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Get started with Voice

Are you ready for your AI Agent to start helping customers over the phone? This guide will help you get your AI Agent ready to smoothly and confidently help your customers in voice conversations.

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This feature may not be included with your organization's subscription package. For more information, see Ada's Pricing page, or contact your Ada team.

Voice works by integrating a Twilio account with your AI Agent.

  • If your Voice subscription package includes Twilio, skip ahead to Enable Voice in multiple languages. Your Ada team will set up your Twilio account for you.

  • If you're using your own Twilio account, expand these instructions to prepare an account, phone number(s), and/or a SIP domain to use with your AI Agent:

    Set up your Twilio account

    1. If your organization doesn't already have one, set up an account with Twilio. For more information, see View and Create New Accounts in Twilio Console at Twilio's Help Center.

    2. Set up one or more phone numbers with Twilio, using one of the following options:

    3. Submit your organization's toll-free phone number(s) to Twilio for verification.

      • If you are using a toll-free number with your AI Agent and you want to be able to send SMS messages from it during a phone conversation, you will need to submit a Toll-Free Message Verification request to Twilio. For more information, see Toll-Free Message Verification for US/Canada at Twilio's Help Center.

      • If you are using a local number with your AI Agent and you want to be able to send SMS messages from it during a phone conversation, you will need to submit an A2P (Application to Person) 10DLC (10 digit long code) registration request to Twilio. For more information, see Programmable Messaging and A2P 10DLC at Twilio's Help Center.

    4. (Optional) Set up a SIP domain with Twilio.

      Your AI Agent can also receive calls from your contact center infrastructure, transferred over the public internet using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). To do this, you first need to create a SIP domain in Twilio.

      1. Add at least one IP Access Control List (ACL) or Credential List in Twilio

        An Access Control List (ACL) is a security measure that manages who can access your network resources by specifying allowed IP addresses. In SIP communications, using an ACL enhances security by ensuring only trusted traffic can reach your Twilio SIP domain, preventing unauthorized access.

        This procedure takes you through configuring an IP ACL in Twilio, so Twilio only accepts SIP traffic that originates from your specified IPs. You can also choose to configure credential lists instead, so it only accepts traffic from specific usernames and passwords. For more information, see Inbound - Sending SIP to Twilio at Twilio’s Help Center.

        1. Log into Twilio Console.

        2. In your Twilio account, go to Develop > Voice > Manage > IP access control lists, then click Create new Access Control List. The Create new Access Control List window opens.

        3. In the Create new Access Control List window, fill in the following fields:

          1. Under ACL Friendly Name, enter a descriptive name that represents the purpose of the list (e.g., My Contact Center Platform IP Address).

          2. Under IP Address Range Friendly Name, enter a name to help identify the IP Address range.

          3. Under CIDR Network Address and Range, enter the specific IP address range that should be allowed access.

        4. Click Create new ACL to save the list and close the window. Then, click Create new IP Address Range to add an additional IP range to the list. The Add IP Address Range window opens.

        5. Repeat the previous steps for adding an IP Address Range.

      2. Create a new SIP domain.

        1. Go to Develop > Voice > Manage > SIP domains.
        2. Click the plus sign to create a new SIP domain.
        3. Create a SIP URI/domain name. This property allows you to specify a global unique SIP domain that is used to route SIP traffic from your infrastructure over the public internet to the correct server hosted by Twilio in the cloud. For more information on SIP domains, see SIP URI/domain names at Twilio’s Help Center.
        4. If you wish to manually connect to a specific geographic Edge Location that is closest to the location of your communications infrastructure, see Localized SIP URIs at Twilio’s Help Center. This can reduce latency and improve call audio quality.
        5. Under Voice Authentication, beside IP Access Control Lists, select both of the IP Access Control Lists you created.
        6. Under Secure Media, click the toggle so it says Enabled.
        7. Click Save.

    After getting your phone number and/or SIP domain set up with Twilio, you can connect it with your AI Agent.

    Connect your Twilio account with your Ada AI Agent

    In your Twilio account, you need to obtain your account string identifier (SID), and create an API key to use with Ada.

    1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Channels > Voice, then go to the Configuration tab. Keep this page open as you go into your Twilio account to get your account details, so you can paste them in as you find them.

