9 ms·

Show HN: Companies use AI to take your calls. I built AI to make them for you

237 points by michaelphi 1y ago

We're living in this weird asymmetry where companies use AI to talk to us, but we're still manually dialing them. Companies everywhere are adopting AI voice agents lately. Big retail, family dentist clinics, local pharmacy. This year, I've been in a few calls where it's super natural sounding AI, which has been pretty cool to experience. But then it got me thinking - why are we, the consumers, still the ones making calls if they're using robots for theirs? So I built Piper: basically AI that makes phone calls for you. You tell it what you need (book appointment, check on an order, dispute some charge, whatever), and it handles the entire conversation while you do actual work. Right now it's a web app, Chrome extension is pending approval but soon you'll be able to click any phone number anywhere and just let Piper handle it. Technical stuff that was harder than expected: Latency - every millisecond counts in conversation, had to optimize around kv cache, got it down to ~1000ms to first word over PSTN for telephony, which feels pretty natural Keeping the voice agents on track - built custom context engineering logic that constantly updates the agent's situational awareness, so it knows when it's been transferred, when it's on hold, etc Done ~50 successful calls with early testers so far. Main failures are when they need complex verification or documents. Also had to take down our IVR navigation temporarily :/, found some edge cases that were causing unnecessary transfers but working on fixing that. I really think we're heading toward this world where AI talks to AI for most routine things, and phone calls might be the first real example of this happening at scale! you can check out the a voice demo on our website. https://pipervoice.com https://pipervoice.com

