Docs - AI phone agents for SMB

Many business numbers answer with an automated menu: “Press 1 for sales, 2 for support…”. With IVR Menu Navigation on, an outbound agent that reaches such a menu presses keys or speaks keywords to get to the person or department you want, instead of hanging up. Navigation starts from the Answering Machine Detection verdict, so it requires AMD to be on. Switching AMD off switches navigation off with it, and the API refuses a request that would leave navigation on while AMD is off.

Turning it on

In the Dashboard or the Connect App, open an outbound agent’s settings and find IVR Menu Navigation, directly under Answering Machine Detection. Through the API, set ivrNavigation on Create Agent or Update Agent: true for the defaults, an object to tune it, false to turn it off.

{
  "amdConfig": true,
  "ivrNavigation": {
    "enabled": true,
    "target_intent": "reach_department",
    "target_department": "billing"
  }
}

Settings

Setting	API key	Default	What it does
IVR Menu Navigation	`enabled`	`false`	Turns navigation on
What to reach	`target_intent`	`reach_human`	`reach_human` (any live person), `reach_department` (a named department), or `custom` (a goal you describe)
Department to reach / Describe the goal	`target_department`	—	The department name for `reach_department`, or the goal for `custom` (for example “the pharmacy refill line”)
Spoken keywords	`spoken_keywords`	representative, agent, operator	Words the agent says on speech-driven menus. Up to 20
Max key-presses	`max_attempts`	`3`	Key-presses before giving up. At most 10
Max navigation time (seconds)	`max_duration_ms`	45 s	Wall-clock cap on the whole navigation. At most 10 minutes
If navigation fails	`fallback_action`	`press_zero`	What to do when a limit is hit: `press_zero` (try the operator key), `hang_up`, or `wait_for_human` (stay quiet on the line for a person)
Max hold time (seconds)	`hold_max_wait_ms`	3 min	Once the agent detects hold music or a repeating hold message, how long it waits for a person before giving up. At most 30 minutes

The agent stays silent while it navigates, so every one of these limits is billed, silent call time. Set them a little above what the menus you call actually need.

How the call ends

The outcome is recorded on the call as ivr_navigation_outcome, shown next to the IVR menu badge in the Outbound Calls report, and sent on the result webhook.

Outcome	Meaning
`reached_human`	A person came on the line; the conversation continued normally
`reached_department`	The target department answered
`failed_max_attempts`	The key-press limit was hit and the fallback ran
`failed_timeout`	The navigation time limit was hit and the fallback ran
`hold_timeout`	The agent waited on hold for the maximum time without reaching anyone
`disconnected`	The far end hung up during navigation

When navigation did not run on a call, the field is null. For a number you call often, you can skip the live navigation and press a fixed sequence of keys. Pass ivr_map when you trigger the call: an ordered list of steps that each wait for a menu phrase (wait_for) or a fixed delay (wait_ms), then press send_dtmf.

{
  "to_number": "+18135551234",
  "ivr_map": [
    { "wait_for": "billing", "send_dtmf": "2" },
    { "wait_ms": 3000, "send_dtmf": "0" }
  ]
}

Up to 20 steps; each wait_ms is at most 60 seconds, send_dtmf is 1–32 digits (0-9, *, #), and the whole script must fit in 10 minutes including the presses. A script still needs AMD on for that call, since it is the menu verdict that starts it. A retry of the call reuses the same script. You can also override the agent’s navigation settings for one call with ivr_navigation on the same request.

Using Telzino

Dashboard

Connect App

Agent Functions

Agent Examples

Integrations

SIP

IVR Menu Navigation

Turning it on

Settings

How the call ends

Scripting a known menu per call

​Turning it on

​Settings

​How the call ends

​Scripting a known menu per call

Turning it on

Settings

How the call ends

Scripting a known menu per call