Meet Sona: An AI Voice Agent to Answer Your Business Calls 24/7

Missed calls often mean missed opportunities, a constant headache for businesses of all sizes. Customers calling outside business hours, reaching a busy line, or getting lost in complicated phone menus frequently hang up in frustration. While traditional voicemail serves as a basic message bank, it rarely provides immediate answers or captures important lead information effectively. Hiring dedicated staff or using conventional answering services adds significant costs.

Now, artificial intelligence (AI) is presenting another option: specialized AI voice agents designed to handle inbound calls, offering a potential middle ground between impersonal voicemail and costly human reception. The question is, could these AI assistants be the key to better call management without breaking the budget?

What is an AI Voice Agent?

An AI voice agent is an autonomous software system with advanced reasoning capabilities powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) that understand and respond to human speech by combining speech technologies like text-to-speech (TTS) and speech-to-text (STT), allowing AI to have interactive conversations, answer questions, and perform actions, similar to a human assistant.

The Problem with Calls After Hours (and During Them)

For many businesses, the phone remains a required connection point. However, managing inbound calls efficiently is a constant challenge. Staff can be tied up on other calls or in meetings, and after-hours inquiries often go straight to a voicemail box, leaving potential customers waiting or, worse, prompting them to call a competitor.

Standard answering services can field calls, but they often lack deep knowledge about specific products or services and come with recurring fees that can strain smaller budgets. The result is a communication gap where valuable interactions and potential sales can slip through the cracks.

What is Sona by OpenPhone?

AI-powered voice agents offer a different approach. One example entering this space is Sona, developed by the business phone system provider OpenPhone, an AI voice agent that answers your business calls 24/7, so you never miss a customer. This type of tool isn't trying to replace complex human interaction entirely but rather to act as a sophisticated front line, available around the clock. Instead of just recording a message, it can engage in a meaningful conversation with the caller.

What an AI Voice Agent Like Sona Does

Think of it as an automated assistant specifically trained on your business details. Its main purpose is to ensure no call goes entirely unanswered and to provide a more helpful experience than a simple recording.

Here's a look at its main functions:

• Always Available: Operates 24/7, answering calls whenever human staff are unavailable, during meetings, after hours, or on holidays.

• Information Source: Sona can answer frequently asked questions based on your information, such as business hours, service details, pricing basics, or location.

• Lead and Message Capture: Guides callers to provide the specific information they need (like name, the reason for calling, and contact details) for effective follow-up, going beyond a generic voicemail message.

• Call Management: Integrates into existing call routing setups, allowing businesses to decide precisely when the AI agent takes over (e.g., if the line rings unanswered for a set time or specifically during closed hours).

• Record Keeping: Automatically logs every interaction, providing recordings, transcripts, and summaries directly within the phone system for easy review and action by the team.

• Customization: Allows businesses to customize the agent's greeting, the questions it asks, and the specific company knowledge it uses for responses. It can also be tested internally before going live.

Setting Expectations: What It Can (and Can't) Do

These AI agents are designed primarily for handling common inquiries and capturing structured information. For example, if customers frequently ask about appointment availability or basic service costs, the AI can provide those instant answers, freeing up staff time. It can also be configured to ask specific qualifying questions to new leads, ensuring the sales team has context before calling back.

However, it's important to understand the current boundaries. Sona, for example, currently only supports English and handles inbound calls; it cannot make outbound calls. Complex, nuanced, or emotionally charged conversations are still best handled by humans.

The idea isn't full automation of customer relationships but rather intelligent assistance for managing call volume and initial interactions more effectively. Businesses can set up different configurations, perhaps providing more detailed answers during business hours and simply taking thorough messages after hours.

Conclusion:

AI voice agents offer a more practical application of artificial intelligence focused on a common business problem: managing inbound calls effectively and affordably. While AI voice agents like OpenPhone's Sona are not a replacement for human interaction in complex scenarios, they offer businesses a way to provide consistent information, capture important details, and ensure customers receive a response anytime they call, potentially turning missed calls into documented opportunities.