AI Virtual Agent for Customer Calls and Chats

An AI virtual agent, also called an intelligent virtual agent or IVA, is software that handles customer calls and chats through natural conversation instead of a menu or a scripted bot. It understands what the caller wants, answers from your knowledge, completes the task in your systems, and transfers to a human when the situation calls for one. Retell runs it on the same AI voice agent platform that powers 100+ million calls a month.

An IVR makes the caller map their problem onto your menu. A chatbot follows a fixed decision tree and only handles the inputs somebody scripted. An AI virtual agent reads intent from plain speech, handles multi-part requests, keeps context across the whole conversation, and finishes the task rather than pointing at an answer. That is also why it handles the calls a phone tree routes to the wrong department.

Two separate connections, and both are standard. On the data side, the agent reads and writes your CRM, EHR, ticketing platform, calendar or order system through native integrations for HubSpot, Salesforce, Zendesk, Shopify, GoHighLevel, Cal.com, Zapier and n8n, or through custom functions that call your own API during the conversation. On the telephony side, forward an existing number, connect a SIP trunk, or import numbers from Twilio, Telnyx or Vonage. Retell also runs alongside Five9, Genesys, Avaya, Amazon Connect and RingCentral, so you do not replace your contact center to add an agent to it.

Yes. Keep the number and the carrier and forward calls to Retell, connect your SIP trunk directly, or import numbers you already own from Twilio, Telnyx or Vonage. Caller ID stays intact. You can also buy a new number inside the platform, which requires identity verification first, so allow a little time for that step if you are starting from scratch.

You define the triggers: a specific intent, a negative sentiment turn, an explicit request for a person, or a gap in the knowledge base. When one fires, Retell transfers the live conversation and passes the transcript, the summary and the fields the agent already captured to the receiving rep, so the caller never starts over. You also decide what happens when the transfer fails. Route to a second team, schedule a callback, or write a structured ticket, so a busy queue never turns into a dropped customer.

Containment is the share of contacts resolved with no human involved, and it depends on how repetitive your queue is and how deeply the agent connects to your systems. Teams handling order status, scheduling and account questions commonly reach 60% or more. Everise reached 65% ticket containment on its service desk. Medical Data Systems takes 100% of inbound calls with a 30% transfer rate, so 70% resolve without an agent. Expect a lower number in month one and a higher one after two rounds of tuning.

Three layers. The agent answers from the knowledge you connect rather than improvising from a general model. When that knowledge does not cover the question, it escalates instead of guessing. And every conversation gets scored, so accuracy problems show up in the dashboard within hours rather than surfacing in a complaint weeks later. Before launch, run the agent through simulated calls covering your real edge cases and fix what fails there.

Yes, 55+ languages with automatic detection, including switching language mid-call when the caller does. This matters most on lines where English is the minority: bilingual reception, Spanish-first support queues, and multi-market service desks. You can assign a distinct voice per language rather than running an accented English voice through a translation layer.

Voice runs $0.07 to $0.31 per minute depending on the voice and model you choose, with no platform fee, and chat bills per AI message. Your effective rate depends on average handle time, the voice provider, and how much reasoning each call needs, so model the cost on minutes rather than on calls. Accounts start with 60 free minutes and pay only for what they use. Enterprise plans carry custom pricing and custom concurrency for teams that want a committed rate.

Accounts start with 20 concurrent calls and scale to thousands of simultaneous calls and chats with custom concurrency. The platform powers 100+ million calls per month, so a launch, a campaign or an outage spike never puts callers on hold. If you expect a seasonal peak, raise concurrency before the season rather than during it.

Retell is SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified, HIPAA-ready with a self-service BAA portal, GDPR compliant, and TCPA compliant for outbound contact. PII redaction strips personal identifiers from transcripts automatically, and retention settings control what is stored and for how long. That covers most regulated healthcare and finance work.

Two honest paths. A self-serve support, reception or scheduling agent runs on a pre-built template and reaches a live test call the same day, with identity verification and number provisioning as the only gates. An enterprise deployment with CRM write-back, SIP integration, compliance review and a scoped pilot typically runs three to seven weeks from kickoff to production traffic. Most teams shorten that by starting on one queue or one shift rather than the whole line.