An Ooma AI receptionist through call forwarding
Forward an Ooma Office user's calls to a Cartesia agent's number, and the agent answers as your Ooma AI receptionist and hands callers back to your team.
Front-line agent
Answers forwarded calls and passes the rest to your team.
Instructions
Answer office hours, the fax number and where to send documents. Transfer policy changes and quotes to policy services, and callers who ask for their agent to that agent's Ooma number.
- Handoff
- Ooma team number
Connected tools
- Transfer to OomaTransfer
What a Ooma Office AI voice agent can do
Open one to watch a call. The grey lines are the tools the agent calls mid-sentence.
Call forwarding on an Ooma Office user sends that user's calls to the agent's number, always or only when its devices are offline.
The agent answers what clients ask most, such as office hours and the fax number, and ends the call without a transfer.
Callers who ask for someone go to an Ooma number, such as a coworker's direct number or your main line.
Ooma Office settings
These are the Ooma Office Manager settings for forwarding one user's calls.
- Where
office.ooma.com, Settings, the user's line, Call Forwarding tab.- Modes
- Disabled, Enabled when devices offline, or Enabled.
- Destination
- The Cartesia agent's phone number.
- Who
- An Ooma Office administrator.
Set it up
A phone hand-off by call forwarding. There is no SIP trunk between Ooma Office and Cartesia and no native Ooma integration. Vendor details read in November 2026.
Give the agent a number
Import a number from Twilio or connect a SIP trunk number. Transfers work only on Twilio and SIP trunk numbers, not on Cartesia numbers.
Forward an Ooma Office user's calls
Log in to
office.ooma.comas an administrator and open Settings. Click the user's line, open the Call Forwarding tab, choose Enabled, enter the agent's number and click Save.Set the way back
Add a transfer rule in Cartesia to an Ooma number that reaches the right person, not the forwarded user's own number.
Test both directions
Call the forwarded Ooma number, reach the agent, and ask for a person to check the transfer back.
Before you build
The user's phones stop ringing
While forwarding is Enabled, none of the user's devices ring until you turn it off. Give the agent its own user, or use Enabled when devices offline.
Transfers are cold
The person who picks up gets the call, not the conversation. Have the agent tell the caller where it's sending them before it transfers.
Use cases for teams on Ooma Office
More integrations
Enterprise-grade security
HIPAA compliant
SOC 2 Type 2
GDPR
Ooma Office AI voice agent FAQs
Does Ooma have an AI receptionist?
Yes. Ooma added AI Receptionist to Ooma Office in May 2026 as part of Ooma AI. It launched in beta with its own monthly charge. To use a Cartesia agent instead, forward an Ooma Office user's calls to the agent's phone number. Ooma has no built-in Cartesia connection, so the agent only sees calls you forward.
Can I use my own AI agent with Ooma?
Yes, if the agent has its own phone number. Ooma Office Call Forwarding sends a user's calls there, and the agent transfers back to an Ooma number for the right person. A Cartesia agent calls webhook tools you define in your own systems and uses the voice and model you choose.
How do I forward Ooma calls to an AI agent?
Log in to office.ooma.com as an administrator and open Settings. Click the user's line, open the Call Forwarding tab, choose Enabled, enter the agent's number and click Save. Only an Ooma Office administrator can change it. To forward only some calls, the other mode is Enabled when devices offline.
Can the AI answer only when the office phones are down?
Yes. Set the user's Call Forwarding mode to Enabled when devices offline, and calls reach the agent only while that user's devices are offline. The rest of the time, the user's phones ring as usual.
Will my Ooma phones still ring while forwarding is on?
No. While Call Forwarding is Enabled, none of the user's devices ring until you turn it off. Give the agent its own Ooma user, or use Enabled when devices offline.
Who bills the minutes when Ooma forwards to an agent?
Cartesia charges $0.03/min, plus LLM usage and telephony, and Twilio or your SIP carrier bills the agent's number. Transfers work only on Twilio and SIP trunk numbers, not on Cartesia numbers.
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