Hand a Live Call to the AI With **9

What This Does

Sometimes you answer a call but you cannot take it. You are driving, you are under a dashboard, you just need to step away. Instead of asking the customer to call back, you can hand the live call to your AI agent. The AI takes over, the customer keeps talking to "your shop," and you drop off the line. The customer's leg of the call stays connected the whole time.

This works only when you are the one on the call and you press the code. A customer cannot press keys to send themselves to the AI.

Before You Can Use It

You need the AI agent set up first. If you have not done that, see Set Up the AI After-Hours Receptionist. You do not have to make the AI your after-hours answer to use mid-call transfer. As long as the AI agent is set up (it shows a green Live tag), you can hand calls to it.

How to Hand Off From Your Cell

While you are on the call on your cell phone:

1. Open your keypad and type **9.
2. The AI joins the call and starts talking to the customer.
3. You drop off automatically a moment later.
4. The customer keeps talking to the AI as if nothing changed.

**9 is the default. You can change it. See "Changing the Code" below.

How to Hand Off From the Browser or With a Note

If you want to type a quick heads-up for the AI, use the in-app Transfer button instead of the keypad. On a live inbound call in KeyBolt, open Transfer, and you will see an AI assistant option with a small text box. Type a short note like "wants pricing for residential rekey," then tap Send to AI assistant. The AI reads your note and treats it as priority instructions for the rest of the call.

The keypad **9 press does not let you type a note. If you want to give the AI a specific instruction, use the in-app Transfer button.

What the AI Knows on a Mid-Call Handoff

Unlike the after-hours receptionist (which only gets the caller's phone number), a mid-call handoff passes the AI real context so the customer does not have to repeat themselves:

• The customer's record, if they are already in your customers list (name, phone, email, and a snippet of their notes).
• Their last few jobs (up to 3), so the AI knows what kind of work you have done for them.
• A recent slice of the call transcript, so the AI has a sense of what was just said.
• The optional heads-up you typed, if you used the in-app Transfer button.

The AI uses this naturally. It just continues the conversation with the right information.

How the Customer Hears It

The customer has been talking to you. There is a brief pause, then the AI's voice comes on (the same voice your AI agent always uses) and keeps the conversation going. The handoff takes only a couple of seconds, and most customers do not notice it.

Changing the Code

The AI transfer code is set in Settings > Phone & SMS > Tech phone numbers. Look for the AI transfer code box (default **9). Type a new code and click away to save. It must start with **, and it cannot share a start with your cancel-transfer code (so a **0 cancel code plus a **00 AI code is not allowed). See Cell Transfer Codes for the full picture.

Time Limit

AI calls have a hard limit of about 2 minutes to keep costs predictable. If the conversation is not done by then, the AI wraps up politely and tells the customer someone will call them back. Whatever the AI gathered is saved either way.

After the Handoff

The call shows up in your inbox with the recording and transcript, plus the details the AI captured after you handed off. If the AI gathered enough for a job, you get a draft job to review. You decide what to do with it.