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Transfer rules are what decide when the AI stops handling a call itself and hands it to a real person instead — the AI isn't meant to be the final word on every conversation, and transfer rules are the mechanism for drawing that line.
The two common triggers. A transfer typically happens for one of two reasons: the caller directly asks to speak to a person, or the conversation touches a topic you've configured the AI to escalate rather than attempt to resolve on its own — something sensitive, something outside what it's meant to handle, or something that simply needs a human's judgment.
Where a transfer actually goes. You configure the destination number(s) a transfer routes to. On a Twilio number, that destination can be a ring group — multiple people or phones ringing simultaneously, so whoever's free first picks up. On a Telnyx number, a transfer reaches a single destination at a time rather than ringing a group.
Why this matters for call quality. An AI that never transfers and tries to push through every situation itself tends to frustrate callers who genuinely need a person; an AI that transfers too eagerly undercuts the point of having it answer calls at all. Configuring these rules well is really about defining the boundary of what the AI should confidently handle versus what it should hand off.