Question: I need a solution that can handle phone calls for me, including hold times and conversations, and provide a transcript of the call.

One of the most promising is echowin, an AI-powered call answering service for businesses of all sizes. It offers 24/7 answering, live call transcripts, built-in CRM for managing customer interactions, and analytics. The service also integrates with more than 6000+ apps and offers custom workflows for specific business needs. That makes it a good option for businesses that want to improve customer satisfaction while cutting costs and saving time.

Another good option is ZenCall, an AI-powered call management service that lets you forward missed calls to an AI agent. It offers real-time call notifications with transcripts, unlimited free prompt tests, and the ability to forward calls to specific people or services. ZenCall also offers a pay-per-use pricing model with a 7-day free trial, so it's a good option for those who want to try before they commit.

If you want to automate calls more deeply, Elto is a mature live conversation AI that can handle calls up to an hour long and take follow-up actions. It offers natural-sounding voices, low latency and large language models tuned for specific call flows. Elto can be integrated with other products using REST and GraphQL APIs, and it's designed to be highly scalable so you can automate downstream workflows based on call results.