Learn how Shape’s AI Calling and AI Texting automate customer conversations, answer questions, schedule appointments, transfer calls, and assist your team 24/7.
AI Calling & Texting
Shape’s AI Calling and AI Texting allow your organization to automate customer conversations while maintaining complete control over how and when AI interacts with your customers.
Whether you’re answering inbound calls after hours, following up with new leads, scheduling appointments, or responding to text messages, AI can engage customers, answer common questions, and seamlessly hand conversations off to your team whenever human assistance is needed.
AI is fully configurable and can be tailored to your organization’s workflows, business rules, and communication style.
Shape Complete AI Agent
Shape Complete includes a best-practice AI calling workflow designed to help organizations engage new leads quickly and consistently without requiring a custom AI implementation.
The included workflow focuses on early-stage leads that have not yet been contacted or are still in nurture.
The AI is designed to:
- Answer inbound calls 24/7
- Place outbound follow-up calls
- Answer common questions
- Schedule callbacks
- Transfer customers to available users
- Leave strategically timed voicemails
- Categorize call outcomes
- Generate call summaries
- Log customer sentiment
- Automatically update AI statuses
- Generate AI Insights for every qualifying call
The outbound calling strategy consists of a proven five-call follow-up sequence that can be adjusted to be more or less aggressive depending on your organization’s preferences.
If a callback is scheduled, the AI automatically places the return call at the scheduled time, confirms the customer is still available, and transfers the conversation to the appropriate user or team.
Shape Complete also includes:
- A complimentary AI user
- An allocation of AI calling credits
- AI call summaries
- AI status updates
- Customer sentiment analysis
- AI Insights call transcription and analysis
What AI Can Do
Depending on your implementation, Shape AI can:
Voice
- Answer inbound calls
- Place outbound calls
- Transfer callers to live users
- Perform warm transfers
- Schedule callbacks
- Schedule appointments
- Answer frequently asked questions
- Route calls
- Take messages
- Create customer records
- Update AI statuses
- Operate 24 hours a day
Text Messaging
AI can also:
- Start new text conversations
- Reply to incoming text messages
- Continue conversations until a user takes over
- Send messages after business hours
- Reference your knowledge base
- Respect opt-out preferences
- Escalate conversations to human users
Standard AI vs. Custom AI
Most organizations begin with the Shape Complete AI workflow, which includes a best-practice calling strategy designed to engage new leads, answer common questions, schedule callbacks, and transfer qualified customers to the appropriate team member.
This standardized workflow is optimized using industry best practices and provides the fastest implementation with minimal setup.
Organizations with more advanced requirements can also work with the Shape team to build fully customized AI agents tailored to their unique business processes.
Examples of custom AI implementations include:
- Asking custom qualifying questions before transferring a caller
- Following department-specific or custom conversation workflows
- Determining whether a customer meets predefined qualification criteria
- Updating CRM fields based on customer responses
- Triggering specific statuses, tags, or automations from conversation outcomes
- Sending follow-up text messages after a completed call
- Scheduling appointments using custom booking workflows
- Integrating with third-party scheduling platforms such as Cal.com
- Supporting multiple departments with unique prompts and knowledge bases
- Responding in multiple languages
- Using different AI voices or personalities for different use cases
- Following custom escalation or transfer rules based on customer responses
- Collecting information needed before handing the conversation to a live representative
AI Texting
AI Texting allows your organization to automate SMS conversations while maintaining complete control over when AI responds, what information it can provide, and when conversations should be handed off to a member of your team.
Unlike traditional automated text messaging, Shape AI can carry on natural conversations with customers while following the rules and knowledge you’ve configured.
Depending on your implementation, AI can:
- Initiate new text conversations
- Respond to incoming text messages
- Continue conversations across multiple messages
- Answer frequently asked questions
- Reference your knowledge base
- Respect opt-out preferences and texting compliance requirements
AI Texting Boundaries
AI Texting is intentionally designed to operate within defined boundaries rather than responding without limits.
Your organization controls how AI behaves, including:
- Which phone number AI responds to
- When AI initiates conversations
- What knowledge sources AI can reference
- Which business rules and prompts AI follows
When a conversation reaches a point where human assistance is needed, users can take over the conversation at any time. Once a user takes over, AI stops responding until control is returned.
This allows organizations to automate routine conversations while ensuring customers can always reach a live representative when necessary.
10DLC Requirements
Because AI Texting sends SMS and MMS messages using your Shape phone numbers, your organization must have an approved 10DLC registration before AI Texting can be used.
Without an approved 10DLC campaign, wireless carriers may block, filter, or delay text messages, including AI-generated conversations.
If your organization has not yet completed 10DLC registration, we recommend reviewing our 10DLC Registration Guide before enabling AI Texting.
Best Practices for AI Texting
For the best customer experience, we recommend:
- Using AI to answer common questions and engage new leads.
- Providing a well-maintained knowledge base so AI can generate accurate responses.
- Defining clear handoff points for conversations that require human assistance.
- Reviewing AI conversations periodically to refine prompts and improve response quality.
- Ensuring your 10DLC registration remains active and approved before launching AI texting campaigns.
AI Knowledge
AI responses are powered by configurable knowledge sources.
Depending on your implementation, AI can reference information from:
- Company websites
- Internal knowledge bases
- Frequently asked questions
- Custom documentation
- PDF documents
- Conditional prompts
- Industry best practices
This allows organizations to tailor AI responses to their products, services, and internal processes.
Intelligent Call Routing
AI works seamlessly with Shape’s Inbound Call Routing.
Because transfers use your existing routing rules, AI can transfer callers using all of the routing methods supported by Shape, including:
- Individual users
- Specific phone numbers
- Departments
- Teams
- Round Robin
- Ring groups
- Warm transfers
- Callback scheduling
This allows AI to become an extension of your existing phone workflows rather than replacing them.
