Rule one: the word "person"
Any caller who asks for a person, a human, an operator, the owner or a name gets one. No clarifying question first.
Rule two: emergency words
Per industry. A clinic: chest pain, bleeding, cannot breathe. A shop: accident, stranded, smoke. A carrier: accident, police, breakdown, closed receiver. The list is short, spoken aloud in testing, and triggers a transfer before anything else.
Rule three: money and disputes
Refunds, complaints, disputes, anything about a bill the caller is unhappy with. Message to a person with the record attached, promise of a callback within a stated time.
Rule four: uncertainty
If the AI is not sure, it says so and takes a message. Uncertainty is measured, not guessed, and the threshold is tuned monthly.
Rule five: repeat callers
Second call from the same number within an hour goes to a person if one is available. Something did not get resolved.
Testing
We run the last hundred real calls through the rules and read where each one landed. Rules move until the split looks right to you.