rolstenhouse 1y ago
This is cool. Built an iOS app to do this for myself six months back, but it falls over to pretty basic IVR navigation. Any transactional call should be handled by AI on both sides.
tempay 1y ago
Have you tried it with other languages, in particular where the user makes a request in one language but expects the call to be made in another?
- addandsubtract 1y ago
  This. Even if you kinda know a language, speaking to someone on the phone is a whole different ball game. I wish there was an auto-translating STT->TTS tool, or just a TTS tool that auto translates requests into a foreign natural language.
billconan 1y ago
I had the same idea too, because, as an introverted person, I really hate calling customer services. I'd prefer written support if available. However, I gave up this idea, because I did some research, this seems to be illegal in US, due to a law from 1991.
- billconan 1y ago
  The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) The primary federal law governing automated calls and telemarketing in the U.S. is the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991, enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Key Provisions of the TCPA Relevant to Your App: Automated Telephone Dialing Systems (ATDS) and Prerecorded Messages: The TCPA significantly restricts the use of ATDS (autodialers) and artificial or prerecorded voice messages. To cell phones: Generally, it is prohibited to make calls to cell phones using an ATDS or a prerecorded/artificial voice without the prior express written consent of the called party. To residential landlines: It is generally prohibited to make calls to residential landlines using an artificial or prerecorded voice without prior express consent, unless an emergency or an exemption applies. Definition of ATDS: The definition of an ATDS has been a subject of legal debate. The Supreme Court in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid (2021) narrowed the definition to systems that use a random or sequential number generator to store or produce numbers to be called and then dial them. This means simply dialing from a stored list might not be considered an ATDS, but if your system generates or "predicts" numbers, it likely would be. However, even if your system isn't strictly an ATDS, the "prerecorded voice" or "artificial voice" prohibitions still apply. "Telemarketing" vs. "Informational" Calls: The TCPA distinguishes between telemarketing/advertising calls and purely informational calls. Telemarketing/Advertising Calls: These have the strictest consent requirements (prior express written consent). If your app promotes or advertises anything, even indirectly (e.g., promoting your app's service itself), it could be deemed telemarketing. Informational Calls: These generally have a lower consent bar (prior express consent, which can be verbal or implied through an established business relationship), but still carry restrictions, especially for robocalls to cell phones. Crucially, calling the IRS or DMV is generally considered an "informational" or "transactional" purpose from your side, not a telemarketing call to you. However, your app initiating the call using an automated system creates the legal exposure. Do Not Call (DNC) Registry: While primarily for telemarketing, if your app's purpose somehow touches on soliciting, you'd need to check against the National Do Not Call Registry. However, calls to government entities (like IRS/DMV) are not typically subject to DNC rules in the same way consumer phone numbers are. Newer FCC Rules on AI and Robocalls: The FCC is actively addressing the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in robocalls. As of late 2024 and early 2025, the FCC has affirmed that AI-generated voices are considered "artificial or prerecorded voices" under the TCPA, meaning they are subject to the same consent requirements. There are also proposals for clearer disclosure requirements for AI-generated calls.
stuckkeys 1y ago
The demo reminded me of this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F2y5q31E1gQ&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F2y5q31E1gQ&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5t...
qingcharles 1y ago
This is exceptionally well-made. The problem is... people smell a bot and hang up. I tried using it to get a quote from my friend's construction company, but twice he hung up as soon as Piper introduced themselves. I had to call him and tell him to take the call. It did work its way through their IVR system, though, as it was outside operating hours, and left a good message on their voicemail.
- qingcharles 1y ago
  In case OP reads this. I tried it again with a harder task with my friend's company. It got into a good conversation about materials and permits, but then my friend asked if they had a survey done. At that point the AI abruptly hung up and asked me in the chat if I had a survey. Obviously this wasn't ideal. It was doing great until that point, though. It should have just said that it didn't know and it would have to get back to the person with that information, and tried to see how much further it could get without that info.
tamimio 1y ago
What if the other side asked if it is an AI, will it lie? And if not, a lot will probably choose to hung up.
sparkalpha 1y ago
Can I use for call IRS?
saberience 1y ago
Like 5-10 other companies have already built way, way more advanced systems/platforms for both receiving voice calls and making voice calls... What are you doing that's actually novel here?
- lablife 1y ago
  Like who?
user9999999999 1y ago
This is great! Even without the LLM agent, async communication is so nice for low cog distracting customer service calls and holds. Why can't everyone just have an async comm universal chat interface? I guess this bridges the gap where the tech is legacy and or there is human involved. Can't wait to try it out!
czbond 1y ago
Great idea, and also as a creator myself, I enjoyed reading about the challenges that came up
kleiba 1y ago
Reminder of the backlash Google Duplex experienced 7 years ago: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/11/google-duplex-ai-identify-itself-as-robot-during-calls https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/11/google-du...
- herval 1y ago
  I remember how hated Google Glass was. Typing this while wearing my Raybans in public and nobody bats an eye at the cameras I’m pointing at them now…
  - qingcharles 1y ago
    I'm also astounded at the sea change. People were getting beaten by members of the public for wearing Glass. Now it's just a nothingburger. One of those things about not wanting to be the first mover.
  - SoftTalker 1y ago
    I won’t talk to anyone wearing a camera or earbuds. It’s just very off putting.
  - stevage 1y ago
    does anyone have any idea what they are?
    - herval 1y ago
      Given the amount of advertising, I’d think so. I think people just got used to see big cameras pointed at them all the time
      - xboxnolifes 1y ago
        I think google just got unlucky and got caught in a social media storm. Sometimes outrage gains traction, sometimes it doesn't. Though, it has become normalized to just record random people in public and post them to the internet.
pnw 1y ago
Has anyone made an open source version of this? It would be great to fight scams and tie up scam call centers.
- nojs 1y ago
  Lenny has you covered there. No AI required! https://www.lennytroll.com/ https://www.lennytroll.com/
  - pnw 1y ago
    Nice, I want outbound calls though, for that 1-800 number on the Norton/McAfee/Geeksquad "invoice" in my spam folder.
  - pavel_lishin 1y ago
    > Lenny Troll runs best on The Raspberry Pi with a USRobotics USR5637 Voice Modem connected to your home telephone I'd love for Lenny to somehow run on my mobile phone - I get plenty of spam calls there that I'd love to tie up with Lenny for awhile, but I have never been able to get it to work.
    - toast0 1y ago
      Your best hope there is finding a way to transfer the call or do a three way call. I don't think either appstore wants to let developers interact with PTSN calls.
- ethan_smith 1y ago
  Check out Jim Browning's Scammer Payback toolkit and OpenAI's Whisper+GPT integration projects on GitHub - both can be adapted for this with some Python knowledge and a SIP trunk.
leeroihe 1y ago
Nobody wants any of this... This is almost as bad as all of the AI powered resume skimming tools / applicant submission tools. It just makes it impossible for anyone to apply for a job. AI is for people and it's only being used to kick people onto the street and profit.
- alooPotato 1y ago
  I want this. I would love to save the 10 mins of calling around to diff places to check availability.
  - stevage 1y ago
    And now, because it costs you absolutely nothing, why not just have the bots waste hours of other peoples' time calling every possible place to get the best possible result for you? At least when you had to make the calls yourself, there was a limit to how many minutes of other people's time you could waste. This is a massive negative externality.
    - alooPotato 1y ago
      It's not my fault the business chooses to make reservations with phone only. If they want more efficiency they can do online bookings - my agent will have an easier time too.
- Zak 1y ago
  I want this. I don't like making phone calls. I especially don't like calling multiple businesses to check prices or availability, or navigating a phone tree, or waiting on hold. Ideally, businesses would let me do what needs doing via their website or over email. I remember thinking the same thing when Google demoed a similar concept years ago.
  - moomoo11 1y ago
    Maybe... the real issue is that "calling" (as a concept) is kind of dumb and needs to go away? I get that this is NOW, but just wondering if you're willing to engage. What could replace the need to call? Everyone having agents would be cool. You type or say "Make a dinner reservation at X at Y for 4 people" and the restaurant agent would just do it... I just want openai to be the super app for this kinda stuff.
amelius 1y ago
This service reminds me of this website called "Magic". You tell it what you want, and they make it happen. Or at least, that's how they advertised it.
