What an AI Receptionist Should Do in an Emergency

An AI receptionist should handle emergencies with fixed rules, not judgment. For life-threatening situations (fire, gas smell, medical emergencies, threats of harm), it tells the caller to hang up and call 911 right away. For business emergencies (a flooding basement, no heat, a lockout, an outage), it flags the call urgent and transfers to your on-call person, taking an urgent message if the transfer doesn't connect. It never assesses symptoms, guesses at safety, or keeps a caller talking when they should be calling 911.

Two kinds of emergency

Type	Examples	AI action
Life-safety	Fire, smoke, gas smell, carbon monoxide alarm, chest pain, trouble breathing, severe bleeding, threat of violence, someone suicidal	Tell the caller to call 911 (or 988 for a mental health crisis) now; then notify your team
Business emergency	Active water leak, no heat in freezing weather, sewage backup, lockout, security breach, critical system down	Mark urgent; transfer to on-call; take an urgent message if unanswered
Time-sensitive but not an emergency	Same-day deadline, a part needed today	Mark urgent; message or transfer per your rules

Life-safety instructions

Write this into every agent's instructions, whatever your business:

If the caller describes fire, smoke, a gas smell, a carbon
monoxide alarm, a medical emergency, someone in danger, or says
it's a life-threatening emergency:
Say: "Please hang up and call 911 right now."
For a gas smell, say: "Please leave the building now and call
911 from outside."
If the caller mentions suicide or self-harm, say: "Please call
or text 988 now to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or
call 911 if you're in immediate danger."
For a possible poisoning, say: "Please call Poison Help at
1-800-222-1222, or 911 if the person is unconscious or having
trouble breathing."
Do not ask follow-up questions first. After saying this, take an
urgent message with their name and location if they stay on the
line.

Why "hang up and call 911" rather than transferring: 911 dispatchers need to speak directly with the caller and locate them. Your business can't route that call better than the caller dialing 911 themselves.

The gas guidance follows the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's advice: leave the area first, then call 911 from a safe location. Poison Help (1-800-222-1222) connects callers to their local poison center, and 988 is the national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Business emergency instructions

Define your list precisely. Example for a property manager or home services company:

BUSINESS EMERGENCIES (mark urgent, transfer to on-call):
- Water actively leaking or flooding
- No heat when it's below 40°F outside
- No water
- Sewage backing up
- Locked out of home or business
- Broken lock or door that won't secure
If the transfer doesn't connect: take an urgent message with
name, callback number, full address and what's happening, and
tell the caller "I've marked this urgent and our on-call
technician will call you back as soon as possible."
Give simple safety steps only if they're in the business facts
(e.g., "If you can safely reach the main water valve, turn it
off").

Only include safety steps you'd stand behind. If you're not sure a step is safe for every caller, leave it out.

Example exchanges

Life-safety, plumbing company line:

Caller: "I smell gas in the kitchen and the water heater's making a noise." Agent: "Please leave the building now and call 911 from outside. Once you're safe, call us back and we'll help with the water heater."

The agent doesn't ask about the water heater first. Getting the caller out comes before anything else.

Business emergency, overnight:

Caller: "Our basement is flooding. Water's coming in by the furnace." Agent: "That's urgent. I'm connecting you to our on-call technician now. What's the address?" Caller: "18 Birch Lane." Agent: "Thanks. Connecting you now."

If the technician doesn't answer:

Agent: "I couldn't reach the technician directly, so I've marked this urgent with your address and number. They'll call you back as soon as possible. If water reaches anything electrical, stay away from it and call 911."

What the agent should never do

• Diagnose symptoms or tell someone they're "probably fine."
• Tell someone a situation is safe.
• Promise an arrival time it can't guarantee.
• Keep a caller on the line in a life-safety situation.
• Treat "urgent" requests from salespeople or scammers as emergencies (see handling spam and sales calls).

Testing the emergency path

Emergency handling is the most important thing to test, and the most often skipped:

• Call and say "I smell gas." Does the agent immediately tell you to leave and call 911?
• Call and describe chest pain. Same?
• Call and report a burst pipe. Does it transfer to on-call?
• Have the on-call person not answer. Does the agent take an urgent message?
• Is the message flagged urgent and visible to the right people?
• Test after hours, on overflow and on every number the AI answers.

See how to test an AI receptionist before launch.

On-call setup

The AI is only as fast as the person it transfers to:

• Name a primary on-call person and a backup for each shift.
• Make sure on-call phones are set to receive transfers (cell forwarding or app).
• Agree on a callback target for urgent messages, such as 15 minutes.
• Review urgent messages the next morning: were they handled, and how fast?

Business-specific notes

• Medical and dental offices: keep the AI out of symptom assessment entirely. See AI receptionists in medical and dental offices.
• Property management: tenants often call the office before 911. See AI receptionist for property management.
• Home services: gas and electrical calls need the life-safety script before any booking talk. See AI receptionist for plumbers, HVAC and electricians.
• Veterinary clinics: list the emergency animal hospital you refer to after hours, with its number, in the facts.

Your own phone system and 911

Separately from what the AI says, make sure your business phones can reach 911 with a correct location. Federal rules (Kari's Law and RAY BAUM'S Act) require multi-line phone systems to allow direct 911 dialing and to convey a dispatchable location. Confirm your provider has a current address for each number.

Emergencies in Callata

Callata AI agents are told to connect callers to your team when an issue is urgent, and to mark messages urgent when the caller says it's urgent or an emergency. You choose whether the agent transfers to anyone available or a specific teammate, such as your on-call technician; teammates on do-not-disturb are skipped, and if nobody can take the call, the caller reaches voicemail, which is transcribed and triaged for urgency. Life-safety instructions like the ones above go in the agent's instructions, and you should test them before going live. Every Callata number includes E911.

Callata Office is $99 a month for up to five users ($20 per extra user); AI agents use prepaid minutes at $0.25 per minute. Set up Callata.