Questions to ask any AI vendor. Us included.
Updated
This is a checklist for evaluating any AI voice or SMS vendor before it touches your webinar registrants — script approval, a kill switch, references you pick yourself, and what happens to your data and your number if you cancel. Ask it of whoever else you are talking to. Then ask it of us: every answer below links to a page where we published it first, not a line said to you for the first time on a call.
Why a vendor-agnostic list, instead of judging the demo?
Because a demo is the best version of a system, by definition, and a due-diligence list has to survive contact with the worst version instead. Every question below is answerable in writing, before anyone signs anything, and none of them require trusting a script that only ever runs once, in a room the vendor controls.
“In the end, this industry has a really really bad name. Every single company I have talked to who has tried services like this, they all have horror stories of really bad results. That’s the unfortunate reality you have to deal with. Doesn’t matter if you are top notch, we have to assume you aren’t.”
— u/Due-Tip-4022, r/appointmentsetter[1], posted about this category in general, not about us
We think that is the correct starting position for anyone evaluating this category — us included — and this page is written from inside that assumption rather than against it. If a vendor cannot answer one of the six questions below in writing, that refusal is the answer.
Can you approve every line of the script before it sends? Can you change one mid-campaign?
Script approval in writing, with change control, is the cheapest thing a vendor can offer and the first thing worth insisting on. Ask to see the whole opening line and every fixed response, not a summary of the flow and not a live demo standing in for the document.
Approval that lives in a chat thread is not change control. The version you signed off should be the only version that can go out, and a mid-campaign edit should be something you approved rather than something a registrant tells you about afterwards.
Where we answer this about ourselves
Is there a kill switch, and whose hand is actually on it?
The important half of that question is where the switch lives, not how fast it fires. A kill switch you have to email somebody for is not a kill switch, and one that only stops new people entering a sequence while whatever is already queued keeps going is a tap, not a valve.
Ask to watch it work, on your own account, in the same session where you approve the script — before you sign anything, not after. Be skeptical of a vendor who quotes a response time next to it: a number of seconds on a website is not something the person reading the website can ever audit.
Where we answer this about ourselves
Can you pick your own references, with no NDA excuses?
NDA excuses are a soft no. Ask for two names you choose yourself, not the two the vendor already has warmed up, and ask to call them without anyone from the vendor on the line. A result that cannot survive an unsupervised phone call is not a result.
Where we fail this one, and say so plainly
What happens to your data, recordings and your phone number if you cancel?
Ask whether the number is yours or a shared pool, whether transcripts and recordings can be exported and then deleted on request, and what happens to all of it if the vendor is acquired or simply stops answering email. A vendor who has not thought about this has not run enough clients through an exit to have needed an answer.
The shape worth insisting on: a number in your own name rather than a shared pool, data that is exportable and deletable on your instruction, and a suppression list — the people who told you to stop — that leaves with you rather than staying behind in someone else’s account.
Where we answer this about ourselves
Who is liable if a call goes wrong — you, the vendor, or both?
Under the TCPA the honest answer is usually both, on two different legal theories, and no indemnity clause makes that go away — it only allocates cost between whoever signed it.
Two theories run at once: the entity that physically places the call is directly exposed, and the business the call is about can be separately, vicariously liable under federal agency principles for what a third party did on its behalf. Ask any vendor to explain both, not just the one that is not theirs.
Where we answer this about ourselves
Does it tell people it’s an AI, and what exactly does it say?
Ask for the literal opening line, not a description of the flow, and ask what happens the moment someone asks directly whether they are talking to a bot. An answer that only appears when challenged is concealment with a fallback, not disclosure.
And treat “it reads like a human wrote it” as a warning rather than a feature — it is a sentence engineered to make a buyer feel good about deception, and the person who eats the consequences is whoever’s name is on the webinar.
Where we answer this about ourselves
Will they prove it on your own list before you commit to anything?
The strongest version of this question is not “do you have case studies” — it is whether a vendor will run a small, contained split test against your own registrants before either of you commits to more.
A vendor who argues against splitting your list, or who says they need your whole list “to learn” first, is telling you what they expect the comparison to show.
Where we answer this about ourselves
The whole list, side by side.
