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What is AlwaysOn?
AlwaysOn is an AI phone agent platform built for South African businesses. It gives every business an AI receptionist that answers calls 24/7 with a natural South African English voice, books appointments by checking Google Calendar availability, sends SMS and WhatsApp confirmations, handles FAQs using a knowledge base, takes messages, and transfers calls when needed.
Whether you run a salon, law firm, medical practice, plumbing business, or auto workshop — AlwaysOn ensures you never miss a customer call again. Your AI agent works around the clock, even when you're busy, after hours, or on holiday.
How It Works
Customer calls
A customer dials your business number.
AI answers
Your AI receptionist picks up instantly with a natural SA voice.
Checks calendar
The AI checks your Google Calendar for available slots.
Books appointment
It books the appointment and adds it to your calendar.
Sends confirmation
SMS confirmations are sent to both you and the caller.
Features
Visual Flow Builder
Drag-and-drop canvas to design your call flow with 10 node types and pre-built templates.
Smart Booking
AI checks real-time availability and books appointments directly into your calendar.
Google Calendar
One-click integration. Your AI reads and writes to your Google Calendar automatically.
WhatsApp & SMS
Automatic confirmations sent to both the caller and business owner after every booking.
Guardrails
6 safety guardrails including POPIA compliance, emergency escalation, and anti-jailbreak protection.
Multi-Agent
Run multiple AI agents across different businesses or branches, all from one account.
SA Voices
Natural South African English voices powered by ElevenLabs. Afrikaans support coming soon.
Knowledge Base
Upload your FAQs, services, and business info so the AI can answer detailed questions.
Analytics
Track call volumes, durations, bookings, leads captured, and agent performance.
Build with AI
Copy a setup prompt into ChatGPT or Claude to configure your agent step by step.
Plans & Pricing
All plans include a 14-day free trial. No credit card required to start.
| Plan | Price | Minutes | Agents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | R999/mo | 100 min | 1 agent |
| Professional | R2,499/mo | 300 min | 3 agents |
| Enterprise | R7,499/mo | 1,000 min | 10 agents |
Getting Started
- Sign up — Create your account at alwaysonai.co.za/signup.
- Name your agent — Choose a name or let it default to your voice name.
- Choose a template — Pick a pre-built flow for your industry (Salon, Law Firm, Medical, Plumber, Auto Workshop, or General).
- Customise your flow — Edit nodes in the Flow Builder to match how your business handles calls.
- Add knowledge — Enter your business description, FAQs, and services list.
- Connect Google Calendar — One click to let the AI check availability and create events.
- Configure guardrails — Enable POPIA compliance, emergency escalation, and other safety rules.
- Test your agent — Use the built-in web call widget to chat with your AI agent.
- Publish — Sync your agent to make it live.
- Forward your number — Set up call forwarding from your existing number, or provision a new SA number.
Flow Builder
The Flow Builder is a visual drag-and-drop canvas where you design your AI agent's call flow. Each flow is a series of connected nodes that determine how the AI handles different scenarios.
Pre-built Templates
Start with a template tailored to your industry, then customise:
Node Types Reference
Conversation
The core node. Defines what the AI says and how it responds. Use this for greetings, qualifying questions, and general dialogue.
Knowledge
Queries your knowledge base to answer FAQs. Use when callers ask about services, pricing, or business details.
Book
Checks Google Calendar availability and creates appointments. Use for any business that takes bookings.
Collect Info
Captures structured data from the caller (name, phone, email, etc.). Use for lead capture or intake forms.
Transfer
Forwards the call to a human phone number. Use for escalation, emergencies, or VIP callers.
Message
Takes a message from the caller and notifies the business owner. Use for after-hours or when no one is available.
Pricing
Provides pricing information from your knowledge base. Use when callers ask "how much does X cost?"
Logic Split
Routes the conversation based on conditions (time of day, caller intent, etc.). Use for branching logic.
SMS
Sends an SMS to the caller or business owner. Use for confirmations, follow-up links, or directions.
End
Ends the call gracefully with a closing message. Use at the end of every flow branch.
Global Settings & Guardrails
Global settings apply to your entire agent, regardless of the flow. The Global Prompt defines your agent's identity, tone, and behaviour rules.
6 Guardrails
POPIA Recording Disclosure
Automatically informs callers that the call may be recorded, as required by South African law.
Block Regulated Advice
Prevents the AI from giving medical, legal, financial, or tax advice.
Protect Sensitive Data
Avoids repeating back ID numbers, banking details, or other sensitive information.
