Warm Transfer

A warm transfer (also called an attended transfer) is a call transfer method where the transferring party — in this context, an AI voice agent — speaks to the receiving party before connecting the original caller. This ensures the human agent has context before taking the call.

Warm transfer vs. cold transfer

• Cold transfer (blind transfer): The call is transferred directly to the new destination without any introduction. The human agent receives the caller with no prior context and must re-ask for information the AI already collected.
• Warm transfer: The AI agent places the caller on hold, connects to the human agent, and provides a verbal or data summary — then bridges the caller through. The human agent is already briefed.

How warm transfers work in AI voice agents

1. The AI voice agent determines that escalation is needed (caller request, sentiment trigger, topic outside agent scope)
2. The AI places the caller on hold with appropriate hold messaging
3. The AI connects to the available human agent and delivers a briefing: "Hi, I have John Smith on the line. He's calling about his March 15 appointment and wants to discuss a billing dispute. His account number is 48291."
4. The human agent acknowledges, and the AI bridges the call through

Data transfer: Modern implementations like TurboCall also push a structured data packet to the human agent's screen (via CRM integration) simultaneously — showing the full call transcript, caller details, and AI-captured data before the agent says hello.