What is an AI receptionist, in plain English
What the phrase means, what it doesn't, what one can and can't do for a service business, and the questions to ask before you route your phone to one.
"AI receptionist" is what the market is calling an automated assistant that answers your business phone and holds a conversation with the caller - instead of playing a menu or taking a voicemail. This is what it means in practice, what it doesn't, and what to ask before you route your phone to one.
What it does
A caller dials your number. The assistant answers, in your business's name, and talks - it asks what's going on, takes down details, answers the questions you've told it the answers to, and either books an appointment or takes a message. Then it sends you a summary. The good ones can tell an emergency from a routine call and treat them differently.
The technology behind it converts speech to text, decides what to say next using a set of instructions written for your business, and speaks the reply. It's the same category of tool you've heard called a voice agent or a phone agent. "Receptionist" is the friendlier word for the job it does.
What it doesn't do
It doesn't know anything about your business you didn't tell it. It doesn't give plumbing advice, quote jobs, or promise a truck at 9am unless you've told it it may. A well-built one refuses to guess - "I'll have the team confirm that" is the right answer when it doesn't know. A badly built one makes things up, and that's the biggest risk in this category: a confident wrong answer about your prices or your availability, said in your name.
It also isn't a person, and it shouldn't pretend to be. See why DeskWiz tells every caller it's automated.
What it costs
Two very different shelves use the same phrase. App-style products run about $29 to $399 a month and you set them up yourself from a form. Service-style products are priced like a human answering service, several hundred dollars a month, and someone builds the assistant around your business and stands behind it. The phrase on the website doesn't tell you which one you're looking at; the price and the setup process do.
Questions to ask before you buy one
- Does it tell the caller it's automated, and that the call is recorded?
- What happens when the caller asks for a person?
- What does it do when it doesn't know the answer - guess, or defer?
- How is it set up: a form I fill in, or a conversation with someone who learns my business?
- What exactly do I get after each call, and how fast?
- Is there a per-call or per-minute charge past the plan?
- Can I keep my number and just forward it? (Yes, usually.)
- Does it hold the recordings, for how long, and who else can see them?
Where DeskWiz fits
DeskWiz is an after-hours answering service for service businesses, built on this kind of assistant. It only answers inbound calls when your office is closed, it says what it is in the opening greeting, before any question, and it's priced like the human services it replaces at that hour - one monthly price, no per-call charges. The plumbing, HVAC, electrical and general contractor pages each show a full example call.