--- title: Build a Conversational AI Bot with Telnyx canonical: https://telnyx.com/resources/how-i-built-a-conversational-ai-bot-using-telnyx --- # Build a Conversational AI Bot with Telnyx [Back to blog](https://telnyx.com/resources) **Conversational AI** # How I built a conversational AI bot using Telnyx Learn how Enzo, a Telnyx Software Engineer, built a conversational AI bot using Telnyx and OpenAI. By [Enzo Piacenza](https://telnyx.com/authors/enzo-piacenza) Inspired by the Air.ai demo that recently went viral on X (formerly Twitter) of an AI bot making a sales call, I set out to build my own conversational AI bot using the Telnyx [Voice API](https://telnyx.com/products/voice-api). I’m Enzo Piacenza, a Telnyx software engineer. In this project, I combined Telnyx's telephony capabilities with OpenAI's powerful [language models](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/7842364-how-chatgpt-and-our-language-models-are-developed) to make an AI expert for inbound callers interested in Telnyx’s offerings. Here's a step-by-step guide on how I brought this vision to life. ## Getting started and developer setup Before diving into the steps I took to make a conversational AI bot, we’ll quickly cover how to get started with Telnyx. If you’re a first-time user, you can access our [quickstart guide](https://developers.telnyx.com/docs/development/api-fundamentals/first-api-request) to set up your developer environment. The guide covers the following steps: 1. Signing up for a Telnyx account 2. Buying a number 3. Creating a SIP connection 4. Creating an outbound voice profile 5. Obtaining your API keys After that, be sure to follow our [developer setup guide](https://developers.telnyx.com/docs/development/api-fundamentals) and install the Telnyx [Voice SDK](https://telnyx.com/products/webrtc) in the language of your choice: * Python * PHP * Node * Java * .NET * Ruby ## Telephony setup Once your environment is set up, you’re ready to start building your conversational AI bot. Here are the simple steps I took to create a Telnyx sales chatbot. ### Step 1: Purchase a number The foundation of any voice application is telephony. So, I started by going to the [Telnyx Mission Control Portal](https://portal.telnyx.com) and purchasing a [phone number.](https://telnyx.com/products/phone-numbers) ### Step 2: Create a Voice API application Then, I created a Voice API application and configured it using a webhook URL that could be tied to my local application. I used [ngrok](https://ngrok.com/) to do this, but any cross-platform application that allows you to expose your local web servers to the internet will work. ### Step 3: Assign the application to the number Next, I assigned the Voice API application to the number I purchased, enabling the application to receive webhooks when the number was called. Once I had the telephony component all set up, it was time to work on the call flow. ## Voice API call flow ### Step 4: Call initiation and answering Upon receiving the "call.initiated" webhook, I issued a call answer command. ### Step 5: Begin transcription Then, I received the "call.answered" webhook and began the transcription with the following parameters: * language: "en” * transcription\_engine: "B" (This is [our new transcription engine](https://telnyx.com/release-notes/new-speech-to-text-engine)), * transcription\_tracks: "inbound" (We’re only interested in getting the transcription of the caller.) ### Step 6: Text-to-speech (TTS) greeting I wanted to answer our caller with a friendly greeting using a speak command, so I used, “Welcome to Telnyx. How can I help you today?” ### Step 7: Speech-to-text (STT) transcription At this point, the caller would answer, and the transcription would begin. Since I was the one building and testing this application, the caller on the other line was myself. I waited for the "call.transcription" webhooks on the backend that contained what our customer (me) was saying in plain text. ## Large language model (LLM) integration ### Step 8: Generating and sending responses For each caller transcript, I needed to generate a response and send it back within the call. To do this, I used OpenAI’s [Chat Completion API](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/text), a chat model that takes a list of messages as input and returns a model-generated message as output. It’s designed to make multi-turn conversations easy. In this project, I wanted to send a request to OpenAI’s API that looked like this for each transcript: ``` 1. Model: gpt-3.5-turbo-16k 2. Temperature: 0 3. Messages: [ {"role": "system", "content": "Today you work at Telnyx, try to sell Telnyx as best as you can, also try to get as much information about the caller as you can so we can call them back"},{"role": "user", "content": <here I will put the first transcript>]. This list of messages will keep growing as the conversation goes, and for each OpenAI response, I will add to the list: {"role": "assistant", "content": <LLM response>}, and then the next human transcription and so on. ``` ### Step 9: Text-to-speech response After receiving the LLM response, I used the “speak” command to turn the LLM text response into speech and recite it to the caller. From there, the cycle begins again, and the conversation carries on. As you can see, I built a conversational AI sales bot just like Air.ai’s demo using Telnyx in just a few steps. ## Why build with Telnyx? With many options available to developers, I still love using Telnyx to build conversational AI for multiple reasons: ### High-quality voice Telnyx is built on a [private global network](https://telnyx.com/our-network), which means voice travels over private gateways rather than the public internet. These private connections ensure crystal-clear voice quality, which is crucial for generating accurate conversational AI responses. ### Developer docs and support Telnyx has a plethora of [developer