AI receptionist

How an AI receptionist works

An AI receptionist connects to a business's existing phone number, usually via call forwarding, and picks up calls the team can't answer — or all calls, depending on configuration. It uses speech recognition to understand the caller, a language model to decide what to do, and a natural synthetic voice to respond. Typical tasks include answering opening-hours and pricing questions, booking and rescheduling appointments against a live calendar, taking messages, and routing urgent calls to the right person.

AI receptionist vs. answering service vs. IVR

• Traditional answering service: human operators take messages but rarely resolve the issue; costs scale with call volume.
• Traditional IVR: "press 1 for sales" menus route calls but can't answer questions or complete tasks.
• AI receptionist: resolves routine calls end-to-end, escalates the rest with context, and answers instantly at any hour — with per-call costs that don't depend on staffing.

When businesses use one

AI receptionists are most valuable where missed calls directly cost revenue: appointment-based businesses (car repair shops, clinics, home services), property management with after-hours maintenance lines, and any company whose call volume peaks past what the front desk can absorb. See Sono's AI receptionist for a live example.