Voice AI in isolation is just a fancy IVR. Voice AI integrated with your CRM, helpdesk, and business systems? That's where the magic happens. Suddenly, your AI knows who's calling, their history, their open tickets, and their lifetime value before saying "hello."
This guide covers the most common integrations we implement, with architecture patterns and gotchas learned from 100+ deployments.
Integration Architecture Overview
Voice AI Platform
Call handling, speech recognition, natural language understanding, response generation
Integration Layer
API gateway, webhooks, event bus, data transformation, authentication
Business Systems
CRM, Helpdesk, ERP, Payment Systems, Custom Databases
Salesforce Integration
What It Enables
- Caller identification via ANI lookup against Contact records
- Real-time access to Account history, open Cases, and Opportunities
- Automatic Case creation with full call transcript
- Activity logging on Contact timeline
- Screen pop for human agent handoffs
Architecture Pattern
We use Salesforce's REST API for real-time lookups and Platform Events for asynchronous updates. This balances speed with API limit management.
Zendesk Integration
What It Enables
- Automatic ticket creation from voice interactions
- Access to existing ticket history during calls
- Seamless escalation to Zendesk Talk or agent assignment
- Unified reporting across voice and other channels
Key Implementation Notes
Zendesk's Sunshine platform provides the most flexible integration path. We typically use custom objects to store call metadata and link to standard tickets.
HubSpot Integration
What It Enables
- Contact identification and enrichment
- Deal stage updates based on call outcomes
- Automatic call logging in Contact timeline
- Marketing automation triggers from call events
Common Integration Patterns
Pattern 1: Real-Time Customer Lookup
When a call arrives, query the CRM within 200ms to have customer context ready. Use caching and warm connections to hit this target.
Pattern 2: Event-Driven Updates
Post-call processing (transcripts, analytics, ticket creation) happens asynchronously via message queues. This keeps call handling fast while ensuring data consistency.
Pattern 3: Bi-Directional Sync
Changes in either system (voice AI or CRM) propagate to the other. Requires careful conflict resolution logic.
Custom Integration Best Practices
Integration Checklist:
- Map data fields between systems before starting
- Implement retry logic with exponential backoff
- Log all API calls for debugging and auditing
- Build monitoring and alerting from day one
- Plan for API rate limits at 10x expected volume
- Test failure modes, not just happy paths
- Document everything for future maintainers
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