Can an AI legally call my leads? The TCPA in plain English for contractors

The one-sentence version

The TCPA says you may not use an autodialer, an artificial voice or a prerecorded voice to call a cell phone without the called person's prior express consent, and if the call is marketing, the consent has to be in writing. Statutory damages are $500 per call, up to $1,500 if willful, and there is no cap on the number of calls in a class action. That is why the solar and home-improvement lead industry has so many lawsuits.

What changed in 2024

On February 8, 2024, the FCC issued Declaratory Ruling 24-17. It said what most lawyers already assumed: a voice generated by AI is an "artificial" voice for TCPA purposes. The ruling was aimed at election robocalls that cloned a candidate's voice, but it applies equally to a roofing company's friendly AI assistant. If your AI calls a cell phone, you need the same consent you would need for a prerecorded message.

Source: Hunton Andrews Kurth, FCC issues declaratory ruling that TCPA applies to AI-generated voice calls; Akin Gump summary.

What almost changed in 2025, and did not

In late 2023 the FCC adopted a "one-to-one consent" rule for lead generators: a consumer's checkbox on a comparison site would only count as consent for one named seller at a time, and the call had to be logically related to the site. It was due to take effect January 27, 2025. On January 24, 2025, the Eleventh Circuit vacated it in Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC, and the FCC later formally repealed it.

What that means for you: if you were worried that consent gathered on your own website would not count, it always did. The one-to-one rule was about lead sellers and comparison sites, not about a homeowner filling out a form on Summit Roofing's site and asking Summit Roofing to call. That has been fine all along and still is. What the vacatur did not do is make purchased leads safe. The seller still has to prove the consumer agreed to be called by your company, and most cannot.

Sources: Pierce Atwood, Eleventh Circuit vacates one-to-one consent rule; Womble Bond Dickinson, FCC repeals the rule; Perkins Coie, what's next.

What "prior express written consent" looks like on a form

The regulation wants a clear and conspicuous disclosure, agreed to by the consumer, that authorizes your specific business to call or text the number they gave using automated technology or an artificial voice, and that says agreeing is not a condition of buying anything. "Written" includes an electronic checkbox. In practice, a form needs:

• A checkbox that is unchecked by default. Pre-checked boxes are the first thing a plaintiff's lawyer looks for.
• Text that names your business (and, for a dealer network, the brand and the local dealer).
• Words that say an AI assistant, automated system or artificial voice may call and text the number provided.
• A line that consent is not a condition of purchase, and that they can opt out at any time.
• A link to your privacy policy.
• Proof. Store the exact wording the person saw, the timestamp, the page URL and, ideally, the form field values. We do this automatically for every lead.

Example wording we give clients: "By checking this box I agree that [Business] may call and text me at the number above about my request, including with an AI assistant or automated technology. Consent is not a condition of purchase. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to end texts." Your attorney should adapt it.

Quiet hours, opt-outs, Do Not Call

• Quiet hours. Federal telemarketing rules prohibit calls before 8 am or after 9 pm in the called party's local time. Some states are stricter. We stop at 8 pm and start at 8 am in the lead's own time zone; a 9 pm form gets an email immediately and a call the next morning.
• Opt-outs. "Stop," "don't call me," "take me off your list" all count, in any channel. Honor it immediately and keep a record. We block the number for that business the moment it is said.
• Do Not Call. The National DNC Registry applies to telemarketing calls. A consumer who just asked you to call has given consent that overrides their registry listing for that request, but the consent must be specific and recent. Keep an internal DNC list for your own opt-outs.
• Call recording. Several states require all parties to consent to recording. Announce it at the top of every call. We do.
• Frequency. No rule says two attempts, but a court will look at reasonableness. We make at most two call attempts within 24 hours of the request, and then stop unless the person asks for more.

The mistakes that get contractors sued

1. Buying leads and dialing them. The seller's "TCPA-compliant" badge is not your defense. You need the consent record naming you.
2. Rehashing old estimates with an AI voice. An existing relationship is not written consent for artificial-voice marketing calls. Check what the customer actually signed. How we handle reactivation.
3. Pre-checked boxes and consent text hidden below the submit button.
4. Calling after 9 pm because the lead "just came in."
5. Pretending to be human. Not a TCPA violation on its own, but it is the thing that turns an annoyed homeowner into a plaintiff. Disclose.
6. No proof. Consent you cannot produce in court is consent you do not have.

How we built the system around this

Every rule above is enforced in software, not in a policy document. Lily, our AI assistant, calls only people who submitted a client's form with the consent checkbox checked. The wording, time and page are stored with the lead. She opens with the business name, says she is an AI and that the call may be recorded. She calls between 8 am and 8 pm in the lead's time zone, at most twice, within 24 hours of the request. "Stop" ends everything for that number. There is no list import and no way to make her cold call. The full compliance page lists what we will and will not do.

Is it worth all this to call a lead in a minute instead of a day? The research says yes: companies that respond within an hour are about seven times more likely to qualify the lead, and the odds of contact are far higher at five minutes than at thirty. Lead response time statistics with sources.