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Outbound AI Voice Agent setup guide

Get your AI agent making calls in five steps! This guide walks you through how to set up your Outbound AI Voice Agent, from creating the agent to triggering your first automated call. Follow each step in order to get up and running quickly.

What is an Outbound AI Voice Agent?

An Outbound AI Voice Agent automatically places calls on your behalf. Instead of waiting for customers to contact you, it proactively reaches out based on triggers from your existing tools, such as your CRM or scheduling platform.

Common use cases include:

  • Appointment reminders
  • Billing follow-ups
  • Post-service surveys
  • Lead outreach

Before you start

Make sure you have the following ready:

  • A phone number configured in Aircall that the agent can call from
  • A way to access or generate the list of customers you want to call
  • A clear idea of what the agent should say and do, including your first message

Step 1: Create your agent and connect a phone number

  1. Go to the AI Voice Agent section in your Aircall Dashboard.
  2. Click Create.
  3. Select Outbound as the call direction.
  4. Fill in the configuration fields, including name, voice, knowledge, and intake questions.
  5. Open the agent details page and click Connect number.
  6. Select a phone number from your available lines and save.
TIP:
Each agent can only be connected to one phone number at a time. If you need to call from different numbers, for example for different regions or languages, duplicate the agent after setup. Each copy will have its own configuration and webhook.

Step 2: Write your call script and configure call behaviour

First message

The first message is required and is the first thing the agent says when a call is answered.

You can personalise it using placeholders such as {{first_name}} or {{appointment_date}}. These values are automatically filled when the call is triggered.

Example:

"Hi {{first_name}}, this is a reminder from {{company_name}} about your appointment on {{appointment_date}}. I'm calling to confirm you're still available at that time."

IMPORTANT:
Any placeholder used in the first message must be included in the data sent when triggering the call. This ensures the agent has the same context a human agent would need before making a call.

Conversational guidelines

Use this section to define how the agent should handle the conversation, including:

  • The goal of the call
  • How to respond to rescheduling requests
  • How to handle objections
  • When to end the call

Voicemail handling

Go to the Outbound Call Workflow tab and choose how the agent behaves when voicemail is detected:

  • Hang up: the agent disconnects immediately (default)
  • Leave a message: the agent plays a message you define, which supports the same placeholder format

Call recording

Recording settings are inherited from the connected phone number and displayed for reference. To modify them, follow the link to the number settings page.

Escalation and call transfer

By default, if the contact requests a human agent or the AI Voice Agent cannot resolve the query, the outbound call ends. You can configure the agent to transfer the call to a human agent instead.

To enable this:

  1. Go to Aircall Dashboard > AI Agents > AI Voice Agents and select your AI Voice Agent
  2. Navigate to the Outbound call workflow section and toggle on Allow for calls to be transferred.
  3. Select a transfer role: a specific user, a team, or an external number.
  4. Choose a trigger condition:  the agent will transfer the call when this happens.
  5. Write a transfer message
  6. Save your changes.
image showing outbound call workflow section

Once configured, when an escalation is triggered the agent plays a transfer message to the contact and performs a cold transfer to the configured destination.

 
NOTE:
When the destination is a team, calls are distributed using simultaneous ringing with a 30-second ring time.

Step 3: Connect your tools

To trigger calls, connect your agent to your existing tools using a webhook.

Copy your webhook URL

  1. Go to the Outbound Call Workflow tab.
  2. Copy the webhook URL under "Trigger calls from your tools".
  3. Paste it into your CRM, scheduling tool, or automation platform where a webhook or HTTP request URL is required.
  4. Set the request method to POST.

Add your API key

  1. In your tool, select Basic Auth for authentication.
  2. Enter your Aircall API ID and API Token.
  3. Click View API Keys in the Outbound Call Workflow tab to retrieve your credentials.
TIP:
If your contacts are stored in a spreadsheet or CSV file, use a tool like Zapier or Make.com to convert each row into a webhook trigger. These tools can automatically send a request for each new entry without requiring code.

Step 4: Add data to the trigger

Each triggered call sends a JSON payload to the agent with the necessary information.

Example:

{
  "contact_phone": "+15551234567",
  "idempotency_key": "reminder-march-20-jane",
  "context": {
    "first_name": "Jane",
    "appointment_date": "March 20th at 2:00 PM"
  }
}

Field definitions

  • contact_phone: The phone number to call, including country code (for example, +1 for the US)
  • idempotency_key: A unique identifier to prevent duplicate calls, such as a contact ID combined with a date
  • context: The data used to populate placeholders in your first message

Additional parameter:

  • Attempt expiration: Default is 1 hour, maximum is currently 24 hours.
TIP:
Please review our developer page for technical configuration details.

Step 5: Test your agent

Before going live, test your setup using the built-in test feature.

  1. Go to the agent details page.
  2. Click Test call in the right-hand panel.
  3. If your message includes placeholders, fill them in when prompted.
  4. Allow microphone access.
  5. Say "Hello" to start the interaction.
  6. Click the red hang-up button to end the call.

Once satisfied, you can move to production.

After activation, calls will appear in your system with statuses such as answered, unanswered, or voicemail. Metrics will be available in the Aircall Analytics Dashboard.

IMPORTANT:
Check the article "Understanding your AI Voice Agent charges" to understand the call origination fee applied to Outbound AI Voice Agent call attempts.

Pre-launch checklist

Before sending your first live call, confirm the following:

  • Agent created with direction set to Outbound
  • Phone number connected to the agent
  • First message written and tested, including all placeholders
  • Voicemail behaviour configured
  • Conversational guidelines completed
  • Knowledge base populated with relevant information, if applicable
  • Webhook URL added to your tool
  • API credentials configured using Basic Auth
  • JSON body correctly set with required fields and context variables
  • Test call completed successfully and behaviour validated
  • If human escalation is required: Call Transfer Rules enabled with a valid transfer destination configured.

Concurrency limits and rate limiting

To protect call quality, your account has the following limits when triggering Outbound AI Voice Agent calls.

Limit Value What it means
API rate limit 120 requests per minute You can send up to 120 trigger requests per minute. Requests are queued and triggered based on the concurrency limits below.
Concurrent calls per company 5 Your company can have up to 5 outbound agent calls in progress at the same time.
Concurrent calls per number 1 Each phone number can only have one live agent call at a time. Because each agent is connected to a single number, this also means one live call per agent. 
NOTE:
Queued requests start as soon as concurrency capacity becomes available. If a request expires before capacity is available, the call will not be placed.

Restricted numbers for outbound outreach

Certain phone numbers cannot be used for automated outbound outreach, including Outbound AI Voice Agent. Aircall automatically blocks ineligible numbers when you attempt to connect them to an agent.

Country-specific restrictions

Country Not eligible Eligible / Recommended
France Mobile numbers (06, 07); standard geographic numbers (01 to 05, 09) NPV numbers only (contact Number Operations team)
Spain Mobile numbers (starting with 6 or 7) Geographic landlines (for example Madrid or Barcelona)
Germany Mobile numbers (015x, 016x, 017x) Geographic numbers registered to your business
Austria Mobile numbers are not recommended Use geographic numbers
Switzerland Mobile numbers are not recommended Use geographic numbers 
NOTE:
Eligibility rules are enforced automatically. If a number cannot be used, it will be blocked during setup.

TIP:
If you need assistance, contact your Aircall Account manager for guidance on any part of the setup.
Anna L.