jeffwass 1y ago
The problem with the call center A.I. is that almost every time I need to call somewhere that uses them, I have some kind of edge case. They always give examples of how the automated agent can handle simple queries like “what’s my balance” or “what hours are you open”, but I never need to call with something straightforward like that. As such I also wouldn’t want to trust my own edge case to an AI that might mishandle it. Maybe the most value to me would be a tool that figures out the shortest route through the phone touch tone labyrinth to get to a live human I can talk to.
- jonathanlb 1y ago
  I remember GetHuman being helpful in the past. Not sure how it performs now: https://gethuman.com/ https://gethuman.com/
- Esophagus4 1y ago
  Having written software used by call centers, you’d be surprised at how much call volume is the simple “happy path” like scheduling an appointment, paying a bill, or checking your balance. We’re not trying to automate the edge cases… we’re automating the easy stuff so agents can spend time on the hard stuff that can’t be easily automated. (I view customer service as a value add offering, but there are some companies that view it entirely as a cost center and will do everything possible to prevent you from speaking to someone who can help… looking at you, Uber / Airbnb...)
  - chairmansteve 1y ago
    I try and make it a rule to not use companies that don't have humans in the loop. Hotels over AirBnb. Banks over Bitcoin. etc Thinking about it... I need to move away from GMail....
    - Esophagus4 1y ago
      That's part of why I use the investment brokerage I do: their customer service is absolutely fantastic. I get a highly capable human agent with no hold time who is able to resolve my issue. The ones who really drive me nuts are the call-to-cancel services where they try to retain you. I'm not sure why that triggers my moral outrage so much, but WSJ and NYT are definitely on my naughty list.
FiniteIntegral 1y ago
I think you need to spend some more time testing this service if you are advertising this as a service that inherently interfaces with humans. I see that others in this thread like the applications for scambaiting, but I don't fully understand the use case you have here. If it's AI on both ends of the phone... whats the point of the call in the first place? It's not that hard to get a human on the other line who is able to help me far better than any robotic agent could. If the agent has trouble solving "complex verification or (providing) documents" I doubt that a monthly fee for simple tasks doesn't sound like a viable and sustainable business model. It sounds like the anti-social bunch would like it but past that it's going to be hard drumming up a lot of support.
- virgil_disgr4ce 1y ago
  > It's not that hard to get a human on the other line who is able to help me far better than any robotic agent could Are we living in different universes?
  - lazide 1y ago
    My favorite is giant megacorps that literally make it impossible. One (recently) even told me, after wandering through the menu options, that they were going to text me a link to their app - and then hung up on me. I already tried the app, their system was broken - that’s why I was trying to call and talk to a human! Bonus - they didn’t text me either
- murukesh_s 1y ago
  can think of all sort of use cases - imagine you integrating it with an automated agentic workflow - where at some websites you need to talk to a bot or real human to get the job done in realtime - because email takes a while and may not be available (for e.g. at a restaurant) - this service can do the job as instructed by the LLM and get back to you for status. For e.g. if you want to call 10 restaurants to find out if a seat for 20 is available - you can just instruct it via an agent or so..
throwaway81523 1y ago
For the bot vs bot case, this makes me smile. I don't like the idea of it talking to humans but who knows. Can you get rid of the browser and offer an API endpoint? Just regular JSON, not MCP. That would complete the circle.
alooPotato 1y ago
One thing to make it less annoying for the human on the other end is if the AI just talked a little faster and responded a little faster. Also the the final few few seconds is so cringe where the AI always wants to have the last word. Can you make that last part of the interaction go faster? I would never have 3-4 back and forths on thank yous and good byes.
- b112 1y ago
  The future way to detect it's a human, and not an AI? No politeness. The person on the phone is yelling at you like a 1950s New Yorker.
throwaway81523 1y ago
And, rather than this voice stuff which is rarely important, how about a browser extension to just log me into my account on a damn website?, which I have to do much more often? Here's my username, password, TOTP credential, and credentials for an email address that I set up for that website. So the extension should log me in, which means solve the captchas and recaptchas and deal with the emailed confirmation code besides using the supplied credentials. In some cases SMS may be involved but I forward all those to email. What crap the whole web has turned into. IDK if it is all Anthropic's fault, but they didn't help.
- johntash 1y ago
  Isn't this basically what most password managers do? Assuming the website supports totp, 1password can fill out your user/password and otp code. Captchas are a separate issue though I guess.
  - throwaway81523 1y ago
    Captchas are the main point of wanting a new extension. Also email and text confirmations. Some sites insist on those even when there is nothing valuable behind the login.
jjmarr 1y ago
This is hilarious and fun.
chevman 1y ago
This is a killer use case guys - excited to try it out over the next couple weeks! "Negotiate with the service provider/insurance co/cable company/etc" as a service is going to be massive.
- jplusequalt 1y ago
  This sounds great up until the AI agent agrees to something the human would not agree to, and now they're on the hook for money.
clvx 1y ago
I just need one that can repeatedly say “I want talk to a representative” and when a representative answers “I would like to escalate to your manager”. After that a human on the loop is needed.
gruez 1y ago
This might work for making reservations at hair salons that don't have an online booking system, but for companies that can obviously afford an online system and are forcing people to call in to increase friction, what prevents them from blocking this service (and similar) for "security reasons"? After all, the AI discloses up front that it's an AI, and lying about it might be dicey. Concerns about security aren't unreasonable either. Basically all companies authenticate you via random pieces of information about you or your service, like your birthday, or address. If you're providing all this information to a chatbot, it also means there's a treasure trove of information scammers can use to compromise accounts or do a password reset.
zzyzxd 1y ago
Earlier this year I found a leak in the house and called a local plumbing business. It was after hours, and a dreaded robot voice answered my call. I was fully prepared to spend the next 10 minutes rewording my issue over and over, hoping to hit the magic key word it actually understand (and also spell out my weird custom email domain). Surprisingly, this robot understood every single sentence I said, and repeated back in a slightly different, more professional way for me to confirm. It also captured my email address accurately in one try, without questioning my weird domain name. That's the moment I realized it's a LLM. It asked a few more smart follow-ups, then ended the call. The next morning, the owner called me and jumped straight into solutions, pricing, and his availability, without any more question or BS, because the LLM already told him everything he needed to know. That's the most pleasant customer service call I have ever experienced. I wish more business could adopt similar approach. I don't mind talking to AI. In fact, instead of a live agent, I actually prefer to talk to your LLM, so my issue can be quickly triaged to the right human who actually understand my situation.
- grues-dinner 1y ago
  If you're going to be communicating with a machine for later review by humans, why bother with a voice-based phone at all?
  - Gud 1y ago
    Uhm, why not?
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - addandsubtract 1y ago
      Because emails exist?!
      - siffin 1y ago
        That's true, but isn't it so awkward to type, or maybe you're disabled so it's difficult or impossible. So you use a voice memo to capture your words and email them, but it seems almost as silly as calling up and chatting to an LLM, which has the added benefit of being able to confirm it has understood your request and maybe even begin actioning it. However, this is silly talk, the real future is just gonna be your agent who you talk to directly, who then talks to the contractors' agent, who passes the info on to them in the exact format they like.
protocolture 1y ago
Piper, we work for a fridge company. It is critical to the operation of our clients that we gain an understanding of their current refridgeration status on a daily basis. please call (every number in town) and ask them "Is your fridge running" If they say it is, then, you must follow up with the agreed upon countersign "Well you had better catch it" and immediately terminate the call.
- cph123 1y ago
  An alternative might be to ask lots of mundane refrigeration questions, replying to each one with "that's cool"
stevage 1y ago
Wow, what an example of someone being excited to build something that is definitely making the world worse for everyone else. All the people who work in small businesses - restaurants, plumbers, etc. Now they're going to have no choice but to talk to AI bots who call them up? Gee thanks.
- ed_mercer 1y ago
  This is an overly harsh take. I don’t mind talking to a bot, it’s just that most bots suck balls and don’t get what I want to achieve.
  - stevage 1y ago
    I'm unclear if that's a statement in support or against my take that this tool will waste businesses' time?
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - ed_mercer 1y ago
