How Conversational AI can help reduce spam calls

Conversational AI, powered by advancements in natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning, offers a robust pathway to reducing spam calls and transforming communication for businesses and consumers

Apurv Agrawal
3-MIN READ
Updated:Jan 02, 2025 01:33:10 PM IST
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The explosion of spam calls has become one of the most significant irritants for consumers globally. Billions of such calls disrupt daily lives and undermine trust in phone-based communication.

A recent survey indicates that over 60 percent of Indians receive at least three spam calls daily. As a result, consumers are increasingly reluctant to answer calls from unknown numbers, inadvertently impacting genuine business and other interactions.

The implications are profound for industries reliant on customer outreach, such as financial services or healthcare. Spam calls diminish answer rates, hurt customer trust, and lead to higher operational costs. Tackling this issue effectively requires more than traditional filtering techniques; it demands intelligent, scalable solutions.

Conversational AI, powered by advancements in natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning, offers a robust pathway to reducing spam calls and transforming communication for businesses and consumers.

How Conversational AI Helps Businesses Reduce Spam Perception

Conversational AI, often via voice bots and the more advanced Humanoid AI Agents, is redefining business-to-consumer communication by addressing the root causes of spam calls.

It ensures businesses operate with greater efficiency, compliance, and transparency while improving the relevance and quality of interactions. Here’s how:

1) Eliminating Spam-Like Behaviours in Business Outreach

One of the primary reasons consumers perceive business calls as spam is the lack of personalisation and poor timing. Conversational AI helps businesses avoid these pitfalls by using intelligent outreach strategies.

  • Contextual and Personalised Interactions: Conversational AI can analyse customer data, such as past interactions, preferences, and behaviour patterns, to tailor communication. This ensures customers receive relevant and meaningful calls, reducing the likelihood of those calls being ignored or marked as spam.
  • Optimal Timing and Frequency: AI models help businesses determine the best times to contact customers and prevent over-communication. This eliminates repetitive, poorly timed calls often perceived as spam.
  • By ensuring every interaction is purposeful and customer-centric, businesses can significantly reduce the risk of being associated with spam calls.

    2) Establishing Trust Through Verified Communication

    A major hurdle for legitimate businesses is distinguishing their calls from fraudulent ones. Conversational AI supports features like verified caller IDs and branded introductions to ensure recipients immediately recognise the call’s legitimacy.

    • Branded Caller IDs: Conversational AI enables businesses to initiate calls with a branded identity, displaying the company’s name or purpose of the call. This reassures customers that the call is authentic and not from a malicious source.
    • Voice AI Verification: AI-powered voice bots can begin calls with a personalised and verified message, setting a clear, professional and human-like tone that distinguishes them from generic spam attempts.
    • These capabilities not only improve answer rates but also foster trust between businesses and their customers.

      3) Improving Call Quality Through AI-Led Prequalification

      Conversational AI plays a critical role in ensuring calls are targeted and necessary. By leveraging voice bots to prequalify leads or address simple inquiries, businesses can reduce the number of outbound calls required, ensuring only high-value interactions are passed to human agents.

      For example:

      • In the BFSI sector, an AI-driven voice bot can conduct a quick verification process to ensure the recipient is eligible for a specific loan before transferring them to an agent.
      • In healthcare, AI systems can confirm appointment availability or verify patient details before connecting them with the next step in the process.
      • By reducing the volume of irrelevant or low-priority calls, conversational AI helps businesses optimise their outreach efforts and avoid unnecessary disruptions.

        4) Enforcing Regulatory Compliance and Ethical Communication

        Conversational AI ensures adherence to regulatory requirements, such as honouring Do Not Disturb (DND) lists and managing customer consent. Businesses that fail to comply with these regulations risk being perceived as spammy or even facing legal consequences.

        • Automated Compliance Checks: AI systems can automatically cross-reference calling lists with DND registries and exclude non-compliant numbers.
        • Consent Management: Voice bots can capture and store customer consent, ensuring future interactions are legally and ethically sound.
        • By embedding compliance into the communication process, conversational AI helps businesses maintain integrity and avoid practices that could classify their calls as spam.

          By leveraging AI to combat spam, rebuild trust, and enable intelligent interactions, companies can position themselves as customer-centric leaders in an increasingly digital world.

          The result is a communication ecosystem that is secure, efficient, and tailored to their needs. Businesses that embrace this transformation will not only drive growth but also set new benchmarks for excellence in customer engagement.

          Apurv Agrawal is CEO and co-founder of Squadstack.