The four kinds of automated calling
| Type | What the customer hears | Can it respond to answers? | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voice broadcast / robocall | A pre-recorded or synthesised message | No | Announcements, alerts, simple reminders |
| Outbound IVR | A recording with "press 1 to confirm" | Keypad only | Simple confirmations |
| Auto or predictive dialer | A human agent, after the software dials | Yes, because a human talks | Call-centre sales |
| AI voice agent | A natural voice that talks and listens | Yes, in full sentences | Lead calling, qualification, booking, reminders |
The first three automate part of the job. Only the fourth automates the conversation. Outpero covers the first row with voice broadcast — one fixed message, uploaded as audio or typed and synthesised in Outpero's voices, billed at a lower rate than AI minutes — and the fourth row with its AI agent. Pick by one question: does the answer matter?
Triggers: what starts an automated call
Automation means calls happen without someone remembering to make them. On Outpero, calls start from one of three triggers:
- —An event — a new Meta lead ad submission, a Google Ads lead form, a website or landing-page form, a CRM stage change, or an IndiaMART, JustDial or property-portal lead passed through Zapier, Make or a webhook. The agent dials within 30 seconds.
- —A schedule — a CSV list uploaded as a bulk campaign, with a start time, a calling window, retries for unanswered numbers and DND screening.
- —An incoming call — a customer rings your business number and the AI employee answers, 24/7.
Actions: what an automated call can do
A good automated call ends with something done. During the call, an Outpero agent can book a real slot in a calendar, read or write a spreadsheet (for instance, checking an order status or marking a row confirmed), call a custom API, and send a WhatsApp message during or right after the call. Afterwards it posts the recording, transcript, summary, sentiment and your custom fields to a webhook — on every call, completed calls only, or voicemail only — so the next step in your workflow fires automatically.
That is the real difference between automated calling and automated dialling. A dialer saves the seconds spent pressing buttons; an automated workflow removes the person from the loop entirely, from the moment the lead arrives to the moment the CRM is updated, and leaves people to act only on the outcomes that need them.
Workflows people automate first
- 01Form → call → calendar: a website enquiry for a dental clinic is called within 30 seconds and booked into the doctor's calendar.
- 02Order → call → sheet: a D2C COD order triggers a confirmation call; the sheet row flips to confirmed or cancelled before dispatch.
- 03Due date → call → CRM: EMIs due next week go out as a campaign; promise-to-pay dates flow back to the loan system.
- 04Webinar → call → WhatsApp: registrants are reminded an hour before, and the joining link arrives on WhatsApp.
- 05Delivery → call → NPS: customers are called two days after delivery for a rating and a reason.
- 06Announcement → broadcast: a clinic's holiday timings go to every patient on the list as a single recorded message.
Hear it on a real call before you read further?
Language coverage
Automated calls fail fast when the voice sounds foreign to the listener. Outpero's AI agent runs in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam and Indian English, switching to English mid-sentence when the caller does. Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Odia, Urdu and Assamese are not available.
What automated calling costs
Human-dialler setups are priced per seat, plus the salary of each person on a seat — roughly ₹15,000–₹25,000 a month per telecaller. Outpero's AI calls are billed only on connected talk time with no setup fee or base fee. Some example workflows, worked out at Outpero's per-minute rates:
| Example workflow | Assumption | Approximate talk-time cost |
|---|---|---|
| COD confirmation | 1,000 orders, 1-minute calls, Standard tier (₹5/min) | ₹5,000 |
| Lead callback | 300 leads, 3-minute calls, Standard tier (₹5/min) | ₹4,500 |
| High-value consultation booking | 100 leads, 4-minute calls, Premium tier (₹6.8/min) | ₹2,720 |
These figures assume every call connects; unanswered calls are not billed. A dedicated number adds ₹649/month, and credits (1 credit = ₹1) never expire. Voice broadcast costs less per minute than any AI tier, which makes it the right choice when no reply is needed.
Compliance for automated calls
Automated promotional calls are exactly what TRAI's TCCCPR 2018 was written for; recorded robocalls to DND-registered numbers are the classic violation. Keep automated calling to people who expect it — order, appointment and account updates, and leads who just asked to be called — and screen any promotional list against DND. Outpero calls from a DLT-registered line and screens bulk campaigns against DND; consent for your data is your responsibility under the DPDP Act 2023.
Evaluating automated calling software
- —Can it start calls from your real lead sources without manual uploads?
- —Does it capture answers as structured fields, not only recordings?
- —Can results trigger the next step via webhook?
- —Are calling windows, retries and DND screening built in?
- —Does it offer both a cheap one-way mode and a conversational mode, so you are not paying AI rates for announcements?
- —Is pricing per connected minute, without setup or seat fees?
When simpler automation is better
If you only need to tell 10,000 people that a branch is closed tomorrow, use voice broadcast or SMS. If a "press 1 to confirm" is all you need, an outbound IVR will do. AI conversation earns its cost when the reply matters — when the customer might say "not tomorrow, but Friday evening", and you want that captured and booked.