AI Phone Assistant

Keeping your existing phone number

Every assistant gets its own Heyloha phone number, included in your plan. You don't need to switch providers. You simply forward your current number to the Heyloha number through your phone provider. That works with almost any landline, mobile or VoIP line.

You decide when the assistant answers: always, only outside office hours, or only when you don't pick up or are already on a call. The last two are called conditional call forwarding, and your provider can tell you how to set it up.

Numbers are available in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. In Germany, Austria and France you get a local number with a regional area code.

Transferring calls, and what happens if nobody answers

If a caller asks for a person, or the assistant can't handle something itself, it transfers the call to the number you've chosen for this. For each contact, you decide when transfers are allowed, on which days and at which times, and whether the transfer is warm or cold.

With a warm transfer, the assistant first announces the call to your colleague, and the caller is only put through once your colleague accepts. With a cold transfer, the caller goes straight through.

If nobody picks up, the assistant takes a callback request with the caller's name, number and question, and emails it to the address you choose. That way no caller slips through the cracks.

An AI receptionist that says it's AI

Since 2 August 2026, the EU AI Act requires that people know when they are talking to an AI system. Heyloha's default greeting therefore introduces the assistant as your company's digital assistant. You can edit that text yourself, but we recommend keeping the disclosure.

That doesn't have to be a drawback. For a caller, the alternative is often voicemail, a phone menu or a busy tone. An assistant that answers straight away, understands the question and books an appointment is more of an improvement than an obstacle.

Privacy and GDPR

Calls are not recorded. They are only transcribed, so you and your team can read them back. The data is stored on servers in the European Union and processing falls under the GDPR.

Heyloha acts as a data processor on your behalf, and we sign a data processing agreement with you. Read more about hosting, access and security on our security page.

AI receptionist vs answering service vs phone menu (IVR)

With a telephone answering service, staff at an outside company answer your phone. They take a message or answer simple questions, and you usually pay per call or per minute. A phone menu routes callers by keypress, but doesn't answer anything itself. To see how an AI answering service compares with a traditional one, read our AI answering service page.

An AI phone assistant answers every call immediately, even in the middle of the night and when several people call at once. It answers questions from your own information and books appointments itself. Whatever it can't or shouldn't handle, it passes to your team. For complex or sensitive calls, a person is still the best choice.

Want to compare providers side by side? Our comparison of AI phone assistants shows what to look for: voice, transfers, calendar, privacy and price.

How much does an AI phone assistant cost?

Heyloha starts at €149 a month, excluding VAT. You pay in credits: one credit is one call minute or one chat conversation. The smallest plan includes 250 credits a month. Phone, chat, WhatsApp and email are all in the same plan, and one phone number is included. You pay per whole call minute, rounded down: a call of 2 minutes and 50 seconds costs 2 credits.

A worked example: if an average call takes two and a half minutes, the smallest plan covers around 100 phone calls a month. If you get more calls, you choose a larger plan or buy extra credits. It's a monthly subscription with no long-term contract, and you can try it free for 14 days first. If your credits run out and automatic extra credits are off, callers hear a short message that the service is unavailable. For a busy line we therefore recommend switching on automatic extra credits.

See all plans on the pricing page, or use the ROI calculator to work out what an AI phone assistant saves you.