Automated call answering based on artificial intelligence

A network switch, comprising:

• at least one phone network interface which receives phone calls at a first network node;
• a physical storage medium which stores audio from the phone calls;
• a speech recognition engine which transcribes at least some of the audio from the phone calls;
• a transcription engine which transcribes at least some of the audio from the phone calls;
• a packet-switched data network connection which transmits audio output of at least one of:
• text to speech synthesis;
• and
• pre-recorded audio to a calling party of the telephone call;
• wherein the audio output comprises responses based on output of the transcription engine;
• and
• while transcribing the at least some of the audio of the telephone call, sending the transcription to a bidirectional transceiver at a second network node in real-time.

A telephone switch comprising at least one telephone network node and at least one network connection with a bidirectional transceiver, which:

• receives a phone call at the at least one network node;
• uses speech recognition to create a transcription of audio of the telephone call;
• while creating the transcription of audio of the telephone call, sends the transcription to the bidirectional transceiver in real-time via the at least one network connection;
• during said phone call, transmits audio output of at least one of text to speech synthesis or pre-recorded audio to a calling party via said at least one network node based on information provided by the calling party and instructions received from said bidirectional transceiver receiving said transcription;
• and
• directs the call or responds to the calling party based on the information provided by the calling party and instructions received from said bidirectional transceiver.