Six questions, the answer that should worry you, and the answer that should reassure you. Print it, or read it back to whoever you are on the phone with next.
| Question | Answer that should worry you | Answer that should reassure you |
|---|---|---|
| Can I see every line of the script, not a summary? | “The AI handles it,” or a demo standing in for the document | The full script, in writing, before anything sends — with changes versioned |
| Where's the kill switch? | A support ticket in somebody else's queue | On your side, usable without asking, and it stops what's already queued |
| Can I pick two references myself? | An NDA, or “we'll set up a call for you” | Two names you choose, contacted with nobody from the vendor listening in |
| What happens to my data and my number if I cancel? | Vague, or “that's covered in the standard terms” | Exportable, deletable, and the number and suppression list are named as yours |
| Who's liable if a call goes wrong? | “We carry insurance,” with nothing more specific | A straight answer on direct vs. vicarious liability, no indemnity template pretending to settle it |
| Does it disclose it's an AI? | “It reads like a human wrote it” | Yes, before it asks anything — and the same answer if someone asks directly |
Nothing in the right-hand column is unique to us. It is what a reasonable vendor in this category should be willing to put in writing, and how few of them do is a large part of why this page exists at all.
Five things to get in writing before any vendor's AI touches your list
The whole script, not a summary
The opening line, the disclosure clause inside it, and the fixed responses for the moments a script has to have already decided. A demo is not a script, and a description of one is not either.
The kill switch, demonstrated
Ask to see it stop something, on your own account, before you sign — not a promise about how it would behave if you ever needed it.
Two references you choose, unsupervised
Names you pick, contacted without the vendor listening in. An NDA in response is an answer worth writing down and walking away from.
The exit terms for your data and your number
What is exportable, what is deletable, and whether the number and the list of people who opted out leave with you or stay behind with the vendor.
What happens after the first bad call
Not whether one will ever happen — ask what the vendor does the day it does, and whether you hear about it from them first or from a screenshot.
Ask us the same six questions
Run this list against us before you run it against anyone else.
Every answer above links to where we published it, not to a promise made on this page. If you would rather test the whole argument than read about it, the offer is one webinar cycle with your registrant list split down the middle.
- You approve every line before it sends
- A kill switch on your side
- A complaint pauses the system
- Month to month, no term
No price on this page, for this vendor or any other worth talking to. Ask on the call and time the answer.
Frequently asked questions
Insist on it with any vendor: the full opening line and every fixed response, in writing, before a single message sends, with changes versioned rather than dropped into a chat thread. Our own wording, guardrails and change-control process are on what it says, word for word.
The question that matters is where it lives, not how fast it fires — on your side, usable without asking permission, and it has to stop whatever is already queued, not only new entries. Ask to watch it work before you sign. We do not publish a response-time figure, because a number on a website is not something you can audit; the reasoning is on what it says.
NDA excuses are a soft no — ask for two names you pick yourself and call them without the vendor on the line. Our own honest answer is that we cannot give you one yet: there are zero completed engagements, stated plainly with the full number on is CallHush legit.
Ask whether the number is yours or a shared pool, whether recordings and transcripts can be exported and deleted on request, and whether the suppression list — the people who told you to stop — leaves with you. Our position for a single operator is on the sequence page, and the per-client version for an agency running several clients is on the agencies page.
Usually both the vendor and the business the call is about, on two separate legal theories, and no indemnity clause makes that disappear — it only allocates cost between whoever signed it. The full breakdown, sourced to 47 U.S.C. § 227 and the FCC's DISH Network ruling, is on who is liable.
Ask for the literal opening line, not a description of the flow, and what happens the moment someone asks directly. An answer that only appears when challenged is concealment with a fallback, not disclosure. Our own position — settled, not a concession — is on what it says.
If you have already been burned by one of these systems once, the page written directly for that is does AI outreach actually work, which quotes the public failure reports rather than asking you to take anyone’s word for it. Our own number — clients, reviews, who runs this — is on is CallHush legit. When you are ready to run the list above against us in person, book a call.
Founder & Operator, CallHush
Founder and operator of CallHush. The offer is one sentence: you run a webinar, and we increase your show-up rate and your post-webinar sales with an AI voice and SMS system. CallHush has no closed clients yet — the first engagement is a pilot run as a split of the client’s own registrant list, and nothing on this site is presented as a client result.
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