Reporting & Analytics
Every AI interaction is automatically tracked within Shape.
Organizations can report on:
- Total AI calls
- Talk time
- AI call outcomes
- Customer sentiment
- AI statuses
- Call summaries
- AI Insights analysis
- Call recordings
- Transcripts
This provides complete visibility into AI performance and customer engagement.
AI Boundaries
AI is designed to assist customers, not replace licensed professionals or make business decisions.
Depending on your industry and implementation, AI will not:
- Quote products or pricing without approval
- Bind insurance policies
- Guarantee loan approvals
- Provide legal advice
- Make decisions requiring licensed professionals
When conversations require human expertise, AI can transfer the customer or schedule a callback with the appropriate team member.
Best Practices
- ✓Start with the Shape Complete AI workflow before considering custom development.
- ✓Keep your knowledge base up to date.
- ✓Review AI Insights regularly to identify coaching opportunities.
- ✓Use AI to qualify, educate, and route customers while allowing your team to handle more complex conversations.
- ✓Configure transfer rules so customers can quickly reach a live representative when needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can AI make outbound calls?+
Yes. AI can proactively contact customers using automated outbound calling campaigns.
Can AI answer inbound calls?+
Yes. AI can answer inbound calls 24 hours a day, answer common questions, schedule callbacks, and transfer callers to your team.
Can AI send text messages?+
Yes. AI can initiate text conversations, respond to incoming messages, and continue assisting customers until a user takes over.
Can a user take over an AI conversation?+
Yes. Both AI voice and AI text conversations support seamless human takeover when personal assistance is needed.
Can AI schedule appointments?+
Yes. AI can schedule appointments using Shape’s calendar. Organizations with the optional Cal.com integration can also schedule appointments based on real-time user availability. Note: Cal.com scheduling is an advanced add-on and requires additional implementation.
Can AI transfer callers?+
Yes. AI supports live transfers, warm transfers, callback scheduling, and routing through Shape’s Inbound Call Routing rules.
Can AI be customized?+
Yes. Organizations can implement custom AI agents tailored to specific departments, industries, languages, workflows, and business goals. Custom implementations are scoped separately from the standard Shape Complete workflow.
Does AI work after business hours?+
Yes. AI can answer calls and respond to text messages around the clock, ensuring customers always receive a response, even when your office is closed.
How many outbound calls can AI make to the same record in a single day?+
Shape AI will make up to three outbound call attempts to the same record per day. This limit is built into the platform to help prevent excessive outreach and ensure AI calling remains controlled and consistent. If a customer hasn’t been reached after the maximum number of daily attempts, the AI will wait until the next eligible calling period before attempting again, based on your configured workflow. Note: The three-call daily limit is a built-in safeguard and cannot be increased. This helps prevent runaway calling scenarios and protects both the customer experience and your organization’s calling reputation.
Why can’t I set up an Inbound Call Route for my AI agent’s phone number?+
Inbound call routing for AI agents is managed directly from the AI Agent configuration, not from the standard Inbound Call Routing settings page. Because AI agents have their own conversation logic, knowledge base, transfer rules, and workflow settings, their phone numbers are automatically tied to the AI agent that owns them. As a result, the Set Up Rule option is not available for AI phone numbers in Manage Phone Settings. If you need to change how an AI agent answers or routes inbound calls, open the AI agent and update its inbound calling configuration from the AI Agent profile. Note: Standard Shape phone numbers continue to use Inbound Call Routing for call handling. AI phone numbers are managed separately through the AI Agent to ensure all AI conversation logic, transfers, and workflows remain centralized in one place.
Are there any calling hour restrictions for AI outbound calling?+
Yes. To support compliance and industry best practices, AI outbound calls are only placed between 8:00 AM and 7:00 PM based on the lead’s local time zone. Inbound AI calls are not subject to these time restrictions and can answer calls at any time based on your configured inbound call routing.
What is the AI Call Queue?+
The AI Call Queue displays all pending outbound AI calls waiting to be placed. Each AI Agent can place one outbound call at a time. Once that call is completed, the agent automatically moves on to the next call in the queue. If your organization has multiple AI Agents, multiple outbound calls can occur simultaneously, with each AI Agent handling its own call queue independently. Note: This behavior is intentional and helps maintain compliance while providing predictable outbound call pacing.
Where can I view AI conversation notes?+
After an AI conversation is completed, Shape automatically creates an AI Note on the record. AI Notes typically include: A summary of the conversation Customer sentiment Key discussion points Any detected opt-out requests or communication preferences Other AI-generated insights, when applicable You can find these notes in the record’s activity timeline by looking for the AI Note activity type.
How do I activate an AI calling campaign?+
AI outbound calling campaigns are typically initiated through Drip Campaignsand are configured by the Shape team during implementation. Once configured, records enter the AI calling workflow based on your organization’s defined trigger, which is commonly a status change. You can trigger AI campaigns by: Manually updating a record’s status Using Bulk Actions to update multiple records Allowing an automation or trigger to update the record automatically The appropriate triggering status depends on your organization’s workflow and implementation.
Will the AI create appointments automatically?+
Yes. When an AI Agent successfully schedules a meeting, Shape automatically creates a calendar event using the Appointment calendar event type. If your organization uses the Appointment event type for another purpose, we recommend using a different calendar event type to avoid unintended AI follow-up behavior.
Will the AI automatically call scheduled appointments?+
By default, yes. AI Agents are configured to automatically place outbound calls for scheduled appointments when appropriate as part of the AI workflow. If your organization prefers not to have AI automatically call scheduled appointments, this behavior can be disabled during implementation. Contact Shape Support or your Account Manager if you’d like to adjust this setting.