AI Prompting & Conversation Design
Handling Interruptions & Speech Sensitivity
Configure how your AI assistant handles interruptions, voice activity detection, and speech patterns
Phone conversations can be messy—callers may interrupt the AI or have background noise. Autocalls.ai provides voice activity detection and speech settings to handle these situations.
1. Voice Activity Detection (VAD)
- What It Is: A setting that helps the AI wait for the user to finish talking before responding.
- Configuration: In the assistant’s advanced settings, you can enable or disable VAD.
- High Sensitivity: AI might interrupt less, but could lead to awkward pauses.
- Low Sensitivity: AI might talk over the user if they pause mid-sentence.
2. Speech Speed & Filler Usage
- Speech Speed: Some voices allow you to slow down or speed up how quickly the AI talks.
- Filler Usage: Decide if the AI uses “umm,” “uhh,” or short “mhm” acknowledgments to sound more natural.
3. Interruptions
- If a user starts speaking while the AI is talking, the AI can attempt to stop and listen. However, perfect interruption handling can’t be guaranteed due to phone audio overlap.
- Encourage shorter AI responses in your prompt to reduce collision with the caller’s speech.
Tip: Conduct test calls to find the right balance of sensitivity and speed. Overly fast responses or overly long monologues can frustrate callers.