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An AI voice agent phoned 1,000 San Francisco businesses and logged how each trade answered

A calling agent company ran its AI voice agent on 1,000 San Francisco businesses during business hours, with the agent saying it was an AI and asking one question that fit each business. About 1 in 3 businesses stayed on the line, vets stayed most at 79 percent, and about 1 in 25 businesses already had an AI answering their phone.

How it works

  1. The team picks 1,000 San Francisco businesses across trades like vets, dentists, bars and salons
  2. The voice agent calls during business hours and says it is an AI
  3. It asks one question that fits each business
  4. The team logs who stayed on the line and who hung up

Why it’s worth knowing

The calls were to real businesses that did not know a test was coming, and about 1 in 25 already had an AI answering.

Where it’s from

Summarized from a public post on news.ycombinator.com. See the original ↗

Upgraded prompt

A ready-to-use prompt for this idea, built from research on what makes AI agents do the job right: who the AI should be, the exact steps, and a check to make sure it was done the way you wanted.

1Who the AI should be
2The prompt, with the steps
3The check when it’s done
Upgraded prompts are coming soon.

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