AI Call Screening for Business: How It Works
AI call screening means an AI answers the call first, finds out who it is and what they want, then puts the call through, handles it, or ignores it. Carly does this for your business line. It knows your contacts, greets them by name, hands the important calls to the right person, books or answers the rest, and stops the numbers you block.
Copy this prompt into ChatGPT or Claude. That’s it. It sets up Carly, phone number included.
Carly business setup prompt
Copy this into ChatGPT or Claude. It sets everything up, phone number included.
Help me connect Carly Teams so I can work with my organization's business texts, phone calls, voicemail and voice/text agents from this chat. I'll add it to you myself: tell me exactly what to click for the app you are, one step at a time, and wait for me to confirm before moving on. If a step doesn't match what I see, ask me what's on my screen. If you can do the setup yourself (Claude Code, Codex, Muse, Grok Bot), go ahead, and ask me for any key in your secure credential prompt, never in the chat. Don't tell me it's connected until list_phone_lines works, and if I have several teams, ask which to use. Before sending a text or making a call, confirm the team, recipient and message or task with me. The steps are below.
# Connect Carly Teams to an AI app
> Carly Teams works a team's business phone lines through the team's AI agents: business texts, phone calls, voicemail, the voice and text agents, and the team's CRM.
MCP server: https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp (streamable HTTP, OAuth)
## Setup
Carly Teams isn't in any plugin or connector directory yet, so it's added as a custom connection by URL.
1. Add Carly Teams:
- ChatGPT: open https://chatgpt.com/plugins, click Add, and choose Create MCP App (not Create plugin or Upload plugin archive). If Create MCP App isn't on the menu, turn on Developer mode first in Settings > Security and login. Name it "Carly Teams" with the description "Work with my team's business texts, calls, voicemail and voice/text agents," paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp as the server URL, choose OAuth, create it, and sign in. Then in the message box open the + menu, choose Developer mode, and pick Carly Teams. No plugin needs to be built, packaged or uploaded.
- Claude (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, or Cowork): Customize > Connectors > Add custom connector, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Claude Code: `claude mcp add --transport http --scope user carly-teams https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then /mcp, pick carly-teams, and authenticate.
- Codex: `codex mcp add carly-teams --url https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then `codex mcp login carly-teams`.
- Cursor: add {"mcpServers": {"carly-teams": {"url": "https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp"}}} to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then sign in to carly-teams from Customize.
- Muse: a custom connector to https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp with a Carly API key as its bearer token. The key comes from carlyassistant.com/integrations (Advanced > API Keys > Create a new key, with Owner set to the team and all scopes selected) and goes in Muse's connector settings, not in a chat message.
- Grok: grok.com/connectors > New Connector > Custom, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Grok Bot: a custom remote MCP server named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. Approve it and sign in.
- Perplexity: Plugins in the sidebar (or Customize > Connectors), then Add custom > Connector > Add MCP connector. Choose Remote, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, pick OAuth, check the box and click Add, then click the Carly Teams card to sign in.
- Anything else: a remote MCP server (streamable HTTP) named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. It signs in with OAuth.
Sign in with the Carly account that belongs to the organization.
2. Once it's added, the Carly Teams tools show up in the chat, including list_phone_lines. If they don't, turn Carly Teams on for the chat or start a new chat.
3. To check it worked, call list_phone_lines: it returns the teams and phone lines the account can reach. A team with no phone line yet can get one with find_numbers (optionally by area code) and get_number, which may return a checkout link to finish.
4. Something to try first: "Review our missed calls and voicemail and help me reply to customers." Carly Teams also reads and answers business texts, has the team's agent make calls, and edits the voice and text agents. Texts and calls go out at once from the agent's number and can't be taken back. Team permissions apply.
## Email, calendars and workflows
Email, calendars, files, booking pages and workflows are the regular Carly connector, added separately. It's listed in ChatGPT's plugin directory (https://chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_asdk_app_6a67a26316b88191860222f918d4ec54) and Claude's connector directory (https://claude.ai/directory/carly), and connects anywhere else at https://carlyassistant.com/mcp/. Its setup is https://carlyassistant.com/mcp.txt.How Carly screens a call
- It checks the number. Carly looks every caller up in your CRM. People you know are greeted by name, and Carly has their record and upcoming appointments in hand.
- It sorts the caller.
- You or a teammate: your own Carly, ready to work. “Hi Josh, what can I do?”
- Trusted contacts like a partner or your EA: they reach your Carly, limited to what you allow.
- Blocked numbers: ignored.
- Everyone else: treated as a customer.
- It handles customers the way you wrote it. Carly asks what they need, answers questions, qualifies leads, books them on your real calendar, or transfers them live to the right person.
- It writes it down. Every call, summary and transcript lands on the caller’s record, and anyone still owed a call back is flagged.
Carly only treats a caller as someone you know when the carrier verifies the number. A spoofed number can’t pose as your client or your partner.
What it screens out
- Spam and robocalls. Block a number once and Carly ignores it from then on.
- Sales pitches. Tell it “take a message from vendors, don’t transfer them” and it does that every time.
- Calls you can’t take right now. Carly answers, books or takes the message, and texts back anyone it missed.
Why not Google Call Screen or iPhone Call Screening?
Both are good at stopping spam on a personal phone. Neither was built for a business line:
- They don’t know your customers. Carly checks your CRM before it says hello.
- They hand the decision back to you. You still read the transcript and pick up or decline. Carly decides by your rules and acts.
- They can’t book, answer or route. Carly books on your calendar, answers from your business info, and transfers to the right teammate.
- They cover one phone. Carly covers the whole team’s line and logs every call in one inbox.
Want it on your cell? Forward the calls you don’t answer to your Carly number and it screens those too.
More Carly does on the phone
- Answers 24/7, or only when your team doesn’t pick up, in English or Spanish (bilingual answering).
- Calls new leads back within about a minute.
- Calls you on schedule: “call me every weekday at 8am with my day.”
- Lets you watch and steer a live call from ChatGPT or Claude.
- Connects to thousands of apps and runs a workflow on any call.
Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Get started.
FAQ
What is AI call screening?
An AI answers the call, finds out who’s calling and why, then transfers it, handles it or ignores it. Carly does this for business lines.
Can AI screen calls on my cell phone?
Yes. Forward the calls you don’t answer to your Carly number, and Carly screens, answers and logs them.
Does AI call screening stop spam?
Yes. Block a number and Carly ignores it. Unknown callers get asked what they need before anyone is interrupted.
Is an AI call screener better than a receptionist?
It answers every call at any hour, keeps every caller on record, and follows your rules the same way every time. For the full comparison, see AI receptionist.
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See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
