Guide

What do you need for an AI phone assistant? The requirements

Before an AI phone assistant even makes sense, a few things need to be in place at your business. Here's what those are — and which supposed prerequisites actually aren't.

Request assessment ↗AI phone assistant

Quote on request2 to 3 weeksAs of 2026

In short

For an AI phone assistant, a business needs three things: a clearly defined process that currently costs time or orders, existing content or data to work with, and a person authorized to make decisions. Technical expertise is explicitly not required.

01 — Requirements

What you need for an AI phone assistant

A clearly defined trigger. Not “we should do something with AI,” but a process that demonstrably costs time or orders today.
Existing content or data. An AI phone assistant works with what's already there. The more complete the starting point, the shorter the setup.
Access to the systems involved. Whoever manages the credentials needs to be involved from the start — this is, in our experience, the most common cause of delays.
One decision-making contact person. One, not three.
Willingness to refine after launch. The first weeks in real operation show what was missing in the concept. That's normal and accounted for.

02 — Participation

What we need from you

A contact person who can make decisions — not just forward them.
Access to the affected systems, in time and not on launch day.
Real examples from daily business — the messier, the more useful for testing.
Two to four hours for coordination, distributed over the project duration.
An answer to the question of what success means. Without it, nothing can be assessed afterward.

03 — Fit

When it's worth it

The process in question occurs at least weekly.
It follows rules you can write down — even if there are exceptions.
Today it's manual work that no one enjoys doing.
There's one person who decides, not three who need to coordinate.
You can name what would tell you it worked.

04 — Questions

Frequently asked questions

What happens in an emergency?

You define keywords — for an installation business, for example, “water damage” or “no hot water”. When these come up, the call is immediately transferred or a number is called, instead of writing a log.

Can it enter appointments in our calendar?

Yes, in Google Calendar, Microsoft 365 and common industry calendars. You set available slots, buffer times and blocked times, the assistant only books within these rules.

What does a missed call actually cost us?

You can calculate it: average order value times closing rate times missed calls. For trades businesses with an average order value of 800 euros, one additional job won per month is enough to cover the costs.

Can it run only in the evenings and on weekends?

Yes. Many businesses activate the assistant only outside office hours and when the line is busy. That's the most affordable option and still covers the majority of lost calls.

Do callers notice they're speaking with an AI?

Yes, and that's how it should be. The assistant says at the beginning that it's a digital assistant — the EU AI Act has required this since August 2026 and it prevents trouble. In practice, hardly anyone minds as long as their request is handled.

Do we need a new phone system?

No. In most cases, call forwarding on no answer is sufficient. If you have a cloud phone system, it's even more direct.

How long until it's good?

After the trial phase, standard cases are handled. The fine points — rare requests, unusual phrasings — are added in the first four to six weeks.

05 — Next

AI phone assistant by region

Next step

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