Title: What Is Call Routing? Definition & Rules | Keres AI URL: https://www.keresai.com/glossary/call-routing Updated: 2026-10-12 Description: Call routing sends each inbound call to the right person, team or destination using rules. How routing works, rule-based vs AI routing, and what it costs. Source: https://www.keresai.com/glossary/call-routing (HTML). This is a Markdown copy of the page's main content for AI agents and LLM tools. --- # What is Call Routing? Call routing is the set of rules that decides where an inbound call goes: to a person, team, location, queue or voicemail. Rules can use the time of day, the number dialed, the caller’s menu choice or what the caller says, and who is available to answer. ## How does call routing work? 1. **The call arrives** on a number you own, and your phone system reads what it knows: the number dialed, the caller ID and the time. 2. **Rules are checked in order.** For example: business hours go to the front desk, after hours go to the answering service, and the number on your ads goes to the sales line. 3. **The caller may be asked.** An [IVR](https://www.keresai.com/glossary/ivr) menu or an AI receptionist finds out what the caller needs. 4. **The call is connected** to a person, a ring group, a queue or a voicemail box. 5. **A fallback applies** if nobody answers within a set number of rings: [overflow](https://www.keresai.com/glossary/call-overflow) to another line, a backup answerer or voicemail. ## Rule-based routing vs AI routing Traditional routing uses fixed signals: the time, the number dialed and the key the caller pressed. It is predictable and inexpensive, but the caller does the sorting, and a wrong choice sends them to the wrong place. AI routing listens to the request in the caller’s own words, answers or books what it can, and connects only the calls that need a person, with the details already collected. Common rule types apply to both: time of day, round-robin across a team, by location or service area, and by skill or department. ## What does call routing cost? Basic routing rules come with most business phone systems. The cost that matters is the calls routing sends nowhere: a ring group nobody picks up, or voicemail after hours. If you are comparing routing through an AI receptionist, see [how much an AI receptionist costs](https://www.keresai.com/ai-receptionist-cost) and [Keres AI pricing](https://www.keresai.com/pricing). ## How does Keres AI handle it? [Remi](https://www.keresai.com/agents/inbound) answers every call first, in two rings, 24/7. It asks your intake questions, books routine appointments into Google Calendar, HubSpot or ServiceTitan, and escalates to a person by the rules you set, for example sending an after-hours emergency to the technician on call. Calls Remi couldn’t take get a text back within 60 seconds. See [after-hours answering](https://www.keresai.com/glossary/after-hours-answering) and [emergency dispatch](https://www.keresai.com/glossary/emergency-dispatch). Junk calls can be screened out the same way; see [spam-call screening](https://www.keresai.com/use-cases/spam-call-screening). See the product behind this concept ### Want to see Call Routing working in practice? See how Keres puts it to work for your vertical and workflow. ### [AI Receptionist](https://www.keresai.com/glossary/ai-receptionist) An AI receptionist is software that answers your business phone automatically, 24/7. The software greets callers in a na… ### [IVR (Interactive Voice Response)](https://www.keresai.com/glossary/ivr) IVR (interactive voice response) is an automated phone system that greets callers with a recorded menu and routes them b… ### [Call Overflow Handling](https://www.keresai.com/glossary/call-overflow) Call overflow handling sends calls your team can’t pick up, because every line is busy or nobody answers within a few ri… ### [After-Hours Answering](https://www.keresai.com/glossary/after-hours-answering) After-hours answering is a service that handles inbound calls outside normal business hours — evenings, weekends, and ho… [← Back to the full glossary](https://www.keresai.com/glossary) ## Call Routing — FAQ ### What is the difference between call routing and call forwarding? Call forwarding sends every call from one number to another. Call routing applies rules, such as time of day or what the caller needs, to decide where each call goes. ### Can AI route calls to the right person? Yes. An AI receptionist asks what the caller needs, handles routine requests itself and escalates the rest by your rules. Keres AI’s Remi escalates to a person based on rules you set, such as emergencies after hours. ### What happens when a routed call isn’t answered? It falls to the fallback you set: another line, a backup answerer or voicemail. Without a live fallback, the caller reaches voicemail and may call someone else. ### What is round-robin call routing? Round-robin rotates incoming calls across a group so each person takes calls in turn, which spreads the load evenly across a team. Last updated October 12, 2026 · [Reviewed by the Keres AI team](https://www.keresai.com/editorial-policy)