AI Voice Agent

EE only. The AI Voice Agent is an Enterprise Edition feature and runs as an optional server-side add-on.

The AI Voice Agent lets users manage the PBX in plain language by phone. **Just dial *99.** Instead of clicking through the portal, you speak a request (“What’s my balance?”, “Read my last voicemail”, “Create a ring group”) and the agent carries it out by calling the same ICTCore REST API the web portal uses.

It is an extra front-end, not a replacement. The web portal and the softphone keep working exactly as before, and the agent adds a voice channel on top.

What it is #

The agent is a standalone sidecar service (“ICTPBX AI Gateway”) that runs alongside ICTCore. When you dial *99, FreeSWITCH streams your call audio to the gateway, which runs a cascaded pipeline:

Dial *99  ->  FreeSWITCH  --audio-->  AI Gateway
                                        |
              Speech-to-Text --> Language Model (understands + picks an action)
                                        |
              Text-to-Speech <-- ICTCore REST API (does the action, returns result)

• Speech-to-Text (STT) transcribes what you say.
• Language Model (LLM) understands the request and decides which PBX action to run.
• Text-to-Speech (TTS) speaks the answer back to you, and the voice is generated locally.
• ICTCore REST performs the action, exactly as if you had done it in the portal.

Security: you keep your own permissions #

The agent does not get its own super-powers. Every action it performs is an ICTCore REST call carried out as you, using your own scoped login. This means:

• The agent can only see and change what your role and tenant already allow. An end user cannot use the agent to reach another tenant’s data or admin-only settings.
• Changes require confirmation. Before the agent performs any action that modifies configuration (create, update, delete), it asks you to confirm out loud. The backend still enforces the real permission check.
• The gateway holds no privileged credentials of its own, so it cannot exceed your access.

How the agent knows who you are #

When you dial *99 from your extension, ICTPBX identifies you automatically from the calling extension and issues a scoped session for your tenant and user, with no PIN or password to speak. (Auto-identification replaced the earlier keypad-PIN login.)

How to use it #

1. From your registered extension or softphone, **dial *99**.
2. Wait for the greeting, then say what you want. Examples:

• “What is my account balance?”
• “How many extensions do I have?”
• “Do I have any new voicemails?”
• “Create a ring group called Support.”

1. For anything that changes configuration, the agent will read back what it’s about to do and ask you to confirm. Say “yes” to proceed or “no” to cancel.
2. Hang up when you’re done.

Because the agent uses your own permissions, an admin dialing *99 can manage the whole system, a tenant admin manages their tenant, and an end user can only touch their own extension, voicemail, and account.

Audit & privacy #

• Every action the agent takes is logged in an append-only audit trail, so there is a record of what was requested and what was changed.
• Voice privacy: your spoken audio is sent to a cloud speech-to-text provider for transcription. The spoken responses (text-to-speech) are generated locally on your server. If your organization has data-egress or compliance requirements, review this with your administrator before enabling the voice path.

Availability #

The AI Voice Agent is an optional add-on that a system administrator installs and enables separately from the core ICTPBX stack. If dialing *99 returns a fast busy or does nothing, the gateway is not installed or not running on your server, so contact your administrator.

Roadmap: a browser-based chat widget (type instead of speak, over the same agent core) is planned as a second surface. Today the agent is voice-first, and access is via *99 only.