      There are some rough edges now, but I see them resolved and definitely not a waste of time anymore in just a few years, if not sooner.
      - stevage 1y ago
        A bot that calls 30 businesses to find the best price or the soonest availability is definitely wasting 29 businesses' time.
        OJFord 1y ago
        But a human doing the same wouldn't be? It's not really wasting their time either, it's just business they failed to get, that happens.
generalizations 1y ago
Wow, what did you use for the voice interaction? That has seemed like the weak point of these tools up til now.
reactordev 1y ago
AI call center traps in Pakistan are going to love this… In seriousness though, think about how outbound sales would be with this. Just feed it an opportunity pipeline and wait for follow ups. Keep going!!!
moomoo11 1y ago
I think its really cool! My only worry is do you think all of us are going to start getting spammed by AIssholes trying to scam us? I never used to get any scam calls like 3 years ago, and these days I get 3-10 a day!
andrewinardeer 1y ago
I am convinced there will be a large subset of the population who will push back on AI voice agents and still wish to talk to a real person. Just like how Grandma still prefers to bank cheques at the teller every pension day. Perhaps when the job losses really start becoming apparent it will become a social movement as well. I'm sure there will be businesses that will find having humans answer calls a sustainable competitve advantage. I'm not convinced AI voice agents are there just yet. As someone else mentioned, edge cases will trip them up. Nevertheless, at some point I envision a web designed for agents where the business agent will interact with my agent to resolve an outcome. The horrifying thought is dating. Sally's agent will end up telling Barry's agent to stop contacting it, Barry's agent won't understand and the the Police's agent will invoke a judicial agent to issue a 'stop communication' order to Barry's legal agent to deliver to Barry's personal agent.
- mlsu 1y ago
  I love this future of agents! It gets rid of the one thing I hate most in my life: acknowledging the existence and interiority of other human beings, and being acknowledged in return. I long for this future where I can be alone in the cyber prism. It surely won’t become a cell!
afarah1 1y ago
I got interested and got down to the FAQ. The "how much it costs" question doesn't give any price figure in the answer. I'm still left with the same question and feeling like a fool. Nor is the data privacy question answered. "Bank level encryption"? Because everyone else just gets the placebo? Maybe this isn't fair, I haven't really tried your product. But this is your front page. And if your product really is good, it's not doing it justice.
drivingmenuts 1y ago
[flagged]
thirdfanged 1y ago
I just watched the live feed for about 2 minutes and counted 4 instances of PPI exposure, account numbers, real names, last 4 of socials and last 4 of CC numbers. The live feed is sketchy AF.
anitil 1y ago
I love this, but I wonder what your plan is to prevent denial-of-service against, for example, government services?
natewww 1y ago
super interesting idea, nice website too
b0wen 1y ago
It seems you don't give a clear answer to the cost? How much would it cost for 1 min? I think it is important for consumers like me.
sarabande 1y ago
Consider outbound AI calls as a weapon against inefficiency. What is the game-theoretic equilibrium when faced with adversaries like call centers & other businesses with labrynthian customer service? I bet it leads to more efficiency for everyone. When inbound robocalls deluge a business, the business pushes to cost-optimize its own service. Business replaces humans with similar AI solutions to handle the phone modality, but hopefully then reverts to great service via email/API to reduce costs further. Then, humans using AI voice services can "de-escalate" and revert to email/API AI, e.g. going from: 1. Business: AI (Voice) or Human | Customer: Human 2. Business: AI (Voice) or Human | Customer: AI (Voice) 3. Business: AI (voice) | Customer: AI (Voice) 4. Business: AI (Text) | Customer: AI (Text)
globular-toast 1y ago
Pitch says it's about an asymmetry, but demo has the LLM calling a real person at a restaurant. How is that addressing the asymmetry? But let's assume even small businesses like restaurants will adopt LLMs on the phone. So now you've got LLMs talking to LLMs that were trained to talk to people. What if we just trained the LLMs to talk to other LLMs? Surely they could complete the entire transaction in a tiny fraction of the time? They wouldn't be using any language we understand, of course.
qwertox 1y ago
Since I upgraded Asterisk it has this bug that as soon a DTMF tone is played on the line, Asterisk crashes. So I cannot navigate any menu and when requested to make a choice, I just don't make one and wait. Turns out that this has been pretty effective in getting a real person on the other end relatively fast. I don't know what it is, maybe it's a legal requirement, maybe so that people too dumb to use a phone still get serviced.
- Piskvorrr 1y ago
  IDK if any pulse dialing phones (as opposed to DTMF) are still capable of reaching the phone network at large, but I'd imagine that's the use case.
- jpeeler 1y ago
  That is quite an unexpected benefit to such a serious bug.
nmstoker 1y ago
Interesting because this empowers the user rather than making us the product - we need more of these use cases. The one thing that seems unfortunate is the choice of name: Piper is already in use in a fairly related area, as a text to speech tool: https://github.com/OHF-Voice/piper1-gpl https://github.com/OHF-Voice/piper1-gpl I usually think such concerns are lawyers being OTT because they raise them for any potential clash, even when it's clearly very distant and unrelated but something like this is software and heavily using speech, so the potential for the average person misunderstanding and assuming a connection is that much greater.
- chrisweekly 1y ago
  OTT?
  - nmstoker 1y ago
    Sorry! "Over the top"
  - debo_ 1y ago
    Over the top -- in this context, excessively lawyer-y.
- cisophrene 1y ago
  I agree that the name clash is an issue, I immediately thought of piper tts when seeing the name.
tibbon 1y ago
This is great! I started building similar at a hackathon a few weeks ago, and just haven’t had time to come back to it. I got all the infra up and had it making calls but was having problems with the syntax and to get it to respond to different answers. Best I could do in a few hours. Glad to see someone go all in!
Sanctor 1y ago
This is nice and all but I can't help think the current situation is pretty grim. Computers talking to computers using natural language and speech synthesis. What a complete waste of resources. Perhaps in the future we won't have APIs at all, just LLMs talking to LLMs.
- keysdev 1y ago
  And robots fighting robots in wars. Might as well lets just have something like starcraft between the nations without the robot to determine the winner. Way more resource efficient.
  - debo_ 1y ago
    In that case, we might as well all declare allegiance to South Korea right now and skip the competition. (Unless it's StarCraft 2, I guess.)
- rachofsunshine 1y ago
  New networks always start on top of old ones - presumably someone will, at some point, standardize an agent interface for these sorts of systems. Funnily enough, we already have a precedent for computers communicating by phone: the modem! The more things change...
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
throwaway0123_5 1y ago
If a company in [insert almost any sector] explicitly advertised and provided: "Human customer support agents, no voice menus/AI whatsoever." I'd almost certainly buy their service over any other company. Seriously, that could be the whole ad. By the time I'm calling customer support, its because the answer isn't easy to find on their website/emails/whatever else. I'm calling because I need to escalate to a human. Sometimes it isn't even about getting information, but rather that I need a human who actually has the authority to help me (which I assume nobody is delegating to AI anytime soon for fear of jailbreaks). Making people jump through ten layers of "I know you want to speak to an agent, but I need more information about your case" is just infuriating.
runako 1y ago
This looks really cool, congrats on the launch! Suggestion: redo the demo video showing the call to the restaurant. As a Google user, I couldn't help but notice the button in the result to make a reservation (without using Piper). My 2 cents generally is that restaurant reservations are so fully automated that they are probably one of the worst showcases of the value of Piper. I can't remember the last time I called to make a reservation.
- SoftTalker 1y ago
  Also at least in my town almost no restaurants take reservations anymore.
drewg123 1y ago
Where I see the real value of something like this is time-wasting AI agents at monopolies like CVS Pharmacy. These seem designed to be as slow and frustrating as possible & I'm sure the goal is to get you to give up before you can talk to a human. I'd love to see a demo of your agent requesting a callback from a CVS pharmacist. Or trying to talk to Comcast customer service.
- lazide 1y ago
  Many of those systems now just straight up route you into black holes (zero possible action, and then they hang up). very irritating. Maybe as a response to this kind of thing?
dangoodmanUT 1y ago
People handle getting calls from AI very differently than calling into AI
throwawayoldie 1y ago
Super, the proportion of phone calls I get that are spam can finally go from 99% to 99.99%.
gosub100 1y ago
I'm going to build something like this to answer outgoing robocalls made to me. I am going to instructions to answer all questions slowly and ask to repeat every third time. Goal is to tie up the scammers time as long as possible. The robocalls eventually escalate to a person.
johntash 1y ago
Any chance of open sourcing this or having a way to self host it?
endigma 1y ago
ETA on international calls availability? Will there be another announcement, email blast, etc? UK, Canada, Australia or EU to start?

