Which AI agents do I need?
VICIfast has two kinds of AI voice agent: AI Agents on your VICIfast Voice line, and Telnyx agents on your own Telnyx account. Here is how to pick.
AI & automation · 3 min read
VICIfast has two different AI voice agents, and both are called "AI agents" in places. Both talk to people with a natural AI voice and both can put a caller through to a queue on your dialer. They differ in which phone line they use, who bills you, and how much of VICIdial they work with. This page helps you pick.
The short answer
- Pick AI Agents (sidebar, under Trunks & DIDs) if you call over VICIfast Voice and want an AI to take the calls your campaign dials, or to answer your numbers.
- Pick Telnyx agents (sidebar, under Smart Carrier) if you have your own Telnyx account and want an AI to answer numbers on that account, or to call leads back as a step in a Journey.
- You can use both. They are separate products with separate settings.
AI Agents: on your VICIfast Voice line
- Where: sidebar Trunks & DIDs › AI Agents. It appears once your VICIfast Voice account is approved.
- What it does: an agent either Makes calls (VICIdial dials your leads, and when a person answers, the agent takes the call) or Answers calls (people who call your numbers reach the agent first).
- How it works with VICIdial: it sets a call result on the lead, saves answers into lead fields, books callbacks, adds do-not-call requests and transfers callers into your queues (in-groups).
- Setting it up: a guided form. You describe your business, write what it says first, pick a voice, and choose the campaign or numbers it works on. No prompt writing needed.
- Cost: a monthly AI plan paid from your wallet, from $49 a month for 5 AI calls at once up to $699 for 100. On top, 12¢ per AI minute (5¢ if you run it on your own OpenAI key), plus your usual VICIfast Voice minutes. Test calls to your own phone are free.
Telnyx agents: on your own Telnyx account
- Where: sidebar Smart Carrier › Telnyx agents.
- What it does: answers calls to a number on your Telnyx account, and hands the caller to a queue on your dialer when they are ready. A Journey can also ring a lead with one, using its AI call step.
- How it works with VICIdial: it transfers into your in-groups and can look the caller up in VICIdial during the call.
- Setting it up: you start from a template (Front desk, Lead qualification, Support triage or After hours) and edit its written instructions.
- Cost: Telnyx bills you directly for the calls and the AI. Smart Carrier itself is free through 2026, and stays free if you claim it before 1 January 2027.
Which one fits?
- You dial with VICIfast Voice and want fewer agents on the phone: AI Agents, as an outbound agent on your campaign.
- You want your numbers answered after hours or when the floor is busy: either. Use AI Agents if the numbers are on VICIfast Voice, Telnyx agents if they are on your Telnyx account.
- You want an automatic call-back a day after a call result, mixed with texts: Telnyx agents, inside a Journey.
- You want the AI to set call results, book callbacks and fill lead fields in VICIdial for you: AI Agents. Those are switches in its setup.
Want AI to review calls your people made instead? That is a different tool: see AI call analysis and AI Quality Auditor.
If something goes wrong
Frequently asked
- It sits under Trunks & DIDs and only appears once your VICIfast Voice account is approved. Until then the AI Agents page says "AI agents come with VICIfast Voice" with a Set up VICIfast Voice button. Only the account owner sees it.
- Smart Carrier is for the account owner. If you are a team member working in someone else's account, ask the owner.
- No. Telnyx agents answer numbers on your own Telnyx account. For numbers bought from VICIfast Voice, use AI Agents.
- You pay for what each one uses. AI Agents are paid from your VICIfast wallet. Telnyx agents are billed by Telnyx to your Telnyx account.