documentation](https://developers.telnyx.com/docs/overview), debugging tools, and [reporting](https://telnyx.com/release-notes/quality-of-service-reports), all of which allow me to manage my projects end-to-end in its [Mission Control Portal](https://telnyx.com/mission-control). ### Telnyx is at the forefront of AI We just released our new in-house speech-to-text (STT) engine that’s more accurate and cost-effective than Google’s (our previous default transcription engine). We also recently released a feature to enable HD voice. And later in the fall, we’ll release a feature for improved noise suppression. These three features are crucial for accurate and natural conversational AI interactions. We’re also working on reducing latency between conversation turns for quick and human-like responses, because no one likes long, awkward pauses. ## Partner with Telnyx to build your conversational AI tools Building a conversational AI bot using Telnyx Voice API and OpenAI's language model was simple and rewarding. From setting up the telephony to implementing real-time transcriptions and automated responses, this project demonstrates the endless possibilities at the intersection of telecommunication and AI. **[Contact our team of experts](https://telnyx.com/contact-us) to learn more about how you can build conversational AI with Telnyx.** _Have questions about building AI voice bots? Join our subreddit:_ [r/Telnyx](https://www.reddit.com/r/Telnyx/) Share on Social ## Jump to: [Getting started and developer setup](#getting-started-and-developer-setup)[Telephony setup](#telephony-setup)[Voice API call flow](#voice-api-call-flow)[Large language model (LLM) integration](#large-language-model-llm-integration)[Why build with Telnyx?](#why-build-with-telnyx)[Partner with Telnyx to build your conversational AI tools](#partner-with-telnyx-to-build-your-conversational-ai-tools) ## Sign up for emails of our latest articles and news [Start building](https://telnyx.com/sign-up) Related articles * [**Conversational AI**AI Agents in Financial Services: Use Cases in India![megha-profile](https://d2efw2akbx8gaf.cloudfront.net/https://dotcom-payload-assets-prod.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/cms-media/Untitled%20(400%20x%20400%20px)%20(1).png?width=96&format=webp)By Megha Sujanani12, Oct 2026](https://telnyx.com/resources/ai-agents-indian-financial-services) * [**Conversational AI**How to build an omnichannel AI agent![Deniz Yakışıklı](https://d2efw2akbx8gaf.cloudfront.net/https://dotcom-payload-assets-prod.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/cms-media/Deniz_Yakisikli_6b7b420ed4.png?width=96&format=webp)By Deniz Yakisikli12, Oct 2026](https://telnyx.com/resources/how-to-build-an-omnichannel-ai-agent) * [**Conversational AI**Why your voice AI agent is slow on phone calls, and how to fix it![Osman Husain Telnyx](https://d2efw2akbx8gaf.cloudfront.net/https://dotcom-payload-assets-prod.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/cms-media/Osman%20Husain%20headshot?width=96&format=webp)By Osman Husain8, Oct 2026](https://telnyx.com/resources/voice-ai-delay-causes) * [**WhatsApp Business API**WhatsApp AI Voice Agents: How They Work and How to Set One Up![Deniz Yakışıklı](https://d2efw2akbx8gaf.cloudfront.net/https://dotcom-payload-assets-prod.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/cms-media/Deniz_Yakisikli_6b7b420ed4.png?width=96&format=webp)By Deniz Yakışıklı14, Oct 2026](https://telnyx.com/resources/whatsapp-calling-ai-voice-agents) * [**WhatsApp Business API**WhatsApp Business API: Pricing, Setup and Limits Guide for 2026![Deniz Yakışıklı](https://d2efw2akbx8gaf.cloudfront.net/https://dotcom-payload-assets-prod.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/cms-media/Deniz_Yakisikli_6b7b420ed4.png?width=96&format=webp)By Deniz Yakışıklı12, Oct 2026](https://telnyx.com/resources/whatsapp-business-api) * [**WhatsApp Business API**WhatsApp Business Messaging for Retail: Setup and Pricing![Serhii](https://d2efw2akbx8gaf.cloudfront.net/https://dotcom-payload-assets-prod.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/cms-media/_DSC8799-6.jpg?width=96&format=webp)By Serhii Omelchenko8, Oct 2026](https://telnyx.com/resources/whatsapp-business-retail) ### Ask AI * [![GPT](https://d2efw2akbx8gaf.cloudfront.net/https://dotcom-payload-assets-prod.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/cms-media/chatgpt_icon-ea55e09d.jpeg?width=92&format=webp)](https://chat.openai.com/?q=What makes Telnyx's global network different, breakdown call quality for normal phone calls and voice AI calls.) * [![Claude](https://d2efw2akbx8gaf.cloudfront.net/https://dotcom-payload-assets-prod.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/cms-media/claude_icon-c7c8eef3.webp?width=92&format=webp)](https://claude.ai/new?q=What makes Telnyx's global network different, breakdown call quality for normal phone calls and voice AI calls.) * [![Perplexity](https://d2efw2akbx8gaf.cloudfront.net/https://dotcom-payload-assets-prod.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/cms-media/perplexity_icon-cd5b74f1.webp?width=92&format=webp)](https://www.perplexity.ai/search?q=What makes Telnyx's global network different, breakdown call quality for normal phone calls and voice AI calls.) * [![Gemini](https://d2efw2akbx8gaf.cloudfront.net/https://dotcom-payload-assets-prod.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/cms-media/gemini_icon-4ff1cbf4.webp?width=92&format=webp)](https://www.google.com/search?udm=50&aep=11&q=What makes Telnyx's global network different, breakdown call quality for normal phone calls and voice AI calls.) * [![Grok](https://d2efw2akbx8gaf.cloudfront.net/https://dotcom-payload-assets-prod.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/cms-media/grok_icon-e588e5bd.webp?width=92&format=webp)](https://x.com/i/grok?text=What makes Telnyx's global network different, breakdown call quality for normal phone calls and voice AI calls.)