237 points by michaelphi 1y ago

rolstenhouse 1y ago

This is cool. Built an iOS app to do this for myself six months back, but it falls over to pretty basic IVR navigation. Any transactional call should be handled by AI on both sides.

tempay 1y ago

Have you tried it with other languages, in particular where the user makes a request in one language but expects the call to be made in another?

addandsubtract 1y ago
This. Even if you kinda know a language, speaking to someone on the phone is a whole different ball game. I wish there was an auto-translating STT->TTS tool, or just a TTS tool that auto translates requests into a foreign natural language.

billconan 1y ago

I had the same idea too, because, as an introverted person, I really hate calling customer services. I'd prefer written support if available. However, I gave up this idea, because I did some research, this seems to be illegal in US, due to a law from 1991.

billconan 1y ago
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) The primary federal law governing automated calls and telemarketing in the U.S. is the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991, enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Key Provisions of the TCPA Relevant to Your App: Automated Telephone Dialing Systems (ATDS) and Prerecorded Messages: The TCPA significantly restricts the use of ATDS (autodialers) and artificial or prerecorded voice messages. To cell phones: Generally, it is prohibited to make calls to cell phones using an ATDS or a prerecorded/artificial voice without the prior express written consent of the called party. To residential landlines: It is generally prohibited to make calls to residential landlines using an artificial or prerecorded voice without prior express consent, unless an emergency or an exemption applies. Definition of ATDS: The definition of an ATDS has been a subject of legal debate. The Supreme Court in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid (2021) narrowed the definition to systems that use a random or sequential number generator to store or produce numbers to be called and then dial them. This means simply dialing from a stored list might not be considered an ATDS, but if your system generates or "predicts" numbers, it likely would be. However, even if your system isn't strictly an ATDS, the "prerecorded voice" or "artificial voice" prohibitions still apply. "Telemarketing" vs. "Informational" Calls: The TCPA distinguishes between telemarketing/advertising calls and purely informational calls. Telemarketing/Advertising Calls: These have the strictest consent requirements (prior express written consent). If your app promotes or advertises anything, even indirectly (e.g., promoting your app's service itself), it could be deemed telemarketing. Informational Calls: These generally have a lower consent bar (prior express consent, which can be verbal or implied through an established business relationship), but still carry restrictions, especially for robocalls to cell phones. Crucially, calling the IRS or DMV is generally considered an "informational" or "transactional" purpose from your side, not a telemarketing call to you. However, your app initiating the call using an automated system creates the legal exposure. Do Not Call (DNC) Registry: While primarily for telemarketing, if your app's purpose somehow touches on soliciting, you'd need to check against the National Do Not Call Registry. However, calls to government entities (like IRS/DMV) are not typically subject to DNC rules in the same way consumer phone numbers are. Newer FCC Rules on AI and Robocalls: The FCC is actively addressing the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in robocalls. As of late 2024 and early 2025, the FCC has affirmed that AI-generated voices are considered "artificial or prerecorded voices" under the TCPA, meaning they are subject to the same consent requirements. There are also proposals for clearer disclosure requirements for AI-generated calls.

stuckkeys 1y ago

The demo reminded me of this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F2y5q31E1gQ&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F2y5q31E1gQ&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5t...

qingcharles 1y ago

This is exceptionally well-made. The problem is... people smell a bot and hang up. I tried using it to get a quote from my friend's construction company, but twice he hung up as soon as Piper introduced themselves. I had to call him and tell him to take the call. It did work its way through their IVR system, though, as it was outside operating hours, and left a good message on their voicemail.

qingcharles 1y ago
In case OP reads this. I tried it again with a harder task with my friend's company. It got into a good conversation about materials and permits, but then my friend asked if they had a survey done. At that point the AI abruptly hung up and asked me in the chat if I had a survey. Obviously this wasn't ideal. It was doing great until that point, though. It should have just said that it didn't know and it would have to get back to the person with that information, and tried to see how much further it could get without that info.

tamimio 1y ago

What if the other side asked if it is an AI, will it lie? And if not, a lot will probably choose to hung up.

sparkalpha 1y ago

Can I use for call IRS?

saberience 1y ago

Like 5-10 other companies have already built way, way more advanced systems/platforms for both receiving voice calls and making voice calls... What are you doing that's actually novel here?

lablife 1y ago
Like who?

user9999999999 1y ago

This is great! Even without the LLM agent, async communication is so nice for low cog distracting customer service calls and holds. Why can't everyone just have an async comm universal chat interface? I guess this bridges the gap where the tech is legacy and or there is human involved. Can't wait to try it out!

czbond 1y ago

Great idea, and also as a creator myself, I enjoyed reading about the challenges that came up

kleiba 1y ago

Reminder of the backlash Google Duplex experienced 7 years ago: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/11/google-duplex-ai-identify-itself-as-robot-during-calls https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/11/google-du...

herval 1y ago
I remember how hated Google Glass was. Typing this while wearing my Raybans in public and nobody bats an eye at the cameras I’m pointing at them now…
- qingcharles 1y ago
  I'm also astounded at the sea change. People were getting beaten by members of the public for wearing Glass. Now it's just a nothingburger. One of those things about not wanting to be the first mover.
- SoftTalker 1y ago
  I won’t talk to anyone wearing a camera or earbuds. It’s just very off putting.
- stevage 1y ago
  does anyone have any idea what they are?
  - herval 1y ago
    Given the amount of advertising, I’d think so. I think people just got used to see big cameras pointed at them all the time
    - xboxnolifes 1y ago
      I think google just got unlucky and got caught in a social media storm. Sometimes outrage gains traction, sometimes it doesn't. Though, it has become normalized to just record random people in public and post them to the internet.

