Call Screener
AI Call Screener: get past the phone that answers for your lead
Phones now answer unknown numbers with a screening assistant: record your name and reason for calling. A normal answering-machine check calls that a machine and hangs up. The AI Call Screener answers back, waits for the person and passes them to a free rep. On our own floor, about 1 in 6 calls marked as a machine was really one of these screeners.
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- Lead's phone"Hi, if you record your name and reason for calling, I'll see if this person is available."
- AI Call Screener"Hey Maria, it's Alex."
- Lead's phone(the screener passes it on)
- Test lead"Hello? Who's this?"
- AI Call ScreenerPerson heard: hand to the next free rep
Staged example: a test lead and a test greeting. The screener line is the one iPhone call screening says.
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 the screener's question to your rep
The screener sits between your answering-machine check and your rep. Here is what it does on one call.
The dialer calls, the phone answers for the lead
The lead's phone picks up with its own assistant asking who is calling and why. The person has not heard anything yet.
We know it is a screener, not a voicemail
Our answering-machine check recognises the screener from its own words, instead of calling it a plain machine and hanging up.
It waits for the screener to listen
It waits for the screener's beep or a short quiet. If the screener never gets ready, the call is handled like any other machine.
It answers with a short greeting
A short spoken greeting with the lead's first name. The screener passes it to the person on the other end.
It listens to what comes back
Each reply is judged. A person goes to the next free rep. A recording or a machine is hung up with its own result code. A request to stop calling goes on the do-not-call list. A person who says no gets a declined code.
No free rep? It says so
If a person comes on and no rep is free, it says sorry, we will call you right back, and hangs up, instead of leaving them on a dead line.
What a floor loses without it
Screened calls, hung up on as machines
- 1 in 6
Calls our answering-machine check marked as a machine that were really a phone's call screener (17.6% of a held-out set of 3,036 calls). Each one is a lead whose phone answered for them, hung up on before anyone knew who called.
- 10,000
Machine calls we checked on one day, word by word. Most of the screeners were iPhone call screening.
Source: CCDocs check of 10,000 answering-machine calls on 3 outbound campaigns, October 15, 2026. Check your own: listen to a handful of calls your dialer marked as answering machines and count the ones that ask for your name and reason for calling.
Bring a day of your answering-machine calls. We will show you how many were really screeners.
Book a discovery callThe fair questions
Before you say yes
"Will my reps get more machines?"
The screener judges each reply before a rep hears anything. What it judges a recording or a machine is hung up with its own result code; it hands over the calls it judges to be a person.
"Can I see what it did?"
Screened calls get their own result codes, apart from normal answering machines: no answer behind the screener, declined, or do-not-call.
"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 screener only on leads who gave it. Source: FCC Declaratory Ruling FCC 24-17, released February 8, 2024.
"What if no rep is free?"
The person hears that you will call right back, instead of a dead line, and the call is closed out.
What you need
What it needs
- Outbound calls only. It answers screeners on calls you make. It does not filter calls coming in.
- VICIdial with our answering-machine check. That check is what recognises the screener.
- Leads who gave consent. It uses a recorded AI voice, so the FCC rule above applies.
It runs on top of our AI answering machine detection, and AI Auto Dispo writes its result codes to the dialer.
Questions we get
FAQ
Does it screen my incoming calls?
No. It works on outbound calls your dialer makes, when the lead's phone answers with a call-screening assistant. It does not block spam or answer your callers.
Which screeners does it know?
The ones that answer with their own words, like iPhone call screening ("record your name and reason for calling") and Google Call Assist. It recognises them from what they say.
What does the lead hear?
A short greeting with their first name, passed on by their phone's screener. If they come on the line, the call goes to the next free rep; if no rep is free, they hear that you will call right back.
What happens if nobody comes on?
It hangs up and the call gets its own screener result code, separate from a normal answering machine, so you can see these calls in your numbers.
What if the person says stop calling?
The number goes on the campaign's do-not-call list.
Can I switch it off fast?
Yes. It is switched on per campaign until a set time, and one switch turns it off from the next call.
How do I know it helps?
It can run on half your leads and not the other half, picked by lead number, so you can compare the two halves.
Is it legal to use?
The greeting is a recorded AI voice, and under the FCC's ruling a call that uses an AI-generated voice needs the called person's prior express consent. 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 Auto OpenerA short greeting with the lead's first name once our machine check hears a person, while your rep comes on.
- AI Answering Machine DetectionOur own engine judges answered calls: a person to your reps, a voicemail to the hang-up, on our own servers.
Stop hanging up on screened calls
Book a discovery call. Bring a day of your answering-machine calls and we will show you how many were really a phone's screener.
Book a discovery callInternational phone numbers work on the booking form.