Everything on the Voice tab up to this point controls how your AI sounds. The What it can do on calls card controls what it's allowed to do — the actions it can take on your calendar and the situations where it hands the call to a human.
Open it at Settings → AI Voice → Voice, then scroll to What it can do on calls. Each row is a switch; changes are saved when you click Save Changes at the top of the page.
Booking, rescheduling, and cancelling
| Setting | What it does when ON |
|---|---|
| Book appointments | The AI checks your live calendar, offers open slots, captures the caller's details, and books the appointment — then sends a confirmation. |
| Reschedule | The AI looks up an existing appointment (by phone or name), offers new times, and moves it on your calendar. |
| Cancel | The AI cancels an existing appointment when a patient asks, releasing the slot. |
These three respect your business hours, service durations, providers, and booking rules automatically — you don't need to re-state any of that. Turn a capability off and the AI will politely decline that action and offer to take a message or transfer instead.
Transfer instead of booking
This is a sub-option that sits underneath Book appointments, and the two are mutually exclusive:
- Book appointments ON → the AI schedules directly.
- Transfer instead of booking ON → when a caller wants to schedule, the AI connects them to a person instead of booking.
Turning one on automatically turns the other off. Transfer instead of booking only becomes available once Transfer to a human is on and a transfer number is set — without a destination there's nothing to transfer to.
Verify identity before sharing records
When ON, the AI requires the caller's name and date of birth before it discusses any treatment details, account balance, or appointment specifics. It still answers general questions and books without a challenge — this only gates sensitive, patient-specific information.
Use it if your front desk is expected to confirm identity before releasing PHI. See Verify caller identity for the compliance rationale.
Send refill requests to athenahealth
This row only appears when your practice has an active athenahealth connection. When ON, a caller asking for a prescription refill causes the AI to create a refill task in athenahealth for a provider to review. The AI never approves or "prescribes" anything — it just routes the request into your clinical workflow.
Transfer to a human
Transfer to a human is the master switch for live transfers. Callers can always ask for a person, but this setting (and the number below it) determines whether the AI can actually connect them.
When ON, three more controls appear:
Transfers ring
The phone number the AI dials when it transfers. Enter it in a normal format like (555) 123-4567.
Leave it blank and transfers fall back to taking a message. The AI can't connect a call with no destination, so it will offer to take a message instead.
Announce to staff (transfer mode)
Controls what your staff hears the moment the AI connects a transfer:
| Mode | What your staff hears |
|---|---|
| Connect immediately (no announcement) | The call is patched straight through — no preamble. Fastest, but staff pick up cold. |
| Whisper a short summary of the call | Before connecting, the AI privately speaks a one-line summary of why the caller is calling, so staff answer with context. |
| Whisper a set phrase | Staff hear a fixed phrase you write (e.g. "FrontDesk transfer — patient calling about scheduling."). Good for a consistent hand-off cue. |
The whisper is heard only by your staff, never by the caller.
Also transfer to a person when…
Beyond "the caller asks for a human," you can tell the AI to hand off automatically in specific situations:
| Trigger | Fires when the caller… |
|---|---|
| They ask to speak to a person | Always on — can't be turned off. This is the baseline guarantee. |
| They ask about cost or price | Mentions pricing, cost, or "how much is…". |
| They say they already have an appointment | Indicates they're an existing/booked patient. |
| They mention an urgent issue | Raises anything that sounds like an emergency. |
You can also add your own triggers in the box below — type a phrase and press Enter. Word them like "asks about X" or "mentions Y" (e.g. "asks about insurance"). These custom triggers are shared with outbound campaigns.
When the AI answers after hours
This dropdown decides how the AI behaves on calls that arrive outside your business hours. It only applies when the AI is actually set to answer after hours (chosen under Phone & texting → Who answers). Each option injects a specific instruction into the AI's prompt:
| Option | What the AI does after hours |
|---|---|
| Book appointments & take messages | Keeps booking, rescheduling, and cancelling on 24/7. Only takes a message when it genuinely can't complete the request. |
| Take a message | Tells the caller your business hours and records a message using the message tool. No booking. |
| Send to voicemail | Lets the caller know the office is closed and offers to take a message. |
| Emergency calls only | Handles only emergencies; asks non-urgent callers to call back during business hours. |
When set to Take a message, Send to voicemail, or Emergency calls only, the AI won't book, reschedule, or cancel after hours — even if those capabilities are on for business hours. Your daytime settings are unaffected.
See Configure after-hours behavior for the full after-hours workflow.
A safe starting point
For most practices:
- Book appointments — ON
- Reschedule / Cancel — ON
- Transfer to a human — ON, with your front-desk or office-manager line as the number
- Announce to staff — Whisper a short summary
- Verify identity — ON if you discuss balances or treatment over the phone
- After hours — Book appointments & take messages