Call AI

Call AI transcribes your calls as they happen and, within a minute of each one ending, reads the conversation back for you: what was agreed, why a patient didn't book, what to do next and what to say on the next call. Whoever took the call, and the practice's managers, also get coaching on how it went.

Which calls are analysed

Call AI needs call recording switched on. A practice with recording off gets no Call AI, and neither does a practice that only uses tracking numbers without Smileline Voice.

It analyses answered calls that lasted at least 30 seconds and are linked to a patient or lead: calls in and out on your Smileline numbers, calls to your tracking numbers, and calls the AI receptionist handed over to someone at the practice. It leaves out voicemails, calls nobody answered, calls between colleagues, calls the AI receptionist handled on its own and emergency calls.

One exception to the 30 seconds: when you call someone and Smileline can't tell straight away whether a person or their voicemail picked up, Call AI reads the call however short it was. A short call gets the full analysis below — a follow-up task or a suggested email too, unless it was a voicemail.

Voicemail or answered

When you call someone, Smileline listens to the first few seconds to tell a person from a voicemail, and the call log shows Answered or Voicemail. That first guess can be unsure or wrong. Once Call AI has read the whole conversation, its outcome decides: a call it reads as a voicemail shows Voicemail, and any other outcome shows Answered — in the call log, the patient's timeline and Last call. The label changes within a minute of the call ending.

To correct a completed outbound call yourself, open Correct call result in Today's Last call card, choose We spoke on this call or Reached voicemail, then Save. Your correction applies to that specific call, is recorded with your name in the audit log, and takes priority over later AI results. Today's normal outcome buttons still record the lead's outcome separately.

The live transcript

While the call is up, both sides are transcribed live, line by line, and that becomes the call's saved transcript. It also listens for card details: when it hears a card being read out, it pauses the call recording by itself and keeps transcribing, and the card digits are blanked (shown as •) in the saved transcript. See Pause the recording while you take a payment.

Live suggestions

In the Smileline Desk app, the call window helps while the call is still going. As the caller talks, it shows a suggestion that fits what they just said — how to answer a price worry, a fact about parking or finance, a nudge to offer a time — with prices, opening hours and the next free appointment times filled in from your own information. A checklist for the kind of call ticks itself as the conversation covers each point, and the live transcript is a click away. Click Used or Dismiss on each suggestion as you go. See Live suggestions.

The suggestions, the checklists and the scorecard the analysis marks each call on come from the practice's playbook: Smileline writes it from your own information, and managers review and edit it in Settings → Live call suggestions — a new card is never suggested until a manager turns it on. Live suggestions are in the desktop app only — not in the browser or on the iPhone.

What the analysis tells you

Anyone who can open the patient sees:

• Summary — the call in a few sentences.
• Outcome — Booked, Call back agreed, Not booked, No booking needed or Voicemail.
• Why not booked and Who can fix it — for a call that didn't book, the reason (such as Price or Wants time to think) and whether it is down to the team on the call, the practice's offer (price, diary or services), the patient's own situation, or the quality of the lead.
• Next step — the follow-up the call needs. Call AI adds it to Today as a task only when nobody is already working the lead: not while the Today card the call was made from is still open, not once someone has recorded how a call went since this one began, not when the lead already has a task due sooner, and not when someone has set a follow-up since the call began. Then the person working the lead sets the next step, and Call AI's suggestion stays here to read. When it does add a task, Open in Today takes you to it.
• Suggested email — only when an email would help the patient decide, and only about a price list, finance, consultation details or a booking link; never clinical advice. It is never sent for you: Use opens the patient's email with it filled in, ready to check and send, and Dismiss hides it.
• Say this next time — how to open the next call and what to cover.
• Lead profile — how the patient felt; what they need, what is holding them back and what will win the booking, a few words each, with a dash until a call has shown it; and a short recap of the lead so far.

Coaching

The person who took the call and the practice's managers also see Coaching:

• a score out of 100;
• the scorecard — each point a good call covers (a warm greeting, finding the need, asking for the booking, agreeing a next step…) marked Met, Not met or N/A, with a note;
• what went well and what to work on;
• each objection the patient raised, how well it was handled and a better reply;
• Manager review suggested on a call worth listening to, such as a lost hot lead or a complaint.

Nobody else sees the coaching.

Where to find it

• Call log — open an answered call: the analysis sits on the opened card beside the lead, and Open coaching shows the full coaching. The recording and its transcript sit under the summary; click any line to play the recording from that moment, and as it plays the line being spoken is highlighted and its words fill in, like captions. See The call log.
• Patient timeline — each analysed call shows its outcome and summary, and Transcript opens the call in a drawer with the same analysis, the recording and the transcript. See Activity.
• Today — the Last call card in the work panel adds the summary, Say this next time and any email still waiting to be sent. See Today.
• iPhone — the call's page in the mobile app shows the analysis. See Calls on your phone.
• Call brief — under the lead's number, in Today's work panel and the patient record's Log outcome: what they need, what is in the way and what wins the booking, at a glance; click it for the recap, with the teammates who handled the lead shown by their avatars, the call's recording, and what to say next. See Call brief.
• Reports — Call insights adds it all up across your calls, with a Monday email and, for owners and managers, a written summary of each week. See Call insights.

While it is being made, and when it can't be

• Analysing the call… — the analysis is on its way; it appears by itself.
• Waiting for the lead record — the caller's lead is still being created; the analysis starts once it exists.
• Not analysed — the call was out of scope, with the reason, such as the call was too short.
• Couldn't analyse this call — something went wrong. The person who took the call or a manager can click Try again, here or in the review queue.
• New lines arrived after this analysis — the transcript grew after the analysis was written. The person who took the call or a manager can click Analyse again. Until the new analysis lands, the previous one stays on screen and keeps setting the lead profile.

When the practice's retention window for recordings passes before an analysis is finished, nothing is made from the conversation and the call shows Not analysed. Analyses, Try again and Analyse again need the practice to have Smileline Voice; without it the Last call card on Today still shows the call, its result and its notes.

Privacy

The live transcript is produced by AssemblyAI through Telnyx, the carrier behind Smileline Voice. Every time someone opens an analysis it is written to the practice's activity log. The coaching notes are removed together with the transcript when the practice's retention window for recordings passes. A patient's data export includes what Call AI wrote about their calls — the summary, outcome, next step, suggested email, plan for the next call, lead profile and what they said about each concern — with the live transcript and the suggestions shown during their calls. The coaching is about the staff member, not the patient, so the score, scorecard, went well and work on, and how each objection was handled are not in it.