AI Frontdesk: Setting up inquiries

Valid for AI Receptionist (plans from August 31, 2026) and AI Chat Assistant. (Momentum AI)

To ensure your assistant captures the correct information for recurring inquiries – such as a price inquiry, a request for a callback, or a booking inquiry – you can set up inquiries. For each inquiry, you specify which topic the assistant should recognize and what details it should request from your customers. This ensures that you have all the data you need for further processing of each inquiry. This feature is available in the AI Receptionist and AI Chat Assistant. The following steps show you how to create and manage inquiries.

Open the assistant’s settings

Log in to your IONOS account.
Click on Menu > AI Frontdesk in the title bar.
In the contract overview, click on Manage in the tile for the contract you want.

Open the Inquiries section. This is where you can configure all the following settings.

Note

These settings form part of your assistant’s general configuration. If you use multiple channels (phone or chat), the settings you specify here apply to all channels. Only the settings in the Language, Voice & Behavior section are channel-specific (see Customizing behavior and language).

Create a new inquiry

You create an inquiry in a dialog that has two parts: the general details (name and description) and the individual fields for the information to be captured.

Please Note

Create a separate field for each piece of information. Never combine several items in a single field (for example, do not create one field for both a name and an email address). Fields that are too complex can lead to errors during data entry.

Click on Add inquiry. The Add inquiry dialog will open.
Fill in the general information:
- Name: give the inquiry a unique title (e.g. Price inquiry).
- Description: briefly explain what the customer wants (e.g. Customer wants to know the price of a product). This helps the assistant to identify the inquiry correctly during a conversation.
In the Information to capture section, define which details the assistant should request:
- Click on Add field.
- Under Field name, enter the information you need (e.g. Customer name).
- Under Description, add a brief explanation of the information required (e.g. the customer's full name).
- Select Required if the assistant must always ask for this information.
- Repeat these steps for any further information you need.
Click on Apply.

Example: Price inquiry

The following example shows how to configure an inquiry for price requests:

Setting	Value
Name	Price inquiry
Description	The customer wants to know the price of a product or service.

Information to capture (fields):

Field name	Required
Product or service	Yes
Name	Yes
Email address	Yes
Telephone number	No

Edit, duplicate, and delete inquiries

You can manage existing inquiries using the three-dot menu (Actions) in the relevant row:

Edit: amend the name, description, or fields of an inquiry.
Duplicate: create a copy as a starting point for a similar inquiry.
Delete: remove an inquiry that is no longer needed.

Save changes

To apply your changes, click the Save changes button in the top right-hand corner. As long as you haven’t made any changes, the button will be greyed out and labelled No changes.

If you have already embedded the website widget on your website, your saved changes will be automatically applied there – there is no need to embed it again. It may take a few minutes for the changes to become visible to all visitors.

To test your settings, have a conversation with the assistant. There are two ways to do this:

Via your website: Open your website and start a conversation via the website widget. If you haven’t integrated the widget yet, first follow the guide Setting up and integrating the website widget.
Via a test call: If you have subscribed to AI Receptionist, call the assistant directly from the interface – using the green Test Call button in the top right-hand corner. If you have made any changes, the button will say Save & Call and will save your changes at the same time. Test calls are free of charge. You can find further details in the article Making a test call.

Note on hallucinations

AI systems may occasionally make incorrect or inaccurate statements, known as hallucinations. This means that the AI estimates or interprets answers when no clear information is available.

Please Note:

The AI cannot always adhere 100% to your specifications.
You should therefore scrutinize important answers carefully.
Such deviations are not technical faults, but a typical characteristic of generative AI.