Since October, our AI phone assistant Hans has been answering calls from residents, even when the office is closed. An interim report from his probation period, with a language menu, “Stadthaus Kai” and a small confession.
Timon Graf — Product Owner AI, Allthings Technologies AG
Since October, our AI phone assistant Hans has been answering calls from residents, even when the office is closed. Like every new hire, he's still learning, especially when it comes to Swiss street names. An interim report from his probation period.
The new guy on the phone
When someone calls because the heating has stopped working or the blinds are stuck, Hans picks up. He introduces himself as an AI phone assistant, asks for the caller's name, address and request, and creates a task in the Allthings Cockpit, with a summary and a recording of the call. Hans conducts the conversation freely and in real time, without a keypad menu or a rigid script, and keeps track even when someone doesn't tell things in order. Behind him, several AI systems work together: one converts speech into text, a large language model understands the request and formulates the reply, and a third turns that back into natural speech. Instead of notes with callback numbers, the team finds tasks it can work on directly.
The probation period
Hans had his first working day in early October at a pilot customer in Switzerland. Since then, he's been answering real calls there. Calls are analyzed automatically, our team listens to unusual cases, and this leads to continuous improvements. Here's some of what he has learned so far:
- Languages: At first, Hans greeted callers with a language menu. Most people politely ignored it and just started talking, and anyone who said “Düütsch” (Swiss German for “German”) sometimes ended up in Portuguese. From now on, if you speak German, you simply stay on the line.
- Local knowledge: Zurich's Stadthausquai became “Stadthaus Kai”. And Switzerland has several answers to the question “Which Buchs?”. So if the location is unclear, Hans will now ask for the postcode.
- Email addresses: Hans wrote everything down, including the “yes, so it's” before the address. You have to give him credit for being thorough.
- Keeping calm: If the AI service in the background was briefly unavailable, the line went quiet. Now a second language model from a different provider takes over so the conversation can continue. This has already kicked in several times.
- Voice: His first voice still sounded a bit like a machine. Since the end of October, Hans has been speaking with a new, more natural voice.
Better to keep going than to keep asking
A small confession: part of our product team is from Germany, and with many a “Grüezi, bi mir tropfts i de Chuchi” (“Hello, it's dripping in my kitchen”), Hans is quicker than we are. He himself speaks standard German with a slight Swiss accent. That he still understands Swiss German dialect is thanks to a latest-generation language model that doesn't match individual words but grasps what it's all about. Street names give him more trouble. But he doesn't have to be perfect, says our pilot customer. What matters is that as many calls as possible turn into a usable task. That's why Hans will stop saying “Could you please repeat that?”, note down what he understood instead and give a short summary at the end. That way, callers can still correct him.
Our verdict after the first few weeks
With Hans, we're taking the first step towards AI employees who will work directly on your tasks: understanding requests, categorizing them and preparing the next steps. Hans isn't a device you switch on and forget, but a colleague who learns something new every week, because our team listens to him and gives honest feedback. He now also automatically assigns tasks to the right building based on the address, matched against the property management's address book.
We're keeping Hans. Even so, we're extending his probation period a little. Because the goal remains the same: nothing gets left behind. Not even when the office is closed.
Would you like to know whether Hans is a good fit for your team? Contact us at timon.graf@allthings.me.
