AI Receptionist
A real-time voice AI receptionist that answers calls, books appointments, captures waitlists, and escalates to a human — with quick-reply caching that hits sub-100ms response paths for high-frequency intents.
The problem
Businesses lose real revenue to the phone. Front desks are busy with customers in the room, after-hours calls roll to voicemail, and every missed call is a missed booking — or a customer who calls the next business instead.
Hiring and training reception to cover that volume is expensive and doesn't scale. Meanwhile callers expect an immediate answer to simple things: opening hours, availability, booking, rescheduling.
An old-school phone tree ("press 1 for…") only frustrates people. The bar is a conversation that actually understands and acts.
The approach
An AI voice agent — not an IVR — that picks up, understands intent in natural speech, and takes action: answering FAQs, booking appointments, capturing waitlists, and routing urgent or complex cases to a human.
It's built on Retell AI for low-latency real-time voice, with GPT-4o-mini and Gemini 2.0 Flash driving LLM tool-calling into Supabase and the Google Calendar API. A quick-reply cache short-circuits high-frequency intents to hit sub-100ms response paths.
A Next.js + Supabase dashboard exposes call logs, scheduling, analytics, and billing — secured with PII encryption, Row-Level Security, and webhook-driven automations.
Architecture
// Tool-calling writes through to Supabase and Google Calendar; urgent or complex calls are escalated to a human.
How it's built
- →Integrated Retell AI for natural, low-latency voice and wired its webhooks into LLM tool-calling with GPT-4o-mini and Gemini 2.0 Flash.
- →Built intent handling — appointment booking, waitlist capture, and human escalation — backed by Supabase and the Google Calendar API.
- →Added a quick-reply cache for high-frequency intents to hit sub-100ms response paths.
- →Shipped a Next.js + Supabase dashboard for call logs, scheduling, analytics, and billing — secured with PII encryption, Row-Level Security, and webhook-driven automations.
The outcome
Every call gets answered — 24/7 — so after-hours and overflow bookings stop leaking to voicemail or competitors.
Quick-reply caching keeps high-frequency intents under 100ms, so the conversation feels immediate rather than laggy.
Deployed across 12 business verticals and 14+ countries, with PII encryption and Row-Level Security guarding customer data.
Want the deep dive?
Happy to walk through the design decisions and trade-offs.