OpenAI Setup

If you don't already have an OpenAI account, create one at https://platform.openai.com, set up billing, and generate an API Key.

Creating a Project and setting up Billing

1. Sign in or create an account at OpenAI
2. Create a new Project and give it a descriptive name, e.g. “[CompanyNameHere] AI Receptionist”
3. Go to Settings → Billing and complete the billing setup.
4. Ensure you have enough credit for your expected usage, or at least enough to properly test. 

Configure Model Access and Limits

1. Go to Projects → Limits
2. Set a budget to control your spending.
3. Under Allow or block models, keep the list empty to allow all models
4. Under Rate limits, increase limits for the models above as needed (larger installations may require higher limits)

Note about Rate Limits: Your ability to raise limits depends on your OpenAI API usage tier / account history. OpenAI accounts who pay a minimum of $100 are typically elevated to Tier 3 directly. 

Create an API Key

1. Go to Dashboard → API Keys.
2. Click Create a New Secret Key.
3. Enter a descriptive name and set permissions to All
4. Copy the API key and store it somewhere secure. The key will not be shown again once this window has been closed.

Configure OpenAI Settings in Control Portal

1. In the Control Portal, go to Call Flow → AI Voice and click the OpenAI API button. 
   
2. Paste your OpenAI API Key
3. Select models:
   1. OpenAI Model for Real-Time Calls:
      1. gpt-realtime (Better reasoning, higher cost)
      2. gpt-realtime-mini (Optimized for speed over depth, lower cost)
   2. OpenAI Model for Text
      1. gpt-5o-mini (recommended)
4. Fill in your Company Name and Company Description
   1. This is used by your AI Receptionist to understand your organization's context. 
5. Click the Save button.

Add Knowledge Sources (optional)

During calls or chats, knowledge sources enable the AI Receptionist to access company-specific content (FAQs, policies, routing rules, product documents). 

1. In the Control Portal, go to Call Flow → AI Voice
2. Click the Knowledge Sources button followed by the Add button.
   
3. Set a Name and Description for the Knowledge Source
4. Upload files (PDFs, docs, text) containing anything related to your business, such as:
   1. Business hours & holiday rules
   2. Department routing instructions
   3. Product & pricing FAQs
   4. “What we do” and “How to talk about us” wording

Tips:

• Ensure the Description accurately describe the contents of the knowledge source to improve information retrieval.
• If you have documents that cover different, unrelated contexts (for example pricing FAQs and company contact information), do not put them in the same store. Create separate knowledge stores for each context. 

Note: Knowledge Sources are created and billed under the OpenAI project/key you configured.

Creating and Configuring AI Agents

1. In the Control Portal, navigate to Call Flow → AI Voice → Add Agent
2. Choose the agent type:
   1. Receptionist: Company-oriented AI Agent for basic call handling and routing
   2. Personal Assistant: Tuned for handling calls for a specific user
3. Set your preferred extension number for the AI Agent, give it a First & Last Name, and Save.
   
   
4. In the Agent Info tab:
   1. Define General Settings for your AI Agent:
      1. Assistant For (PA Only) - which user the PA represents
      2. Department Membership - which departments the AI Agent belongs to
      3. First Name and Last Name - the spoken/visible identity for the AI Agent
      4. Assigned DID number(s) - direct inbound numbers that reach the AI Agent
   2. Configure Voice and Call Settings
      1. Voice Style - select your preferred voice option
      2. Call Recording - Off, All calls, or External calls only
      3. Maximum Call Duration
      4. Agent Talk Link - enables click-to-talk or chat from a website. Leaving the field empty disables the link for this Agent.
5. In the Agent Type tab:
   
   1. Set the Knowledge Sources (optional) - choose which Knowledge Sources the agent can access
   2. Set the Introduction Language - default greeting language
      1. You can also Allow Language Switching
   3. Set the Welcome Message - the first message spoken to the caller
6. In the Agent Instructions tab, your AI Behavior Instructions have been pre-configured. The Customize Prompt button allows tuning of tone, policy boundaries, do & don't rules.
   
7. In the Block Spam Calls tab:
   
   1. Spam Protection is enabled by default
   2. You can customize What Counts as Spam to define what Spam or Fraud means, and what action to take:
      1. End Call
      2. Transfer To (manager/reviewer)
      3. Send screening summary + disconnect
8. In the Call Routing tab (Receptionist only):
   
   1. Add Routing Behavior rules so your AI Agent can intelligently route calls and chats to different destinations based on your description
      1. Example: If the caller says, “Our company-wide file share isn't accessible”, the AI Agent can classify this as a support call and transfer to a destination with a description like “In case of shared folder or file access issues, transfer here”
      2. You can create multiple routing entries, but avoid excessive overlap to ensure accurate routing
   2. If you Allow Extension Routing by Name, your AI Agent allows callers to request transfers by name. For example, “Please transfer me to John”.
   3. With Confidentiality Mode enabled:
      1. This prevents AI from revealing confidential info like last names and employee information
      2. Note that if you combine this with Allow Extension Routing by Name, your AI Agent will not able to clarify for example “We have two John's. John Smith and John Jackson. Which would you like to be connected to?”, but will instead ask the caller for the full name of the intended destination. 
9. In the Call Screening tab
   
   1. You can Disable Call Screening for Known Contacts. This relaxes the screening process for known, trusted contacts stored in the phonebook.
   2. You can enable the Busy Check Before Call Transfer setting to ensure that the destination extension is available before transferring the call.
10. In the Options tab:
    
    1. The Caller Response Actions target two specific types of problematic callers:
       1. Hostile or abusive callers
       2. Non-collaborative callers who impede the conversation
    2. Appropriate actions can be configured to manage the situations automatically.
11. Save when you are done
12. Test the AI Agent by calling its extension internally or the DID you assigned to it from an outside line.