How Long a Publish Takes to Go Live

When you publish your AI receptionist's configuration, there's a brief delay before the live call system reflects your changes. This article explains the typical timeframe and what to expect.

The typical publish duration

For most changes, a publish completes in under a minute. The publishing modal shows the state as it progresses:

  1. Submitting (seconds) — your changes are submitted to the background system.
  2. Processing (30–90 seconds typically) — the system updates the AI configuration.
  3. Published Successfully! — your changes are now live.

Knowledge base publishes may take slightly longer than other publish types, especially if you have many articles or the content is lengthy.

What affects publish duration

  • Type of change: Knowledge publishes involve processing and indexing content, which takes longer than greating or personality updates.
  • Size of knowledge base: More content takes longer to process.
  • System load: During peak periods, background processing may take slightly longer.

The timeout message

If the publish takes longer than expected, the modal shows: "Taking Longer Than Expected — The publish is still in progress."

This is not an error. The publish is still running in the background. You have two options:

  • Wait more — keep the modal open and continue waiting.
  • Dismiss — close the modal. The publish continues in the background. You'll receive a notification in the Notification Center when it completes.

When will it actually be live?

"Published Successfully!" means the job completed and your changes are now live. For the live AI:

  • Voice and personality changes are typically active on the next call that starts after the publish completes.
  • Knowledge changes may take effect on calls starting after the publish completes.

Calls already in progress when a publish completes are not affected — the change applies to new calls.

💡 Tip: If you're preparing for a busy period (e.g. updating your holiday hours before a public holiday), publish your changes at least 15 minutes before the peak time. This ensures there's no race condition between the publish completing and calls starting.