pnw 1y ago

Has anyone made an open source version of this? It would be great to fight scams and tie up scam call centers.

nojs 1y ago
Lenny has you covered there. No AI required! https://www.lennytroll.com/ https://www.lennytroll.com/
- pnw 1y ago
  Nice, I want outbound calls though, for that 1-800 number on the Norton/McAfee/Geeksquad "invoice" in my spam folder.
- pavel_lishin 1y ago
  > Lenny Troll runs best on The Raspberry Pi with a USRobotics USR5637 Voice Modem connected to your home telephone I'd love for Lenny to somehow run on my mobile phone - I get plenty of spam calls there that I'd love to tie up with Lenny for awhile, but I have never been able to get it to work.
  - toast0 1y ago
    Your best hope there is finding a way to transfer the call or do a three way call. I don't think either appstore wants to let developers interact with PTSN calls.
ethan_smith 1y ago
Check out Jim Browning's Scammer Payback toolkit and OpenAI's Whisper+GPT integration projects on GitHub - both can be adapted for this with some Python knowledge and a SIP trunk.

leeroihe 1y ago

Nobody wants any of this... This is almost as bad as all of the AI powered resume skimming tools / applicant submission tools. It just makes it impossible for anyone to apply for a job. AI is for people and it's only being used to kick people onto the street and profit.

alooPotato 1y ago
I want this. I would love to save the 10 mins of calling around to diff places to check availability.
- stevage 1y ago
  And now, because it costs you absolutely nothing, why not just have the bots waste hours of other peoples' time calling every possible place to get the best possible result for you? At least when you had to make the calls yourself, there was a limit to how many minutes of other people's time you could waste. This is a massive negative externality.
  - alooPotato 1y ago
    It's not my fault the business chooses to make reservations with phone only. If they want more efficiency they can do online bookings - my agent will have an easier time too.
Zak 1y ago
I want this. I don't like making phone calls. I especially don't like calling multiple businesses to check prices or availability, or navigating a phone tree, or waiting on hold. Ideally, businesses would let me do what needs doing via their website or over email. I remember thinking the same thing when Google demoed a similar concept years ago.
- moomoo11 1y ago
  Maybe... the real issue is that "calling" (as a concept) is kind of dumb and needs to go away? I get that this is NOW, but just wondering if you're willing to engage. What could replace the need to call? Everyone having agents would be cool. You type or say "Make a dinner reservation at X at Y for 4 people" and the restaurant agent would just do it... I just want openai to be the super app for this kinda stuff.

amelius 1y ago

This service reminds me of this website called "Magic". You tell it what you want, and they make it happen. Or at least, that's how they advertised it.

jeffwass 1y ago

The problem with the call center A.I. is that almost every time I need to call somewhere that uses them, I have some kind of edge case. They always give examples of how the automated agent can handle simple queries like “what’s my balance” or “what hours are you open”, but I never need to call with something straightforward like that. As such I also wouldn’t want to trust my own edge case to an AI that might mishandle it. Maybe the most value to me would be a tool that figures out the shortest route through the phone touch tone labyrinth to get to a live human I can talk to.

jonathanlb 1y ago
I remember GetHuman being helpful in the past. Not sure how it performs now: https://gethuman.com/ https://gethuman.com/
Esophagus4 1y ago
Having written software used by call centers, you’d be surprised at how much call volume is the simple “happy path” like scheduling an appointment, paying a bill, or checking your balance. We’re not trying to automate the edge cases… we’re automating the easy stuff so agents can spend time on the hard stuff that can’t be easily automated. (I view customer service as a value add offering, but there are some companies that view it entirely as a cost center and will do everything possible to prevent you from speaking to someone who can help… looking at you, Uber / Airbnb...)
- chairmansteve 1y ago
  I try and make it a rule to not use companies that don't have humans in the loop. Hotels over AirBnb. Banks over Bitcoin. etc Thinking about it... I need to move away from GMail....
  - Esophagus4 1y ago
    That's part of why I use the investment brokerage I do: their customer service is absolutely fantastic. I get a highly capable human agent with no hold time who is able to resolve my issue. The ones who really drive me nuts are the call-to-cancel services where they try to retain you. I'm not sure why that triggers my moral outrage so much, but WSJ and NYT are definitely on my naughty list.

FiniteIntegral 1y ago

I think you need to spend some more time testing this service if you are advertising this as a service that inherently interfaces with humans. I see that others in this thread like the applications for scambaiting, but I don't fully understand the use case you have here. If it's AI on both ends of the phone... whats the point of the call in the first place? It's not that hard to get a human on the other line who is able to help me far better than any robotic agent could. If the agent has trouble solving "complex verification or (providing) documents" I doubt that a monthly fee for simple tasks doesn't sound like a viable and sustainable business model. It sounds like the anti-social bunch would like it but past that it's going to be hard drumming up a lot of support.

virgil_disgr4ce 1y ago
> It's not that hard to get a human on the other line who is able to help me far better than any robotic agent could Are we living in different universes?
- lazide 1y ago
  My favorite is giant megacorps that literally make it impossible. One (recently) even told me, after wandering through the menu options, that they were going to text me a link to their app - and then hung up on me. I already tried the app, their system was broken - that’s why I was trying to call and talk to a human! Bonus - they didn’t text me either
murukesh_s 1y ago
can think of all sort of use cases - imagine you integrating it with an automated agentic workflow - where at some websites you need to talk to a bot or real human to get the job done in realtime - because email takes a while and may not be available (for e.g. at a restaurant) - this service can do the job as instructed by the LLM and get back to you for status. For e.g. if you want to call 10 restaurants to find out if a seat for 20 is available - you can just instruct it via an agent or so..

throwaway81523 1y ago

For the bot vs bot case, this makes me smile. I don't like the idea of it talking to humans but who knows. Can you get rid of the browser and offer an API endpoint? Just regular JSON, not MCP. That would complete the circle.

alooPotato 1y ago

One thing to make it less annoying for the human on the other end is if the AI just talked a little faster and responded a little faster. Also the the final few few seconds is so cringe where the AI always wants to have the last word. Can you make that last part of the interaction go faster? I would never have 3-4 back and forths on thank yous and good byes.

b112 1y ago
The future way to detect it's a human, and not an AI? No politeness. The person on the phone is yelling at you like a 1950s New Yorker.

