Designing an AI receptionist that knows when to hand over

The goal was never to replace people. It was to make sure the phone is always answered, and that the calls which genuinely need a human reach one quickly, with context.

Escalation is a feature, not a failure

Every agent carries escalation rules written in plain language — the kind of thing you’d tell a new starter on their first day. For example: “If the caller describes a gas leak, stop and transfer immediately to the on-call engineer.” The agent watches for those conditions on every call and hands over the moment one is met.

When it isn’t sure, it hands over

Beyond explicit rules, the agent is built to transfer when confidence drops — an unusual request, a distressed or frustrated caller, or anything outside what it was set up to handle. The guiding principle is simple: it’s better to pass a call to a person than to guess and get it wrong.

A handover that doesn’t start from scratch

When the agent transfers, it carries what it already knows — the caller’s name, number and reason for calling — so whoever picks up isn’t starting cold. The caller never has to repeat themselves, which is usually the most infuriating part of being “put through”.