Intake forms, not chatbot reveals.

A chatbot reveals itself in the first forty seconds of a call. The phrasing, the pause structure, the menu tree, the "I am an AI assistant" disclaimer — every one of those tells is a brand risk for a contractor whose phone is the storefront. The AI agents in FieldStack are configured as intake forms for exactly that reason.

An intake form has a fixed shape: five fields, asked in order, with a brief acknowledgement between each. The agent does not improvise beyond that shape. That constraint is what makes the call sound like a real tradesperson office rather than a chatbot — and it is the single biggest reason the calls convert at the rate they do.

You can grow what the intake form captures over time, but you should resist growing it into a general-purpose conversation system. The moment the agent is allowed to negotiate price, schedule, or scope in open-ended language, it becomes a chatbot — and the brand risk returns.

Start narrow. Add a field when the office proves it needs one. Treat every fresh prompt file as an intake form, never as a chat surface.