    2. In your Twilio console, in your account info, find your Account SID. Your Account SID is a unique identifier that acts like a username when you're using Twilio's API. For information on how to find it, see Auth Tokens and How to Change Them at Twilio's Help Center.

    3. On the Ada dashboard, under Twilio Configuration, paste your Account SID into the Twilio Account SID field.

    4. In your Twilio console, create a new API key. Enter a name into the Friendly name field, set the Key Type to Main, and leave the other settings with their default values.

      For information on how to create an API key, see API Keys and How to Change Them at Twilio's Help Center. When you create an API key, you get both a key and a secret. You can only view the secret once for security reasons, so make sure you save it in a safe place.

    5. On the Ada dashboard, under Twilio Configuration, paste the API key into the Twilio API Key SID field, and paste the secret into the Twilio API Key Secret field.

    6. Configure your AI Agent to use a phone number, or configure a SIP address to handle transfers between your AI Agent and your CCaaS provider. Your AI Agent can only use one or the other. Click a section to expand the full instructions.

      For more information on how you can configure transfers either using the phone network or over the internet, see Integrate your voice AI Agent with your Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) provider.

      Configure a phone number with your AI Agent

      1. Select Phone Number.

      2. Under Default phone number, enter your Twilio phone number. This is the phone number your customers will call to interact with your AI Agent.

      3. If required, you can add additional numbers if you want to use them to serve different audiences (e.g,. callers who want to speak in specific languages, or if your AI Agent serves multiple brands). To do this, click Add another phone number, add the number, and select a default language for it.

      4. Under Fallback phone number, enter a fallback number. In case there are issues with your AI Agent's phone number, your AI Agent can redirect callers to a fallback phone number; for example, a number that goes directly to human support.

      5. If required, you can select Use a different phone number for SMS and enter a different phone number to send and receive SMS messages instead of your main phone number.

      Configure a SIP address with your AI Agent

      1. Select SIP Address.

      2. Enter a SIP address. This should follow the format [email protected], where:

        • username is a unique username for your SIP address
        • your-SIP-domain.sip.twilio.com is the SIP domain that you previously created in Twilio, ending with .sip.twilio.com

        If you haven’t created a SIP domain yet, entering and saving a SIP domain here will create the domain in your Twilio account. You will then need to configure at least one IP Access Control List or Credential List in Twilio to use with this SIP domain.

      3. If required, you can add additional SIP addresses that you created in Twilio if you want to use them to serve different audiences (e.g,. callers who want to speak in specific languages, or if your AI Agent serves multiple brands). To do this, click Add another SIP address, add the address, and select a default language for it.

      4. Under Fallback SIP address, enter a fallback SIP address. In case there are issues with your main SIP domain, your AI Agent can redirect callers to this address, which should then direct to your Interactive Voice Response (IVR) provider.

      5. Under SMS phone number, enter your Twilio phone number, so your AI Agent can use it to send and receive SMS messages, and so you can use it when you're testing your AI Agent.

    7. Click Save. Your AI Agent can now handle phone calls.

    You can configure additional settings to fine-tune your AI Agent's behavior during phone calls, but we'll cover those and what they mean in later topics.

important

Your usage of Voice is subject to both applicable privacy and phone communication laws, and Twilio's policies. These may vary based on your location and industry. If you have any questions, please contact Ada's or Twilio's support.

Enable Voice in multiple languages​

You can enable different languages for customers to speak with your AI Agent with over the phone. For more information on enabling languages, see Support multiple languages in the same AI Agent.

The following languages are available for voice:

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Spanish
  • Swedish
  • Dutch

If you enable any of the above languages in your AI Agent, that language will be available in both messaging and voice - you can't have any of these languages only enabled for one or the other.

Choose regional dialects for your languages​

Some of the languages available in Voice also have support for different regional dialects of those languages:

  • English

    • Australia
    • Canada
    • United Kingdom
    • United States

  • French

    • Canada
    • France

  • Spanish

    • Spain
    • United States

For each of the above languages, you can choose one dialect to use in your AI Agent, which affects two things:

  • Speech transcription models

    Your AI Agent uses a speech transcription model to transcribe what callers say and convert it to text. Ada can use transcription models that are specifically trained using speaking data using a particular dialect to improve transcription accuracy.