Emergency Escalation
Detects emergencies and provides SA emergency numbers (10111 Police, 10177 Ambulance).
Stay on Topic
Keeps the AI focused on business-related conversations and redirects off-topic requests.
Anti-Jailbreak
Protects against prompt injection attempts that try to override the AI's instructions.
Knowledge Base
The Knowledge Base gives your AI agent the information it needs to answer caller questions accurately. Add your business details and the AI will retrieve relevant information during calls.
What to add
- Business description — A 2-3 sentence overview of what your business does, where you're located, and what makes you different.
- FAQs — Common questions and answers. The more you add, the better your AI handles calls.
- Services list — Service names, durations, and prices. The AI uses this for pricing questions and booking context.
- Text sources — Paste in any additional business info (e.g. product details, policies, team bios).
Google Calendar
Connect your Google Calendar with one click so your AI agent can check real-time availability and create events when appointments are booked.
How it works
- Go to Settings → Integrations and click "Connect Google Calendar."
- Authorise AlwaysOn to read and write events on your calendar.
- Your AI agent now checks your calendar before suggesting times.
- When a booking is made, an event is automatically created in your calendar.
Calendar events also appear on the Bookings page alongside AlwaysOn bookings.
Voice Selection
AlwaysOn uses ElevenLabs voices optimised for South African English. Choose from a curated selection of natural-sounding voices in the Agent Studio.
- 27 curated South African and British English voices
- Your agent name defaults to the selected voice name
- Preview any voice before selecting
- Afrikaans voice support coming soon
Notifications
AlwaysOn sends automatic notifications after every booking, so both you and your customer stay informed.
SMS to caller
Booking confirmation with date, time, and business name. Callers can reply to reschedule or cancel.
SMS to business owner
Instant notification with caller name, service, date, time, and phone number.
WhatsApp notifications are coming soon. The system automatically falls back to SMS if WhatsApp is unavailable.
Build with AI
Don't want to configure everything manually? Copy our setup prompt into ChatGPT or Claude and it will walk you through the entire configuration step by step — asking about your business, writing your global prompt, suggesting flow templates, creating your knowledge base, and configuring guardrails.
Setup Prompt
Click the button below, then paste into ChatGPT or Claude. The AI will guide you through configuring your AlwaysOn agent.
POPIA Compliance
AlwaysOn is designed with South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) in mind.
- Recording disclosure — The AI can automatically inform callers that the call may be recorded.
- Data protection — The AI avoids repeating sensitive data (ID numbers, banking details) back to callers.
- Consent — Callers are informed about data collection purposes.
- Data export — Export all your data at any time from Settings.
- Data deletion — Request deletion of all personal data. We comply within 30 days as required by POPIA.
White Glove Setup
Don't have time to set things up yourself? Our team will do it for you.
R3,400 once-off
We visit your business (or set up remotely) and configure everything:
- Agent voice and personality setup
- Custom call flow design for your business
- Knowledge base with your FAQs, services, and pricing
- Google Calendar integration
- Phone number provisioning and forwarding
- Testing and go-live
Contact us at lukemoore9@icloud.com to book your setup.
FAQ
Do I need to change my phone number?
No. You can forward your existing number to your AlwaysOn number, or provision a new SA number directly on the platform.
Does the AI sound robotic?
No. We use ElevenLabs' latest text-to-speech technology with natural South African English voices. Callers often don't realise they're talking to an AI.
What happens when my minutes run out?
You'll receive a notification. You can upgrade your plan at any time. Existing appointments and data are never affected.
Can I use it after hours only?
Yes. You can configure your agent to only answer outside business hours, or to answer all calls 24/7.
Is my data safe?
Yes. All data is encrypted in transit and at rest. We comply with POPIA and never share your data with third parties.
Can I have multiple agents?
Yes. The Professional plan supports 3 agents and Enterprise supports 10. Each agent can have its own voice, flow, and knowledge base.
How long does setup take?
Most businesses are live within 30 minutes using our templates. The Build with AI feature can guide you through the process even faster.
Do you support languages other than English?
Currently we support South African English with Afrikaans support coming soon. The platform is designed for multilingual expansion.
Can the AI handle complex calls?
The AI handles bookings, FAQs, lead capture, and message-taking excellently. For complex situations, it can transfer to a human or take a message.
What if I need help?
Email us at lukemoore9@icloud.com or use the Build with AI feature to configure your agent with AI assistance. We also offer a White Glove Setup service.