A homeowner clicks "get my solar quote," types a bill amount, and hits submit. At most solar companies, the next thing that happens is nothing, for somewhere between an hour and a day. Here's what a voice AI agent does with that same lead, from the form post to a closer's calendar, and why the questions it asks had to change after December 31, 2025.
The flow, minute by minute
Second 0. The form posts to the agent by webhook, Zapier, or the lead vendor's feed.
Second 10 or so. The agent dials, inside the homeowner's local calling window. If the lead lands at 10 p.m., it waits for the first permitted minute the next morning. The opening line names the company, says it's an AI assistant, and mentions the request the homeowner just made, because at 10 seconds they've still got the page open.
Minutes 1 to 3. Qualification. Not a survey: five questions that decide whether this is worth a closer's afternoon.
Minute 3. One of three outcomes: live transfer to a rep, a site visit booked on the closer's calendar, or a polite close with the lead marked as not a fit and the reason logged.
After hangup. Recording, transcript and outcome written to the CRM. The closer sees why the visit was booked before they drive to it.
The five questions, and why lease versus cash is now the hard one
The classic solar qualifiers are homeownership, average monthly bill, roof and shading, and whether both decision-makers will be at the appointment. Those haven't changed. The financing question has.
The federal residential clean energy credit under Section 25D paid homeowners 30% of system cost. The IRS now states plainly that "the credit is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025" (2026). The Solar Energy Industries Association's explainer on the July 2025 budget law covers the same change (2025).
That credit was the thing a cash or loan buyer was counting on. Third-party-owned systems (leases and power purchase agreements) run on a different credit, one the installer or financier claims, and that market was already taking over before the deadline: Wood Mackenzie reported third-party ownership at 45% of U.S. residential solar in 2024, growing more than 30% year over year, and above half the market in the fourth quarter of 2024 for the first time since 2016. Customer-owned volumes, loan and cash, fell by more than half (April 2025).
So the qualification call now has to find out, in the homeowner's own words, whether they're a lease candidate. That means two questions a 2024 script didn't need:
- A self-reported credit range, because lease and PPA approval is credit-driven.
- Whether they are open to a monthly payment with no upfront cost, or only interested in owning.
A voice agent asks those the same way on every call, without the little apology a human setter tends to tack onto the credit question. That consistency is most of the value.
What the deadline does to lead quality
My read, and I'm flagging it as a read rather than a measurement: the "I want the tax credit before it's gone" lead disappeared on January 1, 2026. The leads left are either lease-curious homeowners with high bills, or cash buyers who've done the math without the credit. There are fewer of both than last year, and both cost more per lead. A rep calling 40 hours later is now burning a more expensive lead than before, which is the whole case for calling within seconds and qualifying hard before anyone drives anywhere.
Site visit or live transfer?
Both are available on the same agent, and the choice is a configuration, not a philosophy.
Live transfer fits when a rep is reachable during calling hours and the lead is hot: homeowner, bill above threshold, clear roof, both decision-makers reachable. The agent bridges the call with a whisper so the rep hears who's on the line, and the rep presses 1 to accept. The homeowner never hears hold music. Transfers close faster because the conversation never stops.
Site visit booking fits when reps are in the field, when the lead qualifies but the close needs a proposal, or when nobody picks up the transfer. The agent reads the closer's Google Calendar or Outlook availability, offers two slots, and confirms the one the homeowner picks. Our default is transfer first, book on no-answer, so the hot lead is never stranded. How the handoff works from the rep's side is on the planned live transfer page.
The compliance line, because solar needs it
Solar is one of the most complained-about verticals under the TCPA, and an AI voice is an "artificial voice" under that law per the FCC's February 2024 ruling. In practice: the agent calls only homeowners whose form captured prior express written consent, scrubs do-not-call before every dial, keeps to local calling windows, discloses that it's an AI, and ends the call on any opt-out. The full posture is on trust. Aged lead lists are possible only with documented consent inside a lookback your counsel approves.
What this is running on today
A national residential solar company runs this flow on its inbound leads: the agent qualifies on bill, ownership, roof and credit range, then transfers to a rep or books the site visit. I'm not going to quote results from that account here, because the data is theirs and the sample is still young. When we do publish contact and booking rates, they'll come from our own call logs, method stated.