AI Assistants

Let AI handle phone calls, clinical notes, and text messages so your staff can focus on patients. Set up assistants that answer after-hours calls, transcribe appointments into structured notes, and respond to incoming texts automatically. AI Assistants automate phone calls, note summarization, and text messaging for your clinic. Each assistant type serves a different purpose — from answering inbound patient calls to transcribing clinical notes. You can customize each assistant’s behavior, AI model, tools, and scheduling.

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Assistant Types

Decoda provides several categories of AI assistants, each accessed from a different sub-page under Settings > AI Assistants.

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Phone Numbers and Inbound Calling

Inbound calling assistants answer phone calls to your clinic’s AI phone numbers. Each phone number has its own configuration page where you set up assistants, ring groups for live staff, and closures for holidays. The same page shows a weekly schedule so you can see which handler is on at any given hour.

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Provision a Phone Number

Once provisioned, the number appears as a card on the Phone Numbers page. The card shows the number, status badges (Primary, Enabled, Disabled, Forwarding, Not Configured), and any assistants or ring groups already assigned to it.

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Configure a Phone Number

Click a number card (or the Set up assistant link inside it) to open the configuration page for that number. The page is split into three handler types on the left — Ring Groups, AI Assistants, and Closures — with a Weekly Schedule on the right. At the top of the page you can also set:

• Timezone — Used for all schedules on this number.
• Location — The clinic location this number serves.
• Ring Group Failover — An assistant that picks up when no one in a ring group answers. You can pick an existing assistant or + Create New to add one.
• Caller ID — Shows the practice name displayed on outbound calls. Contact support to set this up.

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Add an AI Assistant to a Phone Number

To edit an assistant, click it in the AI Assistants list (or click its block on the weekly schedule) and then click Edit. Make your changes and click Save Changes.

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Ring Groups and Closures

In addition to AI assistants, each phone number can have:

• Ring Groups — Lists of staff phones that ring during scheduled hours. If no one answers, calls fall over to the Ring Group Failover assistant set at the top of the page. Add one from the Ring Groups section.
• Closures — Time blocks (holidays, lunch breaks, recurring days off) when scheduled routing is paused. Calls during a closure go to the off-hours handler. Add one from the Closures section.

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Routing Priority

Click How is call routing prioritized? below the weekly schedule to see the order Decoda uses to pick a handler:

1. Closures — Block scheduled routing during configured times; calls fall back to the off-hours handler.
2. Scheduled AI Assistants — AI overrides ring groups during shift hours (for example, a lunch break).
3. Scheduled Ring Groups — Route to live staff during scheduled hours. If no one answers, the Ring Group Failover assistant handles the call.
4. Off-Hours Handler — One assistant handles calls when no schedule is active.

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Forward, Enable, or Release a Number

The three-dot menu on a phone number card on the Phone Numbers page lets you:

• Edit number — Open the configuration page.
• Forward calls — Forward this number to another number you own (or to one of your AI numbers). Useful for sending an unconfigured number to an existing assistant.
• Enable number — Re-enable a disabled number so it starts handling calls again.
• Set as primary — Mark this as the primary number for the tenant. The primary badge appears on the card.
• Release number — Permanently release the number from your account. Numbers cannot be released within 14 days of purchase, and you must remove all assistants and ring groups before releasing.

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Search Phone Numbers

Use the filter bar on the Phone Numbers page to search by name (assistant or ring group name) or by phone number digits.

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Behavior Presets

Behavior presets are ready-made instruction sets that you can add to an assistant’s behavior with one click, instead of writing detailed instructions from scratch. When editing an assistant’s behavior, you will see a row of preset buttons above the behavior text box (labeled Quick Presets). Each preset covers a specific capability — for example, rules for recommending related services during booking, or steps for reducing cancellations by offering alternatives first. How to use presets:

1. Open the assistant editor and scroll to the Custom Prompt field.
2. Click the + button on any preset card to insert its instructions into the behavior text box.
3. To remove a preset, click the checkmark button on its card. The inserted text is removed automatically.
4. If you edit the inserted text and want to go back to the original version, click the reset arrow that appears on the preset card.

You can add multiple presets at once — they stack together in the behavior field. Feel free to edit the inserted text to fit your clinic’s specific needs.

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Outbound Calling Assistants

Outbound assistants make automated calls on behalf of your clinic. They are pre-configured by type and appear as cards on the Outbound Calling page.

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Edit an Outbound Assistant

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Scribe Assistant

The Scribe assistant powers AI-generated clinical notes. It processes transcriptions and structured form data to produce documentation for providers.

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Call Summarizer

The Call Summarizer generates post-call summaries that staff can review.

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Texting Assistant

The Texting Assistant handles incoming text messages from patients, providing AI-powered responses and performing automated actions. There is one Texting Assistant per tenant, and it handles SMS on all enabled phone numbers.

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Web Chat Widget

The Web Chat Widget lets patients chat with your AI assistant directly from your website. Decoda generates an embed code snippet you paste into your site’s HTML, and visitors see a chat bubble that opens a conversation with your assistant.

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AI Model Selection

All assistant types include an AI Model selector. Available models include options from Google (Gemini) and OpenAI (GPT), with a Recommended option pre-selected. Different models offer varying performance characteristics — the recommended model is suitable for most use cases.

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Behaviour Prompts and Suggestions

The Assistant Behaviour field on every assistant type accepts rich text with @ mention shortcuts. When you type @ in the behaviour editor, a dropdown appears with available suggestions. Select a suggestion to insert its content into the prompt. This lets you build reusable text snippets (managed under Suggestions) that can be quickly inserted into any assistant’s behaviour instructions.

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For details on creating and managing the saved suggestions inserted with @, see Suggestions.

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Advanced Configuration