throwaway81523 1y ago

And, rather than this voice stuff which is rarely important, how about a browser extension to just log me into my account on a damn website?, which I have to do much more often? Here's my username, password, TOTP credential, and credentials for an email address that I set up for that website. So the extension should log me in, which means solve the captchas and recaptchas and deal with the emailed confirmation code besides using the supplied credentials. In some cases SMS may be involved but I forward all those to email. What crap the whole web has turned into. IDK if it is all Anthropic's fault, but they didn't help.

johntash 1y ago
Isn't this basically what most password managers do? Assuming the website supports totp, 1password can fill out your user/password and otp code. Captchas are a separate issue though I guess.
- throwaway81523 1y ago
  Captchas are the main point of wanting a new extension. Also email and text confirmations. Some sites insist on those even when there is nothing valuable behind the login.

jjmarr 1y ago

This is hilarious and fun.

chevman 1y ago

This is a killer use case guys - excited to try it out over the next couple weeks! "Negotiate with the service provider/insurance co/cable company/etc" as a service is going to be massive.

jplusequalt 1y ago
This sounds great up until the AI agent agrees to something the human would not agree to, and now they're on the hook for money.

clvx 1y ago

I just need one that can repeatedly say “I want talk to a representative” and when a representative answers “I would like to escalate to your manager”. After that a human on the loop is needed.

gruez 1y ago

This might work for making reservations at hair salons that don't have an online booking system, but for companies that can obviously afford an online system and are forcing people to call in to increase friction, what prevents them from blocking this service (and similar) for "security reasons"? After all, the AI discloses up front that it's an AI, and lying about it might be dicey. Concerns about security aren't unreasonable either. Basically all companies authenticate you via random pieces of information about you or your service, like your birthday, or address. If you're providing all this information to a chatbot, it also means there's a treasure trove of information scammers can use to compromise accounts or do a password reset.

zzyzxd 1y ago

Earlier this year I found a leak in the house and called a local plumbing business. It was after hours, and a dreaded robot voice answered my call. I was fully prepared to spend the next 10 minutes rewording my issue over and over, hoping to hit the magic key word it actually understand (and also spell out my weird custom email domain). Surprisingly, this robot understood every single sentence I said, and repeated back in a slightly different, more professional way for me to confirm. It also captured my email address accurately in one try, without questioning my weird domain name. That's the moment I realized it's a LLM. It asked a few more smart follow-ups, then ended the call. The next morning, the owner called me and jumped straight into solutions, pricing, and his availability, without any more question or BS, because the LLM already told him everything he needed to know. That's the most pleasant customer service call I have ever experienced. I wish more business could adopt similar approach. I don't mind talking to AI. In fact, instead of a live agent, I actually prefer to talk to your LLM, so my issue can be quickly triaged to the right human who actually understand my situation.

grues-dinner 1y ago
If you're going to be communicating with a machine for later review by humans, why bother with a voice-based phone at all?
- Gud 1y ago
  Uhm, why not?
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - addandsubtract 1y ago
    Because emails exist?!
    - siffin 1y ago
      That's true, but isn't it so awkward to type, or maybe you're disabled so it's difficult or impossible. So you use a voice memo to capture your words and email them, but it seems almost as silly as calling up and chatting to an LLM, which has the added benefit of being able to confirm it has understood your request and maybe even begin actioning it. However, this is silly talk, the real future is just gonna be your agent who you talk to directly, who then talks to the contractors' agent, who passes the info on to them in the exact format they like.

protocolture 1y ago

Piper, we work for a fridge company. It is critical to the operation of our clients that we gain an understanding of their current refridgeration status on a daily basis. please call (every number in town) and ask them "Is your fridge running" If they say it is, then, you must follow up with the agreed upon countersign "Well you had better catch it" and immediately terminate the call.

cph123 1y ago
An alternative might be to ask lots of mundane refrigeration questions, replying to each one with "that's cool"

stevage 1y ago

Wow, what an example of someone being excited to build something that is definitely making the world worse for everyone else. All the people who work in small businesses - restaurants, plumbers, etc. Now they're going to have no choice but to talk to AI bots who call them up? Gee thanks.

ed_mercer 1y ago
This is an overly harsh take. I don’t mind talking to a bot, it’s just that most bots suck balls and don’t get what I want to achieve.
- stevage 1y ago
  I'm unclear if that's a statement in support or against my take that this tool will waste businesses' time?
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - ed_mercer 1y ago
    There are some rough edges now, but I see them resolved and definitely not a waste of time anymore in just a few years, if not sooner.
    - stevage 1y ago
      A bot that calls 30 businesses to find the best price or the soonest availability is definitely wasting 29 businesses' time.
      - OJFord 1y ago
        But a human doing the same wouldn't be? It's not really wasting their time either, it's just business they failed to get, that happens.

generalizations 1y ago

Wow, what did you use for the voice interaction? That has seemed like the weak point of these tools up til now.

reactordev 1y ago

AI call center traps in Pakistan are going to love this… In seriousness though, think about how outbound sales would be with this. Just feed it an opportunity pipeline and wait for follow ups. Keep going!!!

moomoo11 1y ago

I think its really cool! My only worry is do you think all of us are going to start getting spammed by AIssholes trying to scam us? I never used to get any scam calls like 3 years ago, and these days I get 3-10 a day!

andrewinardeer 1y ago

I am convinced there will be a large subset of the population who will push back on AI voice agents and still wish to talk to a real person. Just like how Grandma still prefers to bank cheques at the teller every pension day. Perhaps when the job losses really start becoming apparent it will become a social movement as well. I'm sure there will be businesses that will find having humans answer calls a sustainable competitve advantage. I'm not convinced AI voice agents are there just yet. As someone else mentioned, edge cases will trip them up. Nevertheless, at some point I envision a web designed for agents where the business agent will interact with my agent to resolve an outcome. The horrifying thought is dating. Sally's agent will end up telling Barry's agent to stop contacting it, Barry's agent won't understand and the the Police's agent will invoke a judicial agent to issue a 'stop communication' order to Barry's legal agent to deliver to Barry's personal agent.

mlsu 1y ago
I love this future of agents! It gets rid of the one thing I hate most in my life: acknowledging the existence and interiority of other human beings, and being acknowledged in return. I long for this future where I can be alone in the cyber prism. It surely won’t become a cell!

afarah1 1y ago

I got interested and got down to the FAQ. The "how much it costs" question doesn't give any price figure in the answer. I'm still left with the same question and feeling like a fool. Nor is the data privacy question answered. "Bank level encryption"? Because everyone else just gets the placebo? Maybe this isn't fair, I haven't really tried your product. But this is your front page. And if your product really is good, it's not doing it justice.