  • Speaking voices

    When you choose a dialect for your AI Agent, your AI Agent will automatically use the default speaking voice for that language and dialect. You can always go into your settings and choose a different voice for that dialect instead.

Here's how you can change the dialects available for your AI Agent:

  1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Channels > Voice, then go to the Dialects tab.

  2. For each language that has dialects available, in the Dialect/region list, select an available dialect.

  3. Click Save. Your AI Agent immediately starts using the dialects you chose for all conversations in the corresponding languages, for both internal testing and for any live voice content in your AI Agent.

Understand how your AI Agent determines the caller's language​

By default, your AI Agent determines the language to use with your caller based on the language metavariable. There are a few ways you can set the caller's language:

  • Set a default language for the phone number or SIP address

    When you were setting up your Twilio account with your AI Agent, you might have set a default language for one or more phone numbers or SIP addresses. If you did, all phone numbers to that number or SIP address start with the language metavariable set to that language.

  • Let callers select from a menu of enabled languages

    You can choose to begin all of your AI Agent's calls with a menu that allows callers to select one of your enabled languages. If you turn on this menu, your AI Agent will serve it to all callers before the Greeting, even if the number is associated with a specific dialect.

    1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Channels > Voice, then go to the Language selection tab.

    2. To turn on the menu, select the Let callers select their own language checkbox. Your AI Agent's enabled languages appear.

    3. For each of your enabled languages:

      • Toggle the language On or Off to control whether it appears in the menu.

      • For languages you want to appear in the menu, drag them higher or lower in the list. Your AI Agent will automatically assign each language a number that the caller than dial into their dialpad to select.

    4. Click Save. Your language selection menu becomes available immediately for all callers.

  • Use the End Users API

    You can use the End Users API to update a user's profile to set the language metavariable.

  • Send language information in the SIP header

    If you're using SIP transfers to transfer callers to a Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), you can include the language value in the user-to-user header.

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    If you set a default language for that SIP address, the language in the header overwrites the default language.

Choose a speaking voice for your AI Agent​

Choosing a speaking voice for your AI Agent is an important part of your AI Agent's branding. You can change your AI Agent's voice at any time to better fit your AI Agent's branding needs.

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Not all speaking voices support SSML, which is the markup you can use to control how your AI Agent pronounces content in voice conversations. Voices that support SSML will have (SSML) after the name of the voice (e.g., Erica (SSML)).

  1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Channels > Voice, then go to the Speaking voice tab.

  2. Under Speaking voice, select a voice for each language you have enabled in your AI Agent.

  3. Optionally, in the text field, you can type in a text sample, like a message from your AI Agent, so you can hear your AI Agent read out a specific piece of your AI Agent content. Then, you can click the Play button beside a selected voice to play the sample.

  4. Click Save. your AI Agent immediately starts using the voices you selected for both internal testing and for any live voice content in your AI Agent.

Configure how long a caller can be silent before your AI Agent hangs up​

You can choose how much time your AI Agent will wait for a caller to speak before it assumes the caller is gone and ends the call.

  1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Channels > Voice, then go to the Configuration tab.

  2. Under Maximum caller silence (seconds), enter the number of seconds you want your AI Agent to wait before hanging up.

  3. Click Save.

Help your voice AI Agent understand special terms​

Does your company use special terms like product or feature names, or acronyms that might be hard for your AI Agent to understand? Does your industry have specialized vocabulary your callers are likely to refer to? You can improve your AI Agent's chances of recognizing those terms by adding them into your AI Agent's vocabulary. That way, when a caller refers to them, your AI Agent can reply with accurate information, and provide accurate transcripts of the calls for your analysis.

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This feature is currently only supported in English. If you have additional languages enabled in your AI Agent, adding special terms won't affect how your AI Agent interprets those terms in those languages.

  1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Channels > Voice, then go to the Vocabulary tab.

  2. Add, remove, or dig deeper into the terms in your list as required:

    • To add a new term, click New Term. A new row in your vocabulary table appears. Type in a term, then click Add term.

    • To delete an existing term, hover over its row and click the Delete button that appears.

    • To view all the conversations where callers used a term, beside that term, click View conversations.

Have any questions? Contact your Ada team, or email us at .