Outbound campaigns

A campaign has Zoe call a list of contacts about a stated purpose, from one of your phone lines, inside a window you set. Nothing is dialled until a person with approval rights has reviewed the campaign and approved it. Campaigns live on the Campaigns page in the portal, which appears for people who hold a campaign role on a plan that includes VoiceIQ.

What has to be in place

• Outbound calling is available to your tenant. Campaigns can dial once your AINOW contact has made outbound calling available to your tenant. Until then you can create and submit a campaign, but the test call is refused, so a line's first campaign cannot be approved and nothing is dialled.
• A line that can dial out. The line must be enabled, on a number AINOW provides, with Direction set to Outbound or Inbound + Outbound on the SIP Channels page. A number on your own phone system is inbound only and cannot place campaign calls.
• People with the right roles. A Campaign manager creates campaigns, adds contacts, and manages the do-not-call list. A Campaign approver places test calls and approves or rejects. Administrators hold both. Roles are set on the Members card; see Signing in and access. On a managed tenant, administrators at your partner can approve too.
• Connected accounts, if the line needs them. On a campaign call, the line's tools run with the campaign creator's accounts. If a tool needs a connection each person makes for themselves, such as a calendar, the creator must have connected it.

Creating a campaign

Open Campaigns and select New campaign:

• Name, for your own reference. It is not spoken.
• Line, shown as verified or not yet verified.
• Purpose (spoken in the opener), one sentence such as "our fall promotion".
• Goal (the assistant's brief), what Zoe must achieve on each call.
• Window opens and Window closes, in your browser's time zone. A window can span at most 31 days.
• Default time zone, an IANA name such as America/Toronto.
• Attempts per contact, from 1 to 3. The default is 2.
• Voicemail, and the Voicemail message if Zoe should leave one.
• Contacts, up to 500 per campaign.

For contacts, enter one number per line, optionally followed by a name and notes, or paste or choose a CSV file with a header row: phone, name, context, consent_basis, consent_at, timezone. The context reaches Zoe as background for that person's call. The consent fields are stored as you supply them.

The Intake report then shows how many contacts were queued and how many were skipped, and why: on the do-not-call list, invalid number, duplicate, or time zone unknown. Each contact needs a time zone so calling hours can be applied. It comes from the contact's own timezone value, then from a Canadian area code, then from Default time zone. US numbers and a few Canadian area codes that span zones need one of the other two, or they are skipped.

The campaign is saved as a Draft. Select Submit for approval when it has at least one queued contact. If its window has already closed, it becomes Expired instead.

Test call and approval

While a campaign is Pending approval, approvers see an Approval panel with the contact counts and the line. They can switch the line here.

Test call. Enter Your number and select Call me first. Zoe calls you from the line and runs the campaign's script. Calling hours do not apply to test calls, and each campaign has three. The first test call that connects verifies the line. A line needs this once, before its first campaign can be approved; later campaigns on the same number do not. Reload the page after the call to see it in the list.

Attestation. The approver must acknowledge this statement before approving:

I confirm that this list may be called for the stated purpose under the rules that apply to us, including consent and do-not-call obligations, and that the calling window respects local calling hours.

The text and its version are stored with the approval. An approver can instead select Reject and give a Reason.

An approval covers what the approver reviewed. If the campaign changed after they opened it, they are asked to reload and review it again. Adding contacts to an approved, running, or paused campaign sends it back to Pending approval.

Approvers get a push notification in AINOW Mobile when a campaign needs approval, and approvers and the creator get one when it is approved, rejected, paused, or completed. Decisions are made in the portal.

When calls go out

An approved campaign moves to Running when its window opens, and dialling is checked about once a minute. Zoe calls each contact in their own local time:

• Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 20:00
• Saturday, 10:00 to 18:00
• No calls on Sunday

Public holidays are not taken into account. Other limits also apply: two calls at once per line, 500 attempts per tenant per day, and at least four hours between attempts to the same contact. A call that is not answered within 45 seconds counts as No answer.

