New Participant

Solved

How to set up AI receptionist to answer calls only if no one picks up?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
July 27, 2025
16 replies
1039 views

how to set up AI receptionist to answer calls only if no one picks up?

Best answer by Mary-Community_Moderator

Hey @thanapoom, great question!

Buckle up because this one's going to be a bit long, but totally worth it. 😊 The key is to direct calls to your users (or a Call Queue) first, and then set the "if no answer" rule to transfer to your AI Receptionist.

Make sure your AI Receptionist is fully set up with its greetings, skills, and knowledge base. You can manage everything under the AI tab in the Admin Portal.

Related KB: https://support.ringcentral.com/article-v2/setting-up-your-ai-receptionist-in-the-admin-portal.html?brand=RingCentral&product=RingEX&language=en_US

Once configured, the AI Receptionist becomes a powerful tool to automate call handling and even offers insights through analytics—like how many calls were resolved or escalated.

Related KB: https://support.ringcentral.com/article-v2/intro-to-ai-receptionist-analytics.html?brand=RingCentral&product=RingEX&language=en_US

Scenario 1: For Calls Routed to Individual Users

If calls are sent to specific users first, you can configure each user's "If no answer" rule:

Log in to the RingCentral Admin Portal (https://login.ringcentral.com/) as an administrator.
Go to Users > User List > Users With Extensions.
Select the user whose calls you want to route to the AI Receptionist if they don't answer.
Go to Phone > Incoming Call Rules.
Under the "If no answer" section, select "Forward the call" or "Send to extension."
Choose your AI Receptionist (it will have its own dedicated extension number) as the destination.
Save your changes.
- Related KB Article: Incoming call handling settings for users and admins - RingCentral Support (Look for the "If no answer" section).

Scenario 2: For Calls Routed to a Call Queue

If calls come into a Call Queue and you want the AI Receptionist to pick up if no one in the queue answers:

**Log in to the RingCentral Admin Portal.
Go to Phone System > Groups > Call Queues.
Select the Call Queue you want to configure.
Go to the Call Handling & Members tab.
Look for settings like "When maximum wait time is reached, send caller to" or "If no members answer."
Select "Send caller to" and choose your AI Receptionist from the available destinations.
Ensure your "Maximum caller wait time in queue" is set to allow enough time for agents to answer before the AI Receptionist kicks in.
Save your changes.
- Related KB Article: Intro to the RingCentral call queue overflow feature - RingCentral Support (While this focuses on overflow queues, the same section for "When maximum wait time is reached" is used to route to an extension like the AI Receptionist).

Show previous replies

New Participant

Hello Mary, thank you for responding. I followed your instructions in this thread, and I don’t see an option to choose the AI Receptionist as the destination for either option. I set up the extension for the AI Receptionist, but AIR doesn’t come up on the options when trying to select it under the Incoming Call Rules for individual users or the Call Handling & Members for Queues. It is not listed under users, extensions, queues, IVRs, etc. Is there a way around this?

Scenario 1: For Calls Routed to Individual Users

If calls are sent to specific users first, you can configure each user's "If no answer" rule:

Log in to the RingCentral Admin Portal (https://login.ringcentral.com/) as an administrator.
Go to Users > User List > Users With Extensions.
Select the user whose calls you want to route to the AI Receptionist if they don't answer.
Go to Phone > Incoming Call Rules.
Under the "If no answer" section, select "Forward the call" or "Send to extension."
Choose your AI Receptionist (it will have its own dedicated extension number) as the destination.
Save your changes.
- Related KB Article: Incoming call handling settings for users and admins - RingCentral Support (Look for the "If no answer" section).

Scenario 2: For Calls Routed to a Call Queue

If calls come into a Call Queue and you want the AI Receptionist to pick up if no one in the queue answers:

**Log in to the RingCentral Admin Portal.
Go to Phone System > Groups > Call Queues.
Select the Call Queue you want to configure.
Go to the Call Handling & Members tab.
Look for settings like "When maximum wait time is reached, send caller to" or "If no members answer."
Select "Send caller to" and choose your AI Receptionist from the available destinations.
Ensure your "Maximum caller wait time in queue" is set to allow enough time for agents to answer before the AI Receptionist kicks in.
Save your changes.
- Related KB Article: Intro to the RingCentral call queue overflow feature - RingCentral Support (While this focuses on overflow queues, the same section for "When maximum wait time is reached" is used to route to an extension like the AI Receptionist).

Mary-Community_Moderator

Community Manager

Mary: I assigned a phone number and I can’t follow the steps on the scenario 1, at the end the extension for the AIR is not an option for the Forward the call to (I’m attaching an image) I assigned extension 1004 and is not there.

I also ask for support via chat and the agent tell me that the instructions on this forum are not applicable to use.

can you give me more light here?

Hello @gabriel-mendez

Thank you for sharing those details. I’m really sorry for the confusion and any frustration this may have caused.

The reason you’re unable to select the AI Receptionist as a destination is that your account is on RingEX. The steps you followed were correct, but the AI Receptionist is actually a separate paid add-on and isn’t automatically included with RingEX plans.

Since it’s not yet enabled on your account, the system doesn’t recognize it as a valid option for call forwarding. To get access, you’ll need to purchase the add-on. You can do this by following the step below:

Log in to the RingCentral Admin Portal.
Go to the AI section.
From there, you will find the options to set up a new AI Receptionist.
You will follow the prompts to give it a name, assign it a number, and configure its conversational skills.

Once this is complete, the AI Receptionist becomes a live extension that can be selected as a destination for call routing rules, like the "If no answer" scenario you mentioned.

I hope this clears things up, and I’m here if you have any other questions!

@smuston, your concern is similar to the above. Please make sure that AI Receptionist is enabled in your account. 😊

New Participant

It is enabled. I set it up and have an extension for our AI receptionist. It is not showing up on the options that you mentioned.

Mary-Community_Moderator

Community Manager

It is enabled. I set it up and have an extension for our AI receptionist. It is not showing up on the options that you mentioned.

@smuston, if this still isn’t working for you, please submit a Support ticket so the team can investigate why the AI Receptionist isn’t showing up.

michele-palulis

New Participant

same issue here - AI Receptionist is active and paid for but is not showing as a choice under USER of who to forward call to when no answer.

New Participant

This isn’t working for me either. The AIR is set up and working but I don’t see it as an option in the Call Queues settings. Please advise?