Real-time Asterisk + OpenAI Realtime Integration (Function Calls + External Tools)

ChatGPT Use cases and examples
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Hi everyone! :waving_hand:

I wanted to share something useful with the community, especially for developers working with telephony, contact centers, and real-time conversational AI.

Over the past months, we’ve been working on a fully open orchestration layer called AgentVoiceResponse (AVR) that allows you to connect Asterisk directly with OpenAI Realtime using:

  • OpenAI’s Realtime WebSocket API

  • Function calling for external tools (transfer, database lookups, CRM actions, etc.)

  • Real-time audio streaming between Asterisk and GPT-4o Realtime

  • Full duplex, low-latency conversation (typically 150–300 ms)

One of the most performant integrations we’ve built so far is the combination:

Asterisk + AVR + OpenAI Realtime,

which is proving extremely effective in contact-center environments because it handles:

  • Live call conversation

  • Interruptions (barge-in)

  • Call transfers

  • Dynamic system instructions

  • External tool calls

  • Business logic orchestration

  • Outbound & inbound call flows

The low latency and naturalness of OpenAI’s Realtime model make this integration incredibly powerful for real-world voice applications such as lead qualification, customer support, appointment booking, payment reminders, and agent assist.

I want to take a moment to thank OpenAI and this amazing community — many of the ideas and improvements were inspired by discussions and experiments shared here.

It’s incredible to see how fast real-time voice AI is evolving thanks to your contributions.

If anyone in the community is experimenting with telephony + OpenAI Realtime and wants to exchange ideas, architectures, or best practices, I’d be happy to connect and collaborate.

Thanks again to all of you for the constant inspiration! :rocket:

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Where can I find the documentation? I am looking for requirements

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Hi Juan, You can find all the documentation and the full list of requirements directly on the AgentVoiceResponse Wiki under the section about using OpenAI Realtime STS with AVR.

Everything you need — setup, requirements, and configuration steps — is explained there.

If you can’t find it or need guidance, just let me know and I’ll point you to the right place! :rocket: