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Enable or disable automatic speech recognition


Applies to: Exchange Server 2013, Exchange Online

Topic Last Modified: 2012-12-12

You can enable your Unified Messaging (UM) auto attendant for Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). After you speech-enable a UM auto attendant, callers can respond verbally to auto attendant prompts and move through the menu system of the auto attendant. By default, an auto attendant isn't speech-enabled when you create it. After you speech-enable the auto attendant, callers can use only voice commands to navigate the auto attendant menu system, and touchtone inputs can't be used.

Although it isn't required, we recommend that you configure a dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) fallback auto attendant for each speech-enabled auto attendant so callers can use touchtone inputs if the speech-enabled auto attendant doesn't recognize or understand the words they say. If a DTMF fallback auto attendant is configured, callers can use DTMF inputs, also known as touchtone inputs, to navigate the auto attendant menu system, spell a user's name, or use a custom menu prompt. We don't recommend that you speech-enable a DTMF fallback auto attendant.

For additional management tasks related to UM auto attendants, see UM auto attendant procedures.

  • Estimated time to complete: Less than 1 minute.

  • You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "UM auto attendants" entry in the Unified Messaging permissions topic.

  • Before you perform these procedures, confirm that a UM dial plan has been created. For detailed steps, see Create a UM dial plan.

  • Before you perform these procedures, confirm that a UM auto attendant has been created. For detailed steps, see Create a UM auto attendant.



  1. In the EAC, navigate to Unified Messaging > UM dial plans. In the list view, select the UM dial plan you want to change, and then click Edit Edit icon.

  2. On the UM Dial Plan page, under UM Auto Attendants, select the UM auto attendant you want to speech enable, and then click Edit Edit icon.

  3. On the UM Auto Attendant page > General, select the check box next to Set the auto attendant to respond to voice commands to enable speech recognition. To disable automatic speech recognition, clear this check box.

  4. Click Save.

This example enables ASR on a UM auto attendant named MySpeechEnabled AA.

Set-UMAutoAttendant -Identity MySpeechEnabledAA -SpeechEnabled $true
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