drivingmenuts 1y ago

[flagged]

thirdfanged 1y ago

I just watched the live feed for about 2 minutes and counted 4 instances of PPI exposure, account numbers, real names, last 4 of socials and last 4 of CC numbers. The live feed is sketchy AF.

anitil 1y ago

I love this, but I wonder what your plan is to prevent denial-of-service against, for example, government services?

natewww 1y ago

super interesting idea, nice website too

b0wen 1y ago

It seems you don't give a clear answer to the cost? How much would it cost for 1 min? I think it is important for consumers like me.

sarabande 1y ago

Consider outbound AI calls as a weapon against inefficiency. What is the game-theoretic equilibrium when faced with adversaries like call centers & other businesses with labrynthian customer service? I bet it leads to more efficiency for everyone. When inbound robocalls deluge a business, the business pushes to cost-optimize its own service. Business replaces humans with similar AI solutions to handle the phone modality, but hopefully then reverts to great service via email/API to reduce costs further. Then, humans using AI voice services can "de-escalate" and revert to email/API AI, e.g. going from: 1. Business: AI (Voice) or Human | Customer: Human 2. Business: AI (Voice) or Human | Customer: AI (Voice) 3. Business: AI (voice) | Customer: AI (Voice) 4. Business: AI (Text) | Customer: AI (Text)

globular-toast 1y ago

Pitch says it's about an asymmetry, but demo has the LLM calling a real person at a restaurant. How is that addressing the asymmetry? But let's assume even small businesses like restaurants will adopt LLMs on the phone. So now you've got LLMs talking to LLMs that were trained to talk to people. What if we just trained the LLMs to talk to other LLMs? Surely they could complete the entire transaction in a tiny fraction of the time? They wouldn't be using any language we understand, of course.

qwertox 1y ago

Since I upgraded Asterisk it has this bug that as soon a DTMF tone is played on the line, Asterisk crashes. So I cannot navigate any menu and when requested to make a choice, I just don't make one and wait. Turns out that this has been pretty effective in getting a real person on the other end relatively fast. I don't know what it is, maybe it's a legal requirement, maybe so that people too dumb to use a phone still get serviced.

Piskvorrr 1y ago
IDK if any pulse dialing phones (as opposed to DTMF) are still capable of reaching the phone network at large, but I'd imagine that's the use case.
jpeeler 1y ago
That is quite an unexpected benefit to such a serious bug.

nmstoker 1y ago

Interesting because this empowers the user rather than making us the product - we need more of these use cases. The one thing that seems unfortunate is the choice of name: Piper is already in use in a fairly related area, as a text to speech tool: https://github.com/OHF-Voice/piper1-gpl https://github.com/OHF-Voice/piper1-gpl I usually think such concerns are lawyers being OTT because they raise them for any potential clash, even when it's clearly very distant and unrelated but something like this is software and heavily using speech, so the potential for the average person misunderstanding and assuming a connection is that much greater.

chrisweekly 1y ago
OTT?
- nmstoker 1y ago
  Sorry! "Over the top"
- debo_ 1y ago
  Over the top -- in this context, excessively lawyer-y.
cisophrene 1y ago
I agree that the name clash is an issue, I immediately thought of piper tts when seeing the name.

tibbon 1y ago

This is great! I started building similar at a hackathon a few weeks ago, and just haven’t had time to come back to it. I got all the infra up and had it making calls but was having problems with the syntax and to get it to respond to different answers. Best I could do in a few hours. Glad to see someone go all in!

Sanctor 1y ago

This is nice and all but I can't help think the current situation is pretty grim. Computers talking to computers using natural language and speech synthesis. What a complete waste of resources. Perhaps in the future we won't have APIs at all, just LLMs talking to LLMs.

keysdev 1y ago
And robots fighting robots in wars. Might as well lets just have something like starcraft between the nations without the robot to determine the winner. Way more resource efficient.
- debo_ 1y ago
  In that case, we might as well all declare allegiance to South Korea right now and skip the competition. (Unless it's StarCraft 2, I guess.)
rachofsunshine 1y ago
New networks always start on top of old ones - presumably someone will, at some point, standardize an agent interface for these sorts of systems. Funnily enough, we already have a precedent for computers communicating by phone: the modem! The more things change...

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

throwaway0123_5 1y ago

If a company in [insert almost any sector] explicitly advertised and provided: "Human customer support agents, no voice menus/AI whatsoever." I'd almost certainly buy their service over any other company. Seriously, that could be the whole ad. By the time I'm calling customer support, its because the answer isn't easy to find on their website/emails/whatever else. I'm calling because I need to escalate to a human. Sometimes it isn't even about getting information, but rather that I need a human who actually has the authority to help me (which I assume nobody is delegating to AI anytime soon for fear of jailbreaks). Making people jump through ten layers of "I know you want to speak to an agent, but I need more information about your case" is just infuriating.

runako 1y ago

This looks really cool, congrats on the launch! Suggestion: redo the demo video showing the call to the restaurant. As a Google user, I couldn't help but notice the button in the result to make a reservation (without using Piper). My 2 cents generally is that restaurant reservations are so fully automated that they are probably one of the worst showcases of the value of Piper. I can't remember the last time I called to make a reservation.

SoftTalker 1y ago
Also at least in my town almost no restaurants take reservations anymore.

drewg123 1y ago

Where I see the real value of something like this is time-wasting AI agents at monopolies like CVS Pharmacy. These seem designed to be as slow and frustrating as possible & I'm sure the goal is to get you to give up before you can talk to a human. I'd love to see a demo of your agent requesting a callback from a CVS pharmacist. Or trying to talk to Comcast customer service.

lazide 1y ago
Many of those systems now just straight up route you into black holes (zero possible action, and then they hang up). very irritating. Maybe as a response to this kind of thing?

dangoodmanUT 1y ago

People handle getting calls from AI very differently than calling into AI

throwawayoldie 1y ago

Super, the proportion of phone calls I get that are spam can finally go from 99% to 99.99%.

gosub100 1y ago

I'm going to build something like this to answer outgoing robocalls made to me. I am going to instructions to answer all questions slowly and ask to repeat every third time. Goal is to tie up the scammers time as long as possible. The robocalls eventually escalate to a person.

johntash 1y ago

Any chance of open sourcing this or having a way to self host it?

endigma 1y ago

ETA on international calls availability? Will there be another announcement, email blast, etc? UK, Canada, Australia or EU to start?