🛠️ How-to tutorials

Setting up an AI voice agent from phone number to first call

Updated 2026-09-19 · 4 min read · By the Convo360 team

In short

Connect a number from Plivo, Exotel, Twilio or your own SIP trunk under Phone Numbers, create a voice agent with a system prompt, voice, gender and language, then assign it to the number for inbound, outbound or both. Tune Call behaviour for noise and interruptions, make a test call, and check the transcript before routing real traffic. AI voice needs a Pro plan (₹2,999/month, excluding GST) or higher.

Key takeaways

AI voice calling requires the Pro plan (₹2,999/month, excluding GST) or above.
You bring your own telephony account (Plivo, Exotel, Twilio or SIP) — Convo360 adds no per-minute markup.
Incoming call charges depend on your telephony provider and plan — check its current price list.
Call behaviour settings (noise handling, interruptions, acknowledgement style) matter as much as the script.
Every call is transcribed and can trigger a post-call WhatsApp follow-up, CRM lead or team notification.

Prerequisites

You need: a Pro plan account or higher (₹2,999/month, excluding 18% GST; this unlocks AI voice calls, three workspaces and all integrations), an account with Plivo, Exotel, Twilio or your own SIP trunk with its API keys ready, and a chosen AI key (OpenAI, Claude or Gemini) plus a voice provider (Sarvam, Smallest.ai, ElevenLabs or OpenAI) added under Integrations → Provider keys. Decide up front whether the number will handle inbound, outbound, or both.

It also pays to decide the call's single job before you open the agent builder: an inbound FAQ line, an outbound reminder caller, or a booking assistant, rather than one agent trying to do all three. A focused system prompt with a narrow knowledge base answers faster and drifts off-script far less than a do-everything agent.

The exact click path

Under Phone Numbers, connect a number from Plivo, Exotel, Twilio or SIP, pasting your provider's keys once.
Go to Agents → New agent (or install a voice template from the Template Store) and choose the voice engine, voice, gender and language.
Write the system prompt (the agent's role, tone and rules) and add a knowledge base if it needs to answer from your documents.
Assign the agent to your number and choose inbound, outbound, or both.
Set a hand-off number so the agent can transfer to a person when asked or stuck.
Open Call behaviour and set noise handling, interruption tolerance and acknowledgement style for your environment.
Make a test call to your own phone before going live.

Worked example: a shop-counter receptionist agent

A hardware store wants an agent answering 'What are your store hours?' and 'Do you have X in stock?' calls at a noisy counter. Setup order: connect the store's Exotel number → build the agent with a system prompt describing store hours and a knowledge base document listing categories carried → set Background noise handling to Noisy and turn Let the caller interrupt off, since street and counter noise would otherwise be mistaken for the caller talking over the agent → set Acknowledgement style to a short natural 'haan' before answering → make a test call standing near the actual counter to hear how it copes.

Call behaviour, explained

Each agent has its own Call behaviour section so it stays natural on real Indian phone lines:

Background noise handling: Quiet, Normal or Noisy. Pick Noisy for a shop counter, street or factory floor.
Let the caller interrupt: on by default; turn it off on very noisy lines so background sound can't cut the agent off mid-sentence.
Acknowledgement style: a short natural word ('sure', 'haan'), a full phrase, none, or your own custom line.
Advanced: raw mic sensitivity and silence-before-reply timing, or reset to the preset.

These four settings interact, so change one at a time and re-test rather than adjusting all of them together. A common mistake is turning interruptions off and switching to Noisy on a genuinely quiet line, which then makes the agent feel slow to respond to a caller who was speaking clearly.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely fix
Calls don't connect at all	Telephony keys are wrong or the number isn't fully verified with the provider; recheck under Phone Numbers.
Agent talks over the caller	Set Background noise handling to Noisy and turn off 'Let the caller interrupt'.
Voice sounds wrong or mispronounces words	Try a different voice or provider in the Voice Library; pronunciation quality varies by voice and language.
No transcript after a call	Check that call recording/transcription wasn't disabled at the agent level, and that the call actually connected (not a missed/failed call).
Agent gives wrong information	Update or expand the knowledge base document rather than editing the system prompt for every fact.
Provider error banner appears	Your AI or voice provider key likely expired or hit a limit — the built-in Provider Health monitor flags this on the dashboard so you can fix the key.

What to test before going live, and cost

Call the number yourself from a mobile in a normal environment and again in a noisy one.
Ask a question that's in the knowledge base and one that isn't, to confirm it hands off or admits it doesn't know rather than guessing.
Say 'talk to a person' and confirm the transfer number actually rings.
Check the transcript and any post-call action (CRM lead, WhatsApp follow-up) fired correctly.

AI voice needs Pro (₹2,999/month) or Business (₹7,999/month), both excluding GST. Incoming and outbound minutes (the rates depend on your provider and plan) and AI tokens are billed directly by your telephony and AI providers at their rates — Convo360 adds no markup.

Budget roughly: the Pro or Business plan fee covers the platform and unlocks voice; your telephony provider bills you per outbound minute and, in most cases, nothing for inbound; and your AI/voice provider bills per minute of speech generated and per token of reasoning used. None of these three costs are marked up by Convo360, so the number you see on your provider's own invoice is the real number.

Step by step

Connect a telephony numberUnder Phone Numbers, connect Plivo, Exotel, Twilio or your own SIP trunk with your provider keys.
Create or install a voice agentBuild a new agent or install a voice template, then set its voice, gender, language and system prompt.
Add a knowledge baseUpload documents or FAQs so the agent answers from your material instead of guessing.
Assign the agent to the numberChoose inbound, outbound, or both, and set a hand-off number for transfers.
Tune Call behaviourSet background noise handling, interruption tolerance and acknowledgement style for your environment.
Make a test callCall the number yourself, check the transcript, and confirm any post-call action fired correctly.

Example conversation

Hello, I wanted to know your clinic timings for Saturday.

Hi! We're open Saturday from 10 AM to 2 PM. Would you like me to check available slots and book one for you right now?

Set up your first voice agent

Start free in minutes — no code, no credit card. Bring your own AI keys and pay no per-message markup.

Start 14-day free trial →See pricing

Frequently asked questions

Which plan do I need for AI voice calls?

Pro (₹2,999/month) or Business (₹7,999/month), both excluding GST, unlock AI voice calling on Convo360. Starter (₹999/month) covers WhatsApp and web chat only, so you'll need to upgrade before connecting a telephony number for voice.

Do I need my own telephony account?

Yes. Connect Plivo, Exotel, Twilio or your own SIP trunk with your own keys — Convo360 adds no per-minute markup on top of your provider's rates.

Why does the agent talk over the caller on a noisy line?

Open the agent's Call behaviour section, set Background noise handling to Noisy, and turn off 'Let the caller interrupt' so background sound isn't mistaken for the caller speaking.

Can the agent switch languages mid-call?

Yes, agents can auto-detect the caller's language from their speech and switch to it mid-call, covering Hindi, major regional Indian languages and Hinglish code-mixing alongside English, depending on the voice provider you've connected.

Are incoming calls free in India?

Not as a rule. Incoming call charges depend on your telephony provider and plan, so check its current price list; all minutes are billed by your telephony provider at their rate, with no per-minute fee from Convo360.

What happens if my AI or voice provider key expires?

Convo360's Provider Health monitor detects the error, such as an expired key or a failed authentication, and shows a clear alert on your dashboard so you can update the key quickly, instead of leaving you to guess why calls are failing.