Knowledge · phone

Multilingual Phone Service: 70 Languages on the Phone

How an AI phone assistant handles calls in 70 languages – and why multilingual availability is an underestimated advantage for many businesses.

A multilingual phone service answers calls in the caller's language – and with AI, you no longer need a multilingual team to do it. An AI phone assistant like webRichtung's Phone Agent speaks 70 languages when needed: it understands the request, answers from your stored company knowledge, and summarizes the conversation for your team at a glance.

The language barrier is a silent brake on revenue

Anyone who has ever had to make a phone call in a foreign language knows the hurdle: calling is much harder than writing. Many customers with a different native language therefore don't even try – or the conversation breaks down after three sentences of mutual awkwardness. This affects more businesses than you might think: the restaurant with tourists, the property management company in a mixed-language neighborhood, the trades business with international construction-site customers, the practice in whose catchment area many languages are spoken. In writing, many have long made do with translation tools – but on the phone, where it counts in real time, this aid wasn't available until now.

How this works with AI

The process barely differs from the single-language case – and that's the point:

1. The caller speaks in their language; the assistant understands and answers accordingly.
2. The answers are based on your Knowledge Base – opening hours, services, prices you maintain once, not per language.
3. Forwarding rules apply unchanged: urgent matters go to a human, everything else is recorded.
4. In the call log, your team finds an AI summary of the request – readable, even if the conversation was in Polish or Spanish.

This way, the AI solves the actual problem of multilingual availability: it rarely fails due to a lack of goodwill, but rather because no one on the team can cover all the languages of the catchment area.

Typical use scenarios

• Gastronomy & Tourism: Reservations and questions from international guests – even in the evening, when the service team is busy on the floor. More on this in the article AI phone service for the restaurant industry.
• Property management & rentals: Damage reports and tenant requests in the language in which they can be described precisely.
• Retail & services: Inquiries from international customers about products, delivery, or appointments.
• Practices & businesses in metropolitan areas: Appointment and organizational questions without a language barrier at reception.

Staying honest: where humans are needed

Multilingual AI call handling does not replace expert advice in the foreign language. It ensures that the request comes through, is understood, and is documented – your team can then give the answer prepared, if necessary in writing or with support. That is a big difference from the status quo, in which such calls often simply fail.

How to get started

With webRichtung phone, multilingualism is not a surcharge feature but part of the Phone Agent: your own phone number, Knowledge Base, forwarding rules, log with summary – and 70 languages. Set up an agent, call it as a test in a foreign language, and read the summary afterward: 7 days with 15 conversation minutes are free. Beforehand, store two or three typical questions from your international customers in the Knowledge Base so that the test is realistic.

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