AI Voicemail: Answer Every Call, Transcribe the Rest
The best AI voicemail is the one callers rarely reach. Carly answers your business line instead of sending people to a beep. It answers their question, books them, or takes the message. Every voicemail that does get left is transcribed, summarized, put on the caller’s record and flagged until someone calls back. And Carly texts the caller back within seconds.
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.What Carly does with a call you miss
- Picks up. 24/7, or only when your team doesn’t, in English or Spanish. Callers talk to an assistant that can actually help.
- Answers and books. Questions answered from your business info, appointments booked on your real Google or Outlook calendar.
- Takes the message when a person should handle it, after trying to transfer the call.
- Transcribes and summarizes every voicemail, so you read two lines instead of listening to two minutes.
- Knows who it was. The caller is looked up in your CRM, and the message lands on their record.
- Flags who’s owed a call back until someone does it.
- Texts them back right away from your number (missed call text back).
Ask ChatGPT or Claude “who called today and what did they want?” and you get the list, voicemails included.
AI that leaves voicemails, too
When Carly calls someone for you and a machine answers, it leaves the exact voicemail you wrote, word for word. Then it texts and emails if they don’t call back. That’s how Carly calls new leads within about a minute of a form fill without leaving a lead stranded.
Why transcription alone isn’t enough
Your phone already transcribes voicemail. iPhone shows it as the caller speaks, and most business phone apps email you a transcript. That still leaves you to listen, look the caller up, call back and log it.
Carly does those steps. The caller gets an answer on the first call, and you get a summary on a record you can act on.
More Carly does on the phone
- Recognizes callers and greets the people you know by name.
- Calls you on schedule: “call me every weekday at 8am with my day.”
- Takes your call: ring your Carly number from your own phone and ask for anything.
- Lets you place calls from ChatGPT or Claude and steer them live (tutorial).
- Connects to thousands of apps and runs workflows after every call.
Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Get started.
FAQ
What is AI voicemail?
AI that answers calls instead of a beep, then transcribes and summarizes any message left. Carly adds the follow-up: it texts the caller back and logs the call to their record.
Can AI transcribe my voicemails?
Yes. Carly transcribes and summarizes every voicemail on your line and shows who’s still owed a call back.
Can AI leave a voicemail for me?
Yes. When Carly calls someone and gets a machine, it leaves the message you wrote, word for word.
Is there an AI voicemail assistant for my cell?
Forward your cell’s unanswered calls to your Carly number and Carly answers them instead of your voicemail.
Ready to automate your busywork?
Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.
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."
