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Feedback?AI Receptionist in Webex Calling helps your organization handle incoming calls more efficiently and intelligently.
Overview
AI Receptionist is a Webex Calling capability that transforms how your business handles incoming calls. Instead of relying on traditional, rigid menu systems, AI Receptionist uses natural language processing to greet callers, understand the intent, and route you to the right destination. AI Receptionist is configured in Control Hub and uses Webex Calling call routing to reach on-premises UCM destinations. This integration allows you to layer modern, AI-powered call handling over your existing on-premises infrastructure, ensuring you can continue to use your current phone numbers, extensions, and hunt pilots while providing a smarter experience for your callers.
How it works
The AI Receptionist is an add-on feature for Webex Calling that answers calls received on a Webex Calling number assigned to it. Based on the configured routing rules, it can transfer callers to the appropriate destination, including on-premises UCM users, phones, extensions, or hunt pilots through Local Gateway or CUBE. This setup lets you modernize the caller experience with AI-powered call handling while continuing to use your existing UCM telephony environment.
Key capabilities for UCM Deployments
By integrating AI Receptionist with your UCM environment, you can manage complex call routing scenarios with ease:
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Natural Language Interaction: Callers can speak their needs in plain language rather than navigating through button-press menus.
- Automated Knowledge Base Support: The AI can answer frequently asked questions directly, reducing the volume of routine calls reaching your staff.
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Seamless UCM Integration: You can route callers directly to your existing UCM users, phones, extensions, or hunt pilot numbers.
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Intelligent Call Routing: The AI identifies the caller’s intent and directs them to the appropriate department, queue, or specific UCM destination.
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Fallback Handling: You can configure a default destination to ensure that if the AI cannot resolve a request, the caller is still connected to a human or a designated backup line.
Prerequisites
To deploy the AI Receptionist for your on-premises CUCM environment
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Non-Air Gap Environment: The solution requires cloud connectivity; it is not supported in air-gapped environments.
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Webex Calling Subscription: An active entitlement for AI Receptionist services.
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Configuration: Make sure your Webex organization, user synchronization, and SIP routing are configured to allow communication between Webex Calling and your UCM environment.
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Licensing: You must have one add one Webex Calling professional license as a part of ordering.
Onboarding prerequisites
You can onboard users in one of the following ways:
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Create a new user—If you want to add new users to your organization and assign licenses to them, see Add users manually in Control Hub and Manage multiple users in Control Hub with the CSV template.
The ordering process follows the standard Webex Calling add-on workflow. For detailed instructions on purchasing and provisioning. For more information, see Purchase license.
Create your Webex Organization
The AI Receptionist operates within the Control Hub. If your organization is not yet onboarded to Webex, you must create an organization in Control Hub.
You can create an organization via the Cisco Webex Control Hub portal. For step-by-step guidance on setting up your organization, refer to the Get started with Webex Calling.
(Optional) you can also setup your organization using Set up Webex Cloud-Connected-UC for on premises.
Steps to verify the organization setup,
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Sign in to Control Hub.
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To verify the Webex org, go to Management → Account and Click Info to see that the correct organization name and organization ID are displayed.
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To verify Webex Calling. Go to Services → Calling and see that Calling configuration options are available.
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To verify the AI Receptionist availability, go to Services → Calling and Click AI Receptionist.
- Verify that the administrator has the required Calling administrator permissions.
Synchronizing Users to CI (Customer Identity)
For the AI Receptionist to intelligently route calls to specific personnel, your on-premises users must be synced to the Webex Cloud Identity (CI) service. AI Receptionist can route calls only to destinations that it can resolve or that are reachable through the dial plan. Use Directory Connector, or Microsoft Entra ID synchronization to sync your on-premises Active Directory or LDAP users to Webex based on the customer deployment. See Directory connector for instructions on ensuring user presence and contact information are accurately reflected in the cloud.
Before you begin
Configure the dial-plan as per your location and region.
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After your partner registers you, sign in to Control Hub. Then, review your organization settings. Ensure that you configure and validate the following:
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Add and verify your domain—In Control Hub, add and verify the domain (for example,
example.com) that matches your on-premises user login credentials. -
User Synchronization—For on-premises servers, use the Directory Connector application to synchronize user information from your LDAP server. For cloud-based identity providers like Okta or Azure, the synchronization happens directly through Control Hub.
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Sign in to the connector—Open the Cisco Directory Connector and sign in using your administrator credentials.
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Configure search criteria—Define the domain and specific base path (Distinguished Name) to locate the users you intend to synchronize.
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- To support connectivity for on-premises users, configure LGW or PSTN breakout. This facilitates bidirectional call routing between on-premises systems. For more information, see Dial plan and call routing configuration. For details on the LGW configuration, see Configure Local Gateway on Cisco IOS XE for Webex Calling.
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To improve user, administration, and migration capabilities, Webex Cloud-Connected UC enhances on-premises deployments. We recommend that you enable the following services on Webex Cloud-Connected UC to gather information about your on-premises deployment and view analytics data:
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Presence Status Synch
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Directory Service
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Operational Metrics
See Set up Webex Cloud-Connected UC for on-premises devices.
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- Configure the AI Receptionist to include all the Webex Calling professional capabilities, create, edit, manage the AI Receptionist. For more information, see AI Receptionist in Webex Calling.
Dial plan and call routing configuration
This section details the necessary configuration across Webex Calling, the Local Gateway, and Unified CM to enable seamless call routing and dial plan integration. These steps are important for facilitating calls between the Unified CM environment and Webex Calling, allowing Customer Assist to function as an overlay service.
Dial plan
A dial plan enables you to define a validation criteria for the Directory Number (DN), You can choose your continent and country to find your outbound and emergency dial plans.
For more information, see Configure your Webex Calling dial plan.
Calling routing
For more information, see Configure trunks, route groups, and dial plans for Webex Calling.
SIP Trunk configuration in Webex Calling
CCPP as a PSTN option is supported for users on Webex Calling, as well as for users on Unified CM.
You can create a trunk and route group to and from Webex Calling to the Local Gateway. For instructions on standard Local Gateway configuration, see Configure trunks, route groups, and dial plans for Webex Calling.
Before you begin
You must onboard customers as Webex Calling Customers and create an initial location.
SIP Trunk configurations in Unified Communications Manager
You can create a trunk and route group to and from Unified CM to the Local Gateway. For detailed instructions on Unified CM configuration for Webex Calling, see SIP trunk configuration and Call Routing Configuration.
Before you begin
Unified CM clusters must be version 14 and SUs or version 15 and SUs or later.
