Air AI: The FTC Case, What Happened, and Alternatives
Air AI was one of the loudest names in AI calling: an agent that would hold long sales calls, sound human and replace your reps. Then the Federal Trade Commission sued.
If you’re searching for Air AI today, here is what happened and what to use instead.
The quick answer: Air AI sold conversational AI for sales calls, marketed as a replacement for human reps. In August 2025 the FTC sued the company and its owners over deceptive earnings and refund claims, and in March 2026 they settled: a ban on marketing business opportunities and an $18 million judgment, largely suspended. The air.ai domain now belongs to an unrelated defense software company. For AI that calls your leads and answers your customers today, Carly runs on your own business line, follows your rules on every call and logs everything in one team inbox. Copy one prompt into ChatGPT or Claude, grab a number, and you’re live.
Case details from the FTC’s case page and its filings; alternatives’ prices from each vendor’s pricing page, checked October 19, 2026.
What Air AI sold
Air AI marketed a conversational AI, sometimes called “Odin,” that it said could hold long phone conversations that sounded like a real person, with “infinite memory, perfect recall,” and take actions across 5,000+ apps. The pitch to small businesses and entrepreneurs was that it could replace current or future sales reps without training or management.
The company also sold business coaching and what the FTC calls business opportunities, with promises about how much buyers would earn back.
The FTC case, step by step
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| August 25, 2025 | The FTC sues Air AI Technologies (also doing business as Air AI and Scale 13), related Apex companies, and owners Caleb Maddix, Ryan O’Donnell and Thomas Lancer in federal court in Arizona |
| The allegations | Deceptive claims about business growth, earnings potential and refund guarantees, taking roughly $19 million from customers, under the FTC Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule and the Business Opportunity Rule |
| On the product | The FTC alleged the AI, when available, was “faulty, often not able to perform basic functions like placing outbound calls to businesses, scheduling appointments, taking down email addresses, or responding accurately to questions” |
| March 24, 2026 | Settlement announced: a permanent ban on marketing business opportunities, and an $18 million monetary judgment largely suspended for inability to pay, with $50,000 going to consumer relief. The order was filed for the court’s approval |
Law firm DLA Piper noted it may be the first consumer protection case to allege deception about agentic AI, or about AI replacing human employees.
What air.ai is now
The air.ai website today belongs to Air, formerly Govini, a defense software company that sells an “Enterprise Readiness” platform to the US military. It has nothing to do with AI phone calls. If you landed there looking for an AI calling agent, you’re in the wrong place.
What to look for in an AI calling tool after Air AI
The Air AI case is a checklist of what to avoid:
- Test it on your own phone before you pay much. Call the agent, try to confuse it, and listen to the recordings.
- Monthly or per-minute pricing, not a big upfront license.
- No earnings promises. An AI calling tool saves time and catches leads. It isn’t a business opportunity.
- It does the basics reliably: places calls, books on a real calendar, takes down an email address correctly, and hands off to a person.
- Consent for outbound. AI voices count as artificial voices under the TCPA. Call people who asked to hear from you. This isn’t legal advice.
Air AI alternatives
| Alternative | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Carly | Businesses that want AI calling and answering on their own line, ready to run | Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/mo |
| Bland | High-volume calling, with managed builds on Enterprise | $0.14/min, or $0.12/min plus $299/mo |
| Retell AI | Developers and agencies building phone agents | $0.07 to $0.31/min plus telephony |
| Vapi | Engineers who want every component swappable | $0.05/min plus providers |
| Thoughtly | Revenue teams working inbound leads across voice, text and email | Quoted by sales |
1. Carly
Carly does what Air AI promised small businesses, the boring, reliable way: plain-English rules it follows exactly on every call.
- Calls new leads within about a minute of a form fill, with the lead’s answers in hand, then texts and emails if nobody picks up (AI outbound calling).
- Answers inbound calls 24/7 or only when your team doesn’t pick up, and answers Spanish speakers in Spanish.
- Books on real calendars. It checks your team’s Google and Outlook calendars and books the right rep during the call.
- Hands off to a person through ring groups or a phone menu.
- Texts and WhatsApp from the same number: two-way texts and WhatsApp messages, a missed call text back, reminders to a list and group texts.
- Logs everything to the team inbox and Carly’s CRM, HubSpot, Salesforce or Dynamics 365.
- Runs from ChatGPT or Claude. Build the agent, place calls, send texts, watch a live call and steer it, all from a chat (see how).
Test it by calling your own line before you go live (tutorial). Carly connects to thousands of apps, so leads flow in from your forms and ads, and outcomes trigger free Zapier-style workflows.
Setup: copy this prompt into ChatGPT or Claude, grab a number, and you’re live.
Carly business setup prompt
Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude or any AI. It walks you through the rest.
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.Pricing: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Get started.
2. Bland
Bland trains its own voice models and sells calling at scale, with forward deployed engineers on Enterprise.
- Pricing: $0.14 a minute on Start; $0.12 a minute plus $299 a month on Build.
- Limitations: self-serve tiers cap daily calls; someone has to build the agent. See Bland AI alternatives.
3. Retell AI
Retell is a developer platform with outbound campaigns, testing and a built-in CRM.
- Pricing: $0.07 to $0.31 a minute plus telephony, no platform fee.
- Limitations: built for developers and agencies. See Retell AI alternatives.
4. Vapi
Vapi lets engineers assemble the transcriber, model, voice and carrier themselves.
- Pricing: $0.05 a minute plus providers at cost.
- Limitations: the most assembly of any option. See Vapi alternatives.
5. Thoughtly
Thoughtly sells AI agents for inbound lead conversion across voice, SMS and email, with two-way CRM sync.
- Pricing: Flex, Scale and Enterprise plans, all quoted by sales.
- Limitations: no public prices. See Thoughtly.
FAQ
What happened to Air AI?
The FTC sued Air AI and its owners in August 2025 over deceptive earnings and refund claims. In March 2026 they settled: a permanent ban on marketing business opportunities and an $18 million judgment, largely suspended because they couldn’t pay, with $50,000 going to consumer relief.
Is Air AI still in business?
The air.ai domain now belongs to Air (formerly Govini), an unrelated defense software company, so the calling product isn’t sold there. For AI sales calls today, Carly calls your leads within a minute from your own business line.
Did Air AI work?
The FTC alleged that, when it was available, the AI was faulty and often couldn’t place outbound calls, schedule appointments or take down email addresses. Those are allegations from the complaint; the case settled.
What is the best alternative to Air AI?
Carly for businesses that want AI calling and answering ready to run on their own number. Retell AI or Vapi for developers who want to build.
Can AI replace a sales rep?
AI handles the parts reps hate: calling every new lead in the first minute, following up, booking the meeting. Reps take the conversations that close. Carly books qualified leads straight onto your reps’ calendars.
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."