Contacts on your do-not-call list are checked again just before dialling.

What the person called hears

Every campaign call opens with a fixed line you cannot edit. It says this is an AI assistant calling on behalf of your organization about the campaign's purpose, greets the contact by name if you supplied one and asks if it is speaking with them, and says they can tell it to stop calling at any time. If the line records calls, it adds that the call may be recorded. The line's own greeting is not used on campaign calls. The opening follows the language of the portal when the campaign was created, English or Canadian French.

Zoe then works from the campaign's goal, the contact's details, and the line's instructions, which can also use {{contact.number}}, {{contact.name}}, {{contact.context}}, {{campaign.name}}, and {{campaign.purpose}}. See Getting connected for how variables work.

Campaign calls also carry conduct rules you cannot edit. Zoe is told to say it is an AI if asked, never to take card or bank details, passwords, or one-time codes, to speak only with the named person, to treat one clear no as final, and to end the call if the person seems to be a minor, confused, distressed, or in danger. If payment comes up, it offers to have a person follow up.

Zoe can use only the tools, skills, and repositories allowed on the line, and the line's write policy applies. On an Always approve line, the person called can trigger writes, with the creator's connected accounts. Campaign lines have no transfer destinations, so Zoe cannot hand the person over to a colleague during the call.

Voicemail

Zoe listens for a voicemail greeting or a beep, and handles it according to the campaign's Voicemail setting:

• Hang up silently — Zoe ends the call without leaving a message.
• Leave a message — Zoe waits for the beep, says your Voicemail message word for word, then ends the call.

Either way the attempt is recorded as Voicemail. It uses one of the contact's attempts, so the contact is called again after the spacing period if attempts remain, and a further message may be left. If none remain, the contact is marked Failed.

Outcomes

Zoe records one outcome before it ends each call. The campaign page shows it for each contact and each call.

Outcome	What happens next
Meeting booked	The contact is done.
Agreed to buy	The contact is done. A person follows up on payment; Zoe does not collect it.
Callback requested	The contact is queued again for the time they gave, moved into calling hours and the campaign window, with one extra attempt. If no time inside the window remains, the contact is done.
Not interested	The contact is done.
Do not call	The contact is done, and the number goes on your do-not-call list.
Wrong number	The contact is done.
Voicemail	See above.
No outcome	The call ended without one being recorded. The contact is done.

Calls that never connect show No answer, Busy, or Failed as their result. They use up an attempt and are retried while attempts remain.

Each call's transcript is on the Audit page under the Phone surface. If the line records calls, the audio is on the Voice calls page.

The do-not-call list

The Do-not-call list on the Campaigns page is your organization's own list, shared by all your campaigns. Numbers on it are never dialled. When someone asks Zoe to stop calling, their number is added automatically, shown as Opted out on a call, and any queued contact with that number in your other campaigns is skipped. Campaign managers can add numbers and remove them. A do-not-call request during a test call changes nothing.

Following and stopping a campaign

The campaign page shows the line, window, attempts, spacing, voicemail setting, and estimated minutes, along with Created by. Below that are the contacts and every call, including test calls.

Campaign managers can Pause an approved or running campaign, Resume a paused one, or Cancel campaign, which is final. A campaign finishes as Completed when its window closes or nothing is left to dial.

AINOW also pauses a running campaign on its own, and the page shows the reason next to Paused:

Reason shown	What it means
manual	Someone selected Pause.
failure_burst	Five calls in a row failed to go through. Check the calls list, then resume.
quota	Your organization's AI quota is used up.
line_ineligible	The line was disabled, or its direction no longer allows outbound calls.
creator_suspended	The person who created the campaign no longer has active access.

What the product does not decide for you

These controls are tools for your organization to use, and they do not establish that a campaign meets the rules that apply to you. AINOW does not check that the people on your list agreed to be called, and it does not check any do-not-call list other than your own on this page. Consent details you supply are stored but not verified. The attestation records your approver's own judgement, so review your obligations for the places you